Biggin Hill Tourist Information

Biggin Hill became famous during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, when Spitfire squadrons were stationed there. It was regarded as Britain's principal fighter station, and its ace pilots became national figures.

The airport is now known as London Biggin Hill and is dedicated to business aviation. Its origin goes back to 1917, when the Cudham Lodge estate was acquired by the Royal Flying Corps as a base for testing radio communications. The then farmland was high, fog free and flat, and contained a huge undivided field on the edge of the North Downs which later became the airfield.

The town of Biggin Hill had begun to develop in 1898 when the Aperfield estate was bought by Frederic Dougal. He sold off the surrounding farmland as cheap building plots, and soon small bungalows began to appear in the Biggin Hill valley, many merely weekend homes for suburban folk. The lack of planning regulations meant that the town grew haphazardly in the following decades.

Despite the unfashionable nature of this early development, Biggin Hill had one famous early resident: the composer, Ivor Novello. Around 1914, he spent his summers living in a Romany caravan in the garden of his mother's bungalow, where she had set up an artistic community.

The town continued to expand, especially after 1961 when roads were improved and industry encouraged.

There is pleasant countryside around Biggin Hill, and the attractive Leaves Green is a good starting point for country walks.

Description by Jeffrey Darlington