Shoreham Airport

In the early months of 1910, London based artist Harold Piffard set himself up on a piece of grazing land across the river from Shoreham, and so started the story of Shoreham Airport. In 1930 the municipal authorities of Brighton, Hove and Worthing formed a joint committee to establish Shoreham as the municipal airport for three towns. Construction on the Terminal Building began in November 1934.

During 1935 the Croydon based company Olley Air Services Ltd., was appointed to manage the aerodrome and a service, Croydon-Shoreham-Deauville was started on the 13th July. On the 13th June 1936 this exquisite Art-Deco terminal building was officially opened by the Mayors of Brighton, Hove and Worthing. The building remains today very much in its original shape and, as always, is still very much open to the public.

Given its art deco architecture it has appeared in many period films and TV shows including three episode of ITV’s Poirot and major Hollywood blockbusters such as The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Woman in Gold (2015). Its appearance in the latter caused some controversies as visitors to the airport to commemorate the 2014 D-Day celebrations found the site festooned in Nazi flags in preparation for its doubling a Vienna Airport during the second world war.