please empty your brain below
Ah, The Secret Heathrow Route Nobody Will Tell You About

Michael T | 24.06.24 - 7:19 a.m. | #

I took the Elizabeth line the other day to go to terminal 2 and was shocked how far we had to walk along that tunnel to reach it. We felt we were walking to our holiday destination rather than flying.

Brian | 24.06.24 - 7:59 a.m. | #

Surprisingly Terminal 3 also has the Aerotel which is within the central island. I can assure you that the Hilton is much more pleasant.

Matthew | 24.06.24 - 8:06 a.m. | #

Watching the aircraft used to be a thing. Heathrow had a rooftop viewing area.
It must still happen somewhere, but maybe not in the central area.

dg writes: indeed

Malcolm of Kent | 24.06.24 - 8:39 a.m. | #

I see the ecumenical chapel now only has Catholic services and is not open except for those services.

freddled | 24.06.24 - 8:58 a.m. | #

Those underground passages used to be lined with A-Z gazetteers picked out in red and white tiles, one listing British place names from A-Z, and other global ditto. Not flight destinations, that would’ve been impossible, just places. The final UK name was Zennor in Cornwall. They certainly helped to pass the time as one strode interminably onward.

Philip | 24.06.24 - 8:58 a.m. | #

Next could you or anyone tell me how to get into Gatwick Airport railway station without having to schlep through the airport? I’ve tried in vain arriving both by bike and being dropped off by car.

Lorenzo | 24.06.24 - 9:15 a.m. | #

The old T2 viewing platform was quite a pleasant place to spend an afternoon, it even had a cafe.

T4 has a nice glass enclosed viewing area, but for passengers only as it's airside.

Mikey C | 24.06.24 - 9:19 a.m. | #

I think T1 is used for processing baggage from T2 and until T2 has its own processing centre then T1 is here to stay

Chris | 24.06.24 - 9:34 a.m. | #

Lorenzo,

In asking this question you have highlighted one of the differences between Heathrow and Gatwick Airport.

As is clear from DG's photos, Heathrow makes a point of using colour contrast to highlight where the airport end and the rail services begin. Basically, yellow for airport, blue for trains. So you know where you are.

At Gatwick the policy is to give the impression of an integrated facility where the rail station and airport blend seamlessly. So even the rail signage is yellow. Therefore you can be in the station whilst thinking you are in part of the airport.

The non-airport station entrance is on the east side in a road called Upper Forecourt. Even thought there is an enormous sign saying "Welcome to Gatwick South Terminal" this is actually the eastern entrance to the railway station and you have to go through the railway station to get to the south terminal.

Look carefully at the top of this station plan (map on left) and you can see the station entrance/exit.

Personally, I don't like this misleading signage at Gatwick and think Heathrow is much better in this respect.

Pedantic of Purley | 24.06.24 - 10:46 a.m. | #

Sad that you missed all the underground shortcuts, there are few in/from those tunnels that are publicly accessible if you know where you’re going.

In T3, there are a bunch of shops, coffee outlets and even a pub landside - you have to go upstairs to find them. There’s even still a post office there!

Nick | 24.06.24 - 12:01 p.m. | #

Access to the bus station seems particularly ill-conceived, just a couple of small lifts, no escalators or even stairs. A while back I was in a rush to catch an X26, long queue for the lifts, found an apparent exit up a staircase. This ended round the back by a wall outside the bus station with no footway, so had to leg it along the busy road to the vehicular entrance, once I had found my bearings. Waved goodbye to the X26.

On a subsequent occasion I noticed a lad going into a lift from the back (exit), averting the queues, so clearly that's what the cognoscenti do.

This is all the more reprehensible with Liz line and SL7/SL9 puffery adding kudos to what should be a useful and convenient interchange between the various modes. Ho hum.

Strabismus | 24.06.24 - 12:57 p.m. | #

Does anyone know why the tunnel dips down slightly and then gently rises?

Just intrigued having walked it and noticed the dip dozens of times.

Clive | 24.06.24 - 2:45 p.m. | #

Always thought the sculpture at T3 was totally pointless. You are far too close to see what it is, and having spent all that money they cannot even be bothered to give it a good dusting.

scrumpy | 24.06.24 - 3:10 p.m. | #

Why is it that people in the know never share that information for the benefit of others. And why make this country look even more unfriendly by not telling passengers the cheapest route into London by train. Visitors must get a pretty poor impression of GB.

Tones | 24.06.24 - 3:25 p.m. | #

Well that was a different walk!
Finding myself surrounded by plaques and memorials to air crashes would probably make me pray all the more fervently, if I was about to fly!

Cornish Cockney | 24.06.24 - 3:28 p.m. | #

Decades since was at Heathrow but I imagine part of the pedestrian unfriendly nature of airports is security related. Open space but they don't want too many people wandering about untrackable/unclose-able routes.
Heathrow older so gradually rebuilt over time but try approaching Stansted from the nearby village in other than a vehicle and you certainly won't feel welcome.

Patrick | 24.06.24 - 3:30 p.m. | #

I wondered if we'd be getting a "walking to/from Heathrow" post tomorrow, but assuming the info on Heathrow's website is correct that's not possible for Terminals 2/3 as they're still doing something to the access tunnel side bores. I don't think they've ever said the closure is permanent but it does seem to be dragging on rather.

Andrew S | 24.06.24 - 5:59 p.m. | #

Strabismus, my memory might be a bit hazy but I don't remember having to have caught a lift to leave the bus station after getting off the X26 one day. Though I may have gone through the tube entrance which leads you down to the same tunnels I believe (I definitely took Crossrail out of there that day so the tube entrance doesn't seem to only lead to the tube).

I wonder how pedestrian access to the former cycle/pedestrian (?) tunnels out of the CAT were accessed when they were still opened? Anyone have any recollection?

matthieu1221 | 24.06.24 - 7:15 p.m. | #

Thanks Pedantic, thought I’d tried from every angle last time I was there a couple of weeks ago & unencumbered by bicycle. Will look again. On occasion fairly recently one was able to exit at ground level adjacent to platform 7, but I’m guessing this was only whilst the redevelopment works were in progress as this route is now blocked.

Lorenzo | 24.06.24 - 7:55 p.m. | #

You cannot walk into the centre of Heathrow from the perimeter. The pedestrian/cycle tunnels were switched to vehicular use at least 20 years ago.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 24.06.24 - 8:23 p.m. | #

I once walked from Stansted airport to Little Canfield (the eastern suburb of the village of Takeley) in the small hours, with luggage! I had rented a driveway in the village to park my car (much cheaper than airport parking), and my return flight got delayed, meaning that I had missed the last local bus to Takeley. The road is a bit pedestrian-hostile, owing to some sections that are without pavement (and the condition of the pavement where it exists being hopeless for wheeling a suitcase), but it is eminently walkable for a person with nerves of steel.

anon | 24.06.24 - 9:28 p.m. | #

I feel misled by the title "A Nice Walk" on this one.

dncn | 24.06.24 - 10:21 p.m. | #

Lorenzo - there's a lift by the southbound bus stops on the A23 that puts you at the end of the terminal shuttle platforms, a very short walk from the entrance to the station. Alternately, with a bike, there's a (poorly signposted but publicly accessible) cargo lift alongside the exit from the southern station footbridge that delivers you in the undercroft on the cycle route towards Crawley.

spigot | 25.06.24 - 9:23 a.m. | #

Reminds me of an article l once read years ago of how, up to the early 1970s, you could apparently walk from Fenchurch Street station to Bank almost entirely under cover on a rainy day, using the main and rear entrances of selected city office blocks. The advent of a new IRA campaign resulted in stricter ‘front of house’ security, and the closure of secondary access points, and supposedly brought this to an end. Was it really a true story?

Kim | 25.06.24 - 11:58 a.m. | #

I had actually taken the first of these walks before, due to misreading my (home-printed) boarding pass.

For Gatwick there was an entrance to the ticket machine area of the station from the Avenue Verte by following the signs, but the route from there to the lift to the platforms went through the airport, or so the annoying policemen insisted.

Lmm | 26.06.24 - 8:04 a.m. | #

Never, repeat never, use the main lift at T2. It serves both arrivals, departures, the tunnel to the tube station AND four levels of car parking. I have heard tales of tourists who spent half their holiday there.

Adam Cummings | 27.06.24 - 5:48 p.m. | #











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