UNLESS YOU WERE thirsty or hungry or in desperate need of a toilet, you would most probably drive past the Three Magpies pub without giving it a thought. The pub is near Heathrow Airport on the A4 road (the Bath Road), which links London to the west of England. However, this pub is of great historic interest.

Few people who land at Heathrow, London’s main airport, ever consider what was there before the airport was built.  The Three Magpies is part of the history of that place.

The origin of the name ‘Heathrow’ is obscure, but Gordon Maxwell and other authors mentioned that Edward Ironside wrote in 1791 that the hamlet, Heath Row, had a very considerable fishery for lamperns, a small kind of lampreys, which were used as bait by the English and the Dutch in the cod and turbot fishery barges. Maxwell noted that all traces of this old-time industry had vanished. He also provided a first-hand description of the village after which Heathrow Airport is named:

“In Heath Row are some old cottages … which might be in the heart of Devonshire, for their antiquity, their picturesqueness, and lonely situation. Very few people ever see them, for so few go along this road …”

A detailed 19th century map shows minor a road heading south from a point on the Bath Road a few yards west of an inn or pub. It led straight to Heath Row Hall and then veered slightly southeast to Perrot’s Farm, located next to a bifurcation. This thoroughfare ran approximately along the same course as today’s Tunnel Road East, through which passengers arrive and depart from Terminals 2, and 3. The western branch of this bifurcation led west to the small hamlet of Heathrow (aka Heath Row). On an 1862 map, this consisted of several buildings each in their own spacious grounds.  Terminals 2, and 3 and surrounding buildings stand on what was once the hamlet of Heathrow and its tiny neighbour Perry Oaks.

Nothing remains of Heath Row and Perry Oaks. They were demolished when Heathrow Airport began to be developed first as an RAF base during WW2, and then after that, a civil aerodrome. The inn I mentioned above – that on the Bath Road (the A4) – is the only survivor of the era before the airport began to be constructed. Established in the eighteenth century (before 1765), it was called ‘The Magpie’. Today, it is called ‘ TheThree Magpies’.

Unlike the hamlets that have long since disappeared, the Three Magpies continues to do business, However, its future is uncertain as a local historian explained in her detailed blog (wendytibbitts.info/the-… ):

“Since the airport opened to the public in 1946 the area it covers has increased many times and the once remote pub is now surrounded by hotels. But it is a survivor. Even if the third runway gets built it is not scheduled for demolition, but will be stranded between the northern and third runways with no passing trade.  There is every hope that the airport expansion plans will be quietly forgotten, but a more worrying prospect is the fact that Greene King are considering closing many of their pubs.  It will be very sad if we lose this ancient pub which continues to be a welcome place for a drink and a good meal.”

I have driven past the pub several times (I have never been there when it is open), stopped to take photographs of it, but never been inside it. So, it seems that I should hurry back to try its fare before the new runway begins to be constructed.