# Airport nearest to Croydon...



## Divisive Cotton (Oct 13, 2010)

Heathrow or Gatwick?


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## _pH_ (Oct 13, 2010)

Croydon


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## _pH_ (Oct 13, 2010)

but that's closed, so Gatwick, at least in terms of getting there quickly.


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## Divisive Cotton (Oct 13, 2010)

Another question about Croydon. How long does it take on a train to reach central London?


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## _pH_ (Oct 13, 2010)

Divisive Cotton said:


> Another question about Croydon. How long does it take on a train to reach central London?



From East Croydon, 15 mins (ish) to London Bridge or Victoria on a fast train.


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## Dan U (Oct 13, 2010)

Biggin Hill

And yes Gatwick is srs answer. about 16-20 mins on train

Victoria is just under 20 i think
London Bridge as little as 12.

Shit loads of trains and trains from Victoria run 24 hours per day.

you can get to Heathrow by going to Clapham Jct then Feltham then a bus link


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## JWH (Oct 14, 2010)

_pH_ said:


> Croydon


 
+10 spod points.


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## Gromit (Oct 14, 2010)

Need to make a quick get away? Or is it just the fact that the sooner you can leave the better so the nearest will do. 
I can totally understand that having spent more time there than i would have liked too.


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## cybertect (Oct 14, 2010)

_pH_ said:


> Croydon


 
Waddon Aerodrome, please


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## sim667 (Oct 14, 2010)

Gatwick blates

I think the connections aren't too bad with luton iirc either..... obviously takes much longer than gatwick, but i think it would be quicker than heathrow.....

Where's london city airport?


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## Crispy (Oct 14, 2010)

sim667 said:


> Where's london city airport?


 
Docklands. East of Canary Wharf


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## _pH_ (Oct 14, 2010)

cybertect said:


>



Wonderful. I can spend hours looking through the poster collection on the LT museum site.

Edward McKnight Kauffer:






The Fougasse cartoons are fantastic:


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## London_Calling (Oct 15, 2010)

Of those still operating, Kenley or even Biggin.


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## joevsimp (Oct 15, 2010)

_pH_ said:


> The Fougasse cartoons are fantastic:


 
Ace, they should replace the stupid ones that they have now with these

Gatwick btw is what I'd do, where you flying?


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## Leafster (Oct 15, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> Of those still operating, Kenley or even Biggin.


Kenley only allow gliders these days and they are winched up rather than using a plane to tow them up. There's a private airstrip (of sorts) to the west of the A22 just south of Caterham but I believe it's just some rich bloke who lives there.


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## London_Calling (Oct 15, 2010)

Should have remembered that given several in this thread walked past it not so long ago


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## TopCat (Oct 15, 2010)

Stop pissing about Divisive Cotton and move to Croydon.


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## Leafster (Oct 15, 2010)

London_Calling said:


> Should have remembered that given several in this thread walked past it not so long ago


Indeed!


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## RaverDrew (Oct 15, 2010)

Leafster said:


> There's a private airstrip (of sorts) to the west of the A22 just south of Caterham but I believe it's just some rich bloke who lives there.



David Gold


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## Leafster (Oct 15, 2010)

RaverDrew said:


> David Gold


I think you might be right.


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## sim667 (Oct 15, 2010)

Leafster said:


> Kenley only allow gliders these days and they are winched up rather than using a plane to tow them up. There's a private airstrip (of sorts) to the west of the A22 just south of Caterham but I believe it's just some rich bloke who lives there.



Aint it the woman that owns ann summers? I know she's got a helipad and 9 hole golf course. 

And a community of gypsies who the council paid to dispose of a load of white goods, and they just dumped them all through the woods around her. They live on the opposite side of the road to her


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## Leafster (Oct 15, 2010)

sim667 said:


> Aint it the woman that owns ann summers? I know she's got a helipad and 9 hole golf course.
> 
> And a community of gypsies who the council paid to dispose of a load of white goods, and they just dumped them all through the woods around her. They live on the opposite side of the road to her


I think that's Jacqueline Gold who's the daughter of David Gold. (see above). From memory, there is a traveller site in the same road and I have been led to believe there is some animosity between the two parties.


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## Callie (Oct 15, 2010)

Trains run Victoria to Gatwick, stopping at East Croydon all through the night, only one an hour but certainly makes getting home from up town a lot quicker


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## TopCat (Oct 15, 2010)

When did they start stopping at East Croydon Callie?


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 15, 2010)

Dan U said:


> Biggin Hill
> 
> And yes Gatwick is srs answer. about 16-20 mins on train
> 
> ...


Victoria used to be 12. I don't know what happened. 

You can also get to waterloo pretty sharpish as it is only 6 minutes to Clapham Junction, then there are trains every couple of minutes to Waterloo that take another 6 minutes.

Gatwick is obviously quicker but there is a bus from East Croydon by the station that goes all the way to Heathrow and I think runs pretty much all hours. £1


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## sim667 (Oct 18, 2010)

TopCat said:


> When did they start stopping at East Croydon Callie?



This is my route home after a night out in london, victoria - gatwick, then cab to redhill....... they've stopped at east croydon for as long as i remember....

We also used to pay the driver to stop at the platform at redhill even though it was closed, and we just used to jump the fence out..... they wont do it anymore though  




ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> You can also get to waterloo pretty sharpish as it is only 6 minutes to Clapham Junction, then there are trains every couple of minutes to Waterloo that take another 6 minutes.



Train every 10-15 mins to waterloo, waterloo east and charing cross from platform six at london bridge


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## Maggot (Oct 18, 2010)

TopCat said:


> When did they start stopping at East Croydon Callie?


 


sim667 said:


> This is my route home after a night out in london, victoria - gatwick, then cab to redhill....... they've stopped at east croydon for as long as i remember....



They did it when lived in Croydon in the late 80s.


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## Leafster (Oct 18, 2010)

sim667 said:


> This is my route home after a night out in london, victoria - gatwick, then cab to redhill....... they've stopped at east croydon for as long as i remember....
> 
> We also used to pay the driver to stop at the platform at redhill even though it was closed, and we just used to jump the fence out..... they wont do it anymore though


That's similar to my preferred route home except they also stop at Purley so I get out there and either walk if it's a nice night or get a cab from there.


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## Chz (Oct 18, 2010)

> Victoria used to be 12. I don't know what happened.


I seriously doubt that's even possible. It may have been timetabled that way, on the expectation of drivers being way ahead of schedule, but even if you cleared the lines it's near to impossible to hit Victoria in 12 minutes from Croydon. The Brighton Speed Run was done from London Bridge, which is a much easier run in a near straight line, and it hit East Croydon at 10 minutes. (another 11 to Gatwick, fwiw) The fastest normal runs take 10 minutes just to get to Clapham.

I think they've done 15 minutes in the past, but there are speed limits between Croydon and London now. Too many twisty bit, I imagine, plus everything stops at Clapham now (didn't in the past).


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 18, 2010)

sim667 said:


> T
> Train every 10-15 mins to waterloo, waterloo east and charing cross from platform six at london bridge


 
Read my post again, I was talking about going fast to waterloo from east croydon. Go to Clapham Junction from East Croydon, from there the trains are about every five minutes to waterloo.


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## Callie (Oct 18, 2010)

TopCat said:


> When did they start stopping at East Croydon Callie?


 
1942   They've done that for ages as far as I know but Ive only ben living back in Croydon for a couple of years. Getting back to Sutton was a different matter  memories of standing around at west croydon bus station for the N213 to arrive in the freezing cold/rain.


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## TopCat (Oct 19, 2010)

I thought the trains went straight to Gatwick and did not stop?


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 19, 2010)

TopCat said:


> I thought the trains went straight to Gatwick and did not stop?


 
Are you thinking gatwick express? Which I have in fact caught from croydon a few times so I guess it does stop there from time to time. There are loads of other trains from croydon that go to gatwick to of course and they don't take very long.


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## Maggot (Oct 19, 2010)

The Gatwick Express used to stop at East Croydon during the night when there were no other services. Now there's a service from Victoria to East Croydon right through the night, so the GE doesn't stop there.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 19, 2010)

Maggot said:


> The Gatwick Express used to stop at East Croydon during the night when there were no other services. Now there's a service from Victoria to East Croydon right through the night, so the GE doesn't stop there.


 
I got the gatwick express to Victoria from East Croydon just the other day, in the middle of the day.


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## Leafster (Oct 19, 2010)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I got the gatwick express to Victoria from East Croydon just the other day, in the middle of the day.


Is it one of those services which don't actually list the stop "officially" but do it anyway? I've been on a few trains which seem to "take a break" at Selhurst and let people on and off even though it's never listed as a proper stop.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 19, 2010)

Leafster said:


> Is it one of those services which don't actually list the stop "officially" but do it anyway? I've been on a few trains which seem to "take a break" at Selhurst and let people on and off even though it's never listed as a proper stop.


 
I dunno, but loads of people got off, you know, like they knew it was going to stop there. Nobody looked weirded out. 
Those trains that used to wait at Selhurt never bloody let me off (when I lived closer to there and it would have been useful). Sundays and late at night they always seem to stop at selhurst and let you off if they say they are going to or not.


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## Callie (Oct 19, 2010)

I have gotten on a GE train in the daytime which for some reason has stopped at EC. They certainly never used to but Victoria to Gatwick trains run by Southern stop at EC and run all though the night.

Do you not believe me topcat?! Its not really something worth lying about  

Did you know they stop at the moon too?


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## sim667 (Oct 19, 2010)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> Read my post again, I was talking about going fast to waterloo from east croydon. Go to Clapham Junction from East Croydon, from there the trains are about every five minutes to waterloo.



My mistake, sorry



Leafster said:


> That's similar to my preferred route home except they also stop at Purley so I get out there and either walk if it's a nice night or get a cab from there.



Ah, when I lived in caterham I used to get off at purley, get on the night bus to old coulsdon and walk from their.... I could never find cabs.

Do they still stop at purley all through the night? I assume it'd still be cheaper for me to go to gatwick and cab home now im in redhill, its only £6 from gatwick to my house.


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## Leafster (Oct 19, 2010)

sim667 said:


> Ah, when I lived in caterham I used to get off at purley, get on the night bus to old coulsdon and walk from their.... I could never find cabs.
> 
> Do they still stop at purley all through the night? I assume it'd still be cheaper for me to go to gatwick and cab home now im in redhill, its only £6 from gatwick to my house.


Yep, there's a train every hour throughout the night from Victoria that stops at Purley. Never had a problem with cabs though. Just make sure you're one of the first off the train and get to the cab office on the cobbled bit in front of the station quickly. But I think a cab from Purley to Redhill would probably cost you bit more than £6 so I guess it depends how much more you have to_ pay_ for a train ticket to Gatwick.


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## Streathamite (Oct 19, 2010)

Callie said:


> I have gotten on a GE train in the daytime which for some reason has stopped at EC. They certainly never used to but Victoria to Gatwick trains run by Southern stop at EC and run all though the night.


that was my experience too, when I lived on the manor


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## _pH_ (Oct 19, 2010)

There is an hourly Southern service from Victoria during the night that stops at E Croydon, then onto Gatwick and either Brighton or Three Bridges. Timetable here: http://www.southernrailway.com/download/4886.7/03-gatwick-airport-to-london/

Some GatEx services run to/from Brighton now, but also there are some Southern services during the day that now use GatEx rolling stock, so they will stop at E Croydon. Which is why you can get off a GatEx train at E Croydon, but it's actually a Southern service, it's just that the train is the wrong colour.

This is basically because GatEx ceased to exist as a separate franchise at the start of the current Southern franchise (about a year ago) - GatEx exists largely only as a brand now. Although GatEx still have their own rolling stock, drivers and depot (Stewarts Lane), the operation is becoming absorbed into Southern - many Southern drivers at Selhurst depot (and I think Brighton too) now drive the class 442 stock (but not, afaik, the class 460s with the pointy nose as these are being returned to the ROSCO at some point soon, to work SWT services out of Waterloo). GatEx send their new drivers on Southern driver training courses now, rather then running their own.

Trains stop at Selhurst for crew changes (driver/conductor) on account of there being a fucking great depot next door (well, 2 depots really if you count Norwood too). Generally this tends to be on up/down slow services that make a public stop there anyway, but occasionally (mostly when things have gone tits up and drivers are in the wrong place) they will stop on the fast lines for a crew change. 

Also, down services (heading away from London) are often held at a red signal at the country end of the platform at Selhurst (both slow and fast lines) because the track ahead is very complicated - lots of trains heading in different directions, to/from East Croydon/Norwood Jct/West Croydon/Selhurst depot. The paths are worked out so that non-stopping trains shouldn't be held at a red at Selhurst, but if a train ahead is delayed it sometimes can't be helped.


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## Callie (Oct 19, 2010)

^train geek


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## _pH_ (Oct 19, 2010)

I'm allowed!


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## sim667 (Oct 19, 2010)

Leafster said:


> Yep, there's a train every hour throughout the night from Victoria that stops at Purley. Never had a problem with cabs though. Just make sure you're one of the first off the train and get to the cab office on the cobbled bit in front of the station quickly. But I think a cab from Purley to Redhill would probably cost you bit more than £6 so I guess it depends how much more you have to_ pay_ for a train ticket to Gatwick.


 
The good thing is with gatwick is theres no barriers, the bad news is there's armed police on high alert 24/7 

It aint half a weird feeling getting the comedown giggles in the middle of gatwick airport at 7am on you way home though


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 20, 2010)

_pH_ said:


> There is an hourly Southern service from Victoria during the night that stops at E Croydon, then onto Gatwick and either Brighton or Three Bridges. Timetable here: http://www.southernrailway.com/download/4886.7/03-gatwick-airport-to-london/
> 
> Some GatEx services run to/from Brighton now, but also there are some Southern services during the day that now use GatEx rolling stock, so they will stop at E Croydon. Which is why you can get off a GatEx train at E Croydon, but it's actually a Southern service, it's just that the train is the wrong colour.
> 
> ...


 
You are sooo cool. 

Seriously though. This explains everything and closes the thread. Spoilsport.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 20, 2010)

sim667 said:


> The good thing is with gatwick is theres no barriers, )


 
Yeah that's quite cool. Sometimes of an evening when I can't quite be arsed to go home just yes, so hop on a plane to tunisia (even though my ticket is for East Croydon only)


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## _pH_ (Oct 20, 2010)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> You are sooo cool.
> 
> Seriously though. This explains everything and closes the thread. Spoilsport.



I'm not quite sure how to take that - I don't know if you're mocking me sarcastically for being geeky like that Callie did, or what. How about I assume you are, and call you a cunt, then the thread can continue abusewards. How about that?

cunt


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 20, 2010)

*Looks at shoes*


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## _pH_ (Oct 20, 2010)

I should think so too.


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## ethel (Oct 20, 2010)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> I got the gatwick express to Victoria from East Croydon just the other day, in the middle of the day.



out of interest, why do people get the gatiwck express?


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## TopCat (Oct 20, 2010)

ethel said:


> out of interest, why do people get the gatiwck express?


 
It's a fast train because of its shape.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 20, 2010)

Why wait for the next train to Victoria when you don't have to?


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## ethel (Oct 20, 2010)

but it costs megabucks! victoria is the wrong side of london for me anyway.


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## hipipol (Oct 21, 2010)

Should one have ones own jet, this is slightly closer I suspect

Biggin Hill Airport







Look, you can even see Canary Wharf in the background


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## JWH (Oct 21, 2010)

hipipol said:


> you can even see Canary Wharf in the background


 
Practically walking distance!


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Oct 21, 2010)

ethel said:


> but it costs megabucks! victoria is the wrong side of london for me anyway.


 
Then don't get it.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Sep 19, 2016)

Dan U said:


> Biggin Hill
> 
> And yes Gatwick is srs answer. about 16-20 mins on train
> 
> ...


Or just get the x26 bus which goes all the way in the a little less than the same time it takes to get the train and tube.


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## Chz (Sep 19, 2016)

ATOMIC SUPLEX said:


> Or just get the x26 bus which goes all the way in the a little less than the same time it takes to get the train and tube.


In some ways, the Tube can be better. If you're going to T4 or T5 it's a real faff from the bus station at Terminal 123. Though I'll grant that X26 to Hatton Cross and then the Tube is better than schlepping into town.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Sep 19, 2016)

Chz said:


> In some ways, the Tube can be better. If you're going to T4 or T5 it's a real faff from the bus station at Terminal 123. Though I'll grant that X26 to Hatton Cross and then the Tube is better than schlepping into town.


I never actually do it because my daughter gets bus sick on longer journeys. When I travel alone it's generally from Gatwick. 15 minutes. Sweet!


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## T & P (Sep 21, 2016)

A cheap way to Gatwick from London if one has an oyster/ bus pass is the 196 to the last stop (Norwood Jct.) then the train to Gateick. It's only about 8 quid from there.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Sep 22, 2016)

T & P said:


> A cheap way to Gatwick from London if one has an oyster/ bus pass is the 196 to the last stop (Norwood Jct.) then the train to Gateick. It's only about 8 quid from there.


Three quid on oyster from east Croydon, and two quid from east Croydon to norwood junction, so that doesn't sound right.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Sep 22, 2016)

Oh I see, you must be talking off peek. Slightly unfair as its still £5:80 off peak but only five if you tap out at East Croydon and back in again. Get you a free twix if you have the time to spare.


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