The question we’d actually like answered (by our abandoned airport correspondent Angus Young) is why Croydon isn’t called the ‘Hull of the South’.
While requiring a stretch of the imagination, the inland East Yorkshire port of Goole is sometimes jokingly referred to as The Venice of the North. But did you know that Hull was once given a similar billing when it was compared to the South London borough of Croydon?
Back in 1934 the Hull Daily Mail published a special Airport Supplement commemorating the launch of a new commercial air service taking flying passengers between Hull and Amsterdam. The front cover features a striking illustration of a Fokker F.XII three-engine propeller aircraft flying over Hull’s docks with the artist’s surname – Perkins – scribbled in the bottom right hand cover. Above it, the banner headline flanked by two coronets proclaims: Hull – the “‘Croydon of the North”.
The headline suggests Hull is about to become the Northern equivalent of Croydon Airport, then regarded as the UK’s leading airport as it handled more mail, cargo and passengers than any other. Croydon was where regular international passenger services began and a link with Hull was established in 1930 when Amy Johnson used it as the starting point for her record-breaking flight to Australia. Amy’s first took the air in pleasure flights from Hull Aerodrome which was first used as airfield in 1912 on the site for a former racecourse on open land between Hull and Hedon.
In 1929 the Aerodrome was acquired by Hull Council with an ambition to develop commercial services to Europe with the potential to include a nearby seaplane base on the Humber. In August 1930 Amy arrived at the Aerodrome as part of a tour celebrating her epic solo flight to Australia before being driven into Hull for a civic reception at the City Hall. Four years later Dutch airline KLM started using the site as a stopover for its Liverpool to Amsterdam service, prompting the Mail’s special Airport Supplement. The dream of Hull’s municipal leaders for the city to become an airborne gateway to Europe appeared to be coming true.
Writing in the paper, the chairman of the Hull Aredrome Committee Alderman Benno Pearlman said: “The 31st May 1934 marks a new milestone in the advance of British and international aviation; the connecting up of the United Kingdom with Northern Europe and the East. The day is not far distant when the line will be continued from Hull to the United States of America, via Liverpool, and the culminating point will be reached when the air mail, starting from China, continuing by the trans-Siberian railway route, will pass across Europe, pass over Scandinavia, come to Hull, travel across to Liverpool and thence to America.”
Alderman Pearlman also pointed out that while it had taken 14 years to develop Croydon airport, Hull had reached this important moment in just five years under the council’s leadership.
Ticket prices for the daily KLM services were £8 10 shillings return between Hull and Amsterdam, with passengers being taken to and from the Aerodrome by car from outside the Royal Station Hotel. A return flight to Liverpool cost £1 10 shillings while a return flight between Hull and Berlin was advertised at £17 with a change of aircraft at Amsterdam. The supplement also featured supporting advertising, including one by Carmichael’s of Hull showcasing items for travellers in the famous store’s luggage department.
Sadly, the lofty civic ambitions for the Aerodrome would later be dashed by the Second World War. The site was surveyed for possible military use but it was ruled out because of the proximity of the chemical works oil tanks at Saltend which were deemed to be too close for safe flying in the event of an enemy attack. Instead, the airfield was filled with old cars to make it unusable during any German invasion while part of it was used to fly barrage balloons.
Post-war austerity sealed its fate. Commercial air services never returned and in 1951 the council wound up its Corporation Airfield Company and left most of the site to grow wild. Today, there are plans to build a multi-million pound business park on part of the land alongside new community sports facilities.