24 Fascinating Black and White Photos Capture Daily Life in London in 1964

Heathrow Airport is the busiest airport in the United Kingdom, busiest airport in Europe by passenger traffic, fifth busiest airport in the world by total passenger traffic. In 2014, it handled a record 73.4 million passengers, a 1.4 percent increase from 2013.

However, the airport started life in 1946 as a small grass airfield. Privately owned, the Great Western Aerodrome was used largely for test flying with commercial flights taking off from nearby Heston and Hanworth Park airfields.
By 1947 three runways had been completed and work on another three - subsequently abandoned as unnecessary - was going on. A new, permanent building arose in the central area at the start of the 1950s, replacing the tent.

Ian Berry was born in Lancashire, England. He made his reputation in South Africa, where he worked for the Daily Mail and later for Drum magazine. He was the only photographer to document the massacre at Sharpeville in 1960, and his photographs were used in the trial to prove the victims' innocence.

Henri Cartier-Bresson invited Ian Berry to join Magnum in 1962, when he was based in Paris. He moved to London in 1964 to become the first contract photographer for the Observer Magazine, and took some fascinating photographs here.
Since then assignments have taken him around the world: he has documented Russia's invasion of Czechoslovakia; conflicts in Israel, Ireland, Vietnam, the Congo, famine in Ethiopia and apartheid in South Africa.

Important editorial assignments have included work for National Geographic, Fortune, Stern, Esquire, Paris-Match and Life. Ian Berry has also reported on the political and social transformations in China and the former USSR.

London. Spitalfields market.

South London. Amusment arcade in Brixton.

London. South London. Brixton. Child skips along a street.

Underground nightclub principally for blacks in Cable Street, East London. (Cable Street no longer exists).

London. Speakers Corner, Hyde Park.

London. Woolwich.

Tick-tack man and punter at the Derby.

East London. Bookmakers.

London. Black actress shops on Oxford Street.

London. A black actress shops in Oxford Street.

Black wedding at Woolwich, East London.

London. Butcher in Spitalfields market.

South London. Wedding in Brixton.

London. South London. Brixton. School kids.

London. South London. School Kids.

London. South London. West African women shop for fruits and vegetables in Brixton market.

London. Notting Hill. Private, multi-racial party.

London. South London. Brixton. Bus queue.

London. East London. Woolwich to Thamesmead railway line.

South London. Barber in Brixton.

Barber in Brixton, South London.

London. A black actress shops in Oxford Street.

South London. School children in Brixton.

Cable Street. Underground nightclub principally for black people.

As traffic boomed Heathrow Airport found itself with an ever-increasing demand for passenger facilities. The Queen inaugurated a new building in 1955 (Terminal 2) and the tunnel which provides the main road access to Heathrow's central area was opened.