Sir Denzil Macarthur Onslow chatting with Geoffrey Wikner. This Wicko GM1 was sold to the Cardiff Aeroplane Club in August 1938 and cancelled from the register in 1941. Fate unknown. Photo supplied by Geoffrey Wikner in 1980.

Apart from some of the ancient airport buildings, not that much remains to give you a hint about the location of what used to be London's main airport in the early days of commercial air transport. The former terminal now hosts a small exhibition about Croydon's aeronautical past, as well as the unavoidable curry house.

'The first German aeroplane to land in England since the war' arrived at Croydon on 1 January 1923. On board were three officials of the new Deutscher Aero Lloyd who visited Daimler Airway to discuss a joint London - Berlin service. The aircraft was the first Do P Komet II, converted from a Do C Komet I. In the background is Fokker F.III H-NABJ of KLM. The winter of 1922 - 1923 was the first in which KLM continued flying to London. Photo from: Dan Shumaker collection

The first Junkers G31 delivered to Lufthansa at Croydon after the type's first international flight, via Amsterdam. From a Dutch newspaper I gather that the date should be 1 May 1928. The G31de was powered by Gnome-Rhône-built Bristol Jupiter engines. Aircraft named after the pilot of the Junkers W33 D-1167 Bremen. Later, D-1310 was converted to G31ho with lengthened fuselage and Pratt & Whitney Hornet engines. To D-ADIN in 1934. To German Air Ministry in 1935.

Entered Imperial Airways service in mid-1939. Opened a Shoreham - Bordeaux - Marseille - Tunis - Malta - Sollum - Alexandria service after the outbreak of war. British postcard.

Capt William Lancaster and Mrs Keith "Chubbie" Miller prior to departure on their England - Australia flight. They crashed on take-off Muntok, Batavia 10 Jan 1928; repaired at Singapore and flight restarted 13 Mar 1928; arrived Darwin 19 Mar 1928. UK Registration G-EBTU belatedly cancelled 2.12.30. Re-registered in Australia as G-AUTU 30 May 1928, re-registered VH-UTU 20 Sept 1930. Written off (damaged beyond repair) when destroyed by fire after crash-landing at Singleton, NSW 6 June 1936.

Sold in Ireland as EI-AML in June 1962. Photo by: Ronald D. H. Campbell via Colin Bookless

Sold in Israel as 4X-ACO. Photo by: Ronald D. H. Campbell via Colin Bookless

Sold in Australia in January 1951 as VH-BDA. Photo by: Ronald D. H. Campbell via Colin Bookless

Purchased by King Peter of Yugoslavia, who was in exile in England. Since he was stateless, he was not allowed to register the aircraft in England, so he flew it in USAAF markings until the airport authorities found out and grounded the plane. It lingered at Croydon slowly disintegrating until it was scrapped in 1956. Photo by: Ronald D. H. Campbell via Colin Bookless

Owned by Temple Press and operated by The Aeroplane, a then weekly aviation magazine. Sold in New Zealand in July 1950 as ZK-AUX. Photo by: Ronald D. H. Campbell via Colin Bookless

PH-TBZ about to leave on the Sunday evening service to Amsterdam. Sold in Cameroon as F-OAIU in January 1954. Photo by: Ronald D. H. Campbell via Colin Bookless

The fourth, second and third DC-2 of Swissair, HB-ITO, HB-ITE and HB-ITA, gathered at Croydon. Winter photo from 1936 according to the source. Occasion unknown; maybe ski charter flights? Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich

Details of Air Union's F-GEAB are given on Photo 651334. Also depicted is Imperial Airways' Vickers Type 170 Vanguard G-EBCP c/n.1, the only one of its type. Registered 19 April 1922, first flew 18 July 1923 as Type 62 for the Air Ministry, later Type 103 before being re-engined as Type 170, to Imperial Airways 1925. Withdrawn from airline service 1928 for a new tail unit to eliminate control problems. On 16 May 1929 while on a test-flight from Brooklands, it crashed and burned at Shepperton, killing the two occupants. The tail unit had failed, attributed to excessive rudder force.

Scan taken from undated slide.

Registered initially July 1926 to the Air Council for evaluation as a troop carrier. To Imperial Airways 23 April 1927. Later renamed 'City of Arundel' and in 1931 was fitted with Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar IVA engines to bring it up to Argosy II standard. It is known to have been involved in two accidents. On 30 Nov.1929 it was badly damaged in a forced landing in bad weather near Frankfurt. The five occupants were uninjured and it was repaired and re-entered service but had another accident, at Sarzane, Italy on 13 Feb.1933. It was again repaired but final fate not known. Cancelled Dec.1934.

Registered -7 April 1927. Later converted to F.VIIb-3m. Cancelled 1928.

Date on original slide states 'About 1934'. Registered 16 August 1933, first flight 26 March 1934, piloted by J.Lankaster Parker. Made its inaugural flight from Croydon to Le Bourget 16 May 1934. It was wrecked by gales while parked at RAF Drem, Scotland 14 September 1940. (Parked in the background in this picture is the prototype DH.86, G-ACPL, operated by Imperial Airways, named 'Delphinus'.)

'Opening of the new Croydon airport [terminal].' The new buildings began operations on 20 January 1928 but were only officially opened on 2 May 1928. The old buildings on Plough Lane had not yet been fully demolished by then. The photo was most probably taken on 21 March when King Amaunalla of Afghanistan made a flight in G-EBOZ and inspected 'two lines of light aeroplanes, including privately owned DH Moths, which had been flown to Croydon.' G-EBOZ was still named City of Wellington on that occasion. It was renamed City of Arundel later on. Photo from: The Henry Ford

Described on the original slide as 'Probably G-ABFN', this would appear to be correct and details of that aircraft are given accordingly. Ex NC806W. Registered G-ABFN 13 October 1930. It was the only British-registered S-39A and was imported by W.Sherwin Cottingham for operation by Personal Flying Services, based at Croydon. It returned to the USA in July 1935, where it was restored as NC806W and converted to S-39B and reportedly later to S-39C, although the USCAR records it as a S-39B, owned by a resident of Anchorage, Alaska and cancelled 20 June 1950.