Crawley: New Town Under the Flight Path
Every ninety seconds, an aircraft passes over Crawley. Gatwick Airport sits two miles north of the town centre, the UK's second busiest, handling over 40 million passengers a year. The relationship between town and airport is symbiotic: thousands of residents work in aviation, logistics, hotels, and car parks. The Covid-19 shutdown demonstrated the dependency with brutal clarity.
Crawley was designated a new town in 1947, built in neighbourhoods radiating from the centre: Ifield, Langley Green, Pound Hill, Maidenbower, Tilgate. Each was designed with its own local shops, school, and pub. The County Mall shopping centre and pedestrianised High Street form the commercial core. Before the new town, Crawley was a small market settlement on the London-to-Brighton road. The George Hotel on the High Street, a coaching inn, predates the modern town by centuries.
Show more
Every ninety seconds, an aircraft passes over Crawley. Gatwick Airport sits two miles north of the town centre, the UK's second busiest, handling over 40 million passengers a year. The relationship between town and airport is symbiotic: thousands of residents work in aviation, logistics, hotels, and car parks. The Covid-19 shutdown demonstrated the dependency with brutal clarity.
Crawley was designated a new town in 1947, built in neighbourhoods radiating from the centre: Ifield, Langley Green, Pound Hill, Maidenbower, Tilgate. Each was designed with its own local shops, school, and pub. The County Mall shopping centre and pedestrianised High Street form the commercial core. Before the new town, Crawley was a small market settlement on the London-to-Brighton road. The George Hotel on the High Street, a coaching inn, predates the modern town by centuries.
Country selected
Region selected
City selected
