According to new documents released by the UK's National Archives, in 1996 the then Prime Minister, John Major seriously in investigated the possibility of changing the name of London's number one airport, from Heathrow to Winston Churchill.
Harvey Spack, a businessman, wrote to the PM, “New York has Kennedy airport, Paris has De Gaulle and we have the stupid name of Heathrow! It should be renamed with the name of the greatest man of the century, who has no truly great memorial in our country, the Winston Churchill airport, or Churchill airport,” Spack wrote, adding “I can only see this as a tremendous boost to the ‘feel good factor’ for all of us.”
John Major replied with thanks for the “intriguing idea about renaming Heathrow airport after Sir Winston Churchill. I am looking into this, and I am grateful for you raising it.” he then ordered his private secretary write to the Department for Transport “The prime minister would be grateful for your secretary of state’s initial and personal views on the idea – both on the merits and practicalities, and also on how this might be floated if it seemed worth pursuing.”
If the idea had taken off, we could be talking about the expensive expansion of Winston Churchill and rather than flying in and out of LHR it could have been LWC!
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