Most people know Croydon only as a large, not especially charming suburb of London. But when this street was named, in December 1940, Croydon was also home to the UK’s biggest airport. It opened in 1920 – back when Heathrow was just a sleepy farming village – and became the first airfield in the world with a terminal, control tower, and air traffic control. In short, Croydon was the world’s first modern airport. No surprise then that there would be a street named after it near LAX – which in 1940 was still called Los Angeles Municipal Airport and was transitioning to wartime use; commercial airline service wouldn’t begin until 1946. Croydon Airport closed thirteen years after that, as Heathrow had become London’s airport of choice.
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