The Beehive (Former Combined Terminal and Control Tower) is a Grade II* listed building in the Crawley local planning authority area, England. First listed on 19 August 1996. Former airport terminal.
The Beehive (Former Combined Terminal and Control Tower)
- WRENN ID
- vast-balcony-torch
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Crawley
- Constituency
- Crawley MP: Peter Lamb (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 19 August 1996
- Type
- Former airport terminal
- Address
- The Beehive (Former Combined Terminal and Control Tower), Beehive Ring Road, Gatwick Airport
- OS grid reference
- TQ 285 399
- Coordinates
- 51.14427, -0.16326
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Beehive, formerly a combined terminal and control tower, is now used as staff rest rooms and offices. Built between 1934 and 1936 by the architectural firm Hoar, Marlow and Lovett for Morris Jackaman, it features a reinforced concrete structure with a steel frame and brick infill. The building has a circular plan with concentric circles of rooms and corridors, and consists of one, two, and three storeys.
The exterior includes an outer single-storey section with doorways and mainly four-light windows spaced at intervals. The first floor rises behind this section, featuring windows at various intervals and a section of continuous glazing. At the center, the former control tower is distinguished by glazing all around, slanted at 60 degrees to the floor.
Inside, surrounding the central drum that originally housed the control tower, meteorological offices, a post office, and a shop, is a two-storey corridor designed for passenger circulation and baggage handling, along with a double staircase. The first floor contained a restaurant with offices below. Passengers would have arrived and departed through six telescopic corridors, which are no longer in existence, that extended on rails to the aircraft steps.
The Beehive is significant in the history of British aviation and world airport design, representing a rare collaboration between airport owners and architects focused on passenger comfort in terminal building design.
Local climate
The Beehive (Former Combined Terminal and Control Tower) receives an average of 750 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 70% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 55% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 61% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
Sign in or create a free account to unlock:
- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
Similar buildings
The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.
this building 1 similar nearby listed buildings