Brooklands

English: Brooklands is a historic site near Weybridge in Surrey, England, noted as being a former racing circuit, aerodrome and site of aircraft manufacturing. Built on a marshy part of a country estate with the River Wey running through it, the first race on 2.75 mile long banked outer oval of the Brooklands Motor Circuit took place in 1907, while the first flight at the Brooklands Aerodrome located inside it was in 1909. Brooklands was the world's first purpose built racing circuit, seeing numerous speed and distance records set with cars, motorcycles and bicycles, as well as being the site of ordinary motor industry testing, using both the circuit and facilities like Brooklands Test Hill. As aviation developed, it became a centre for flight training, display, and also developed into a manufacturing site for aircraft, including military aircraft used in World War I and II. It ceased to be a motor racing venue after World War II, with large aircraft factories developing on both the east and west sides of a hard runway laid in 1951. That industry declined in the 1970s before the factories were demolished by 1990. Subsequent development of the site means it is now the location of the Brooklands Industrial Park, Brooklands Spa/Hotel, The Heights business park and the Brooklands Community Park. Continued light aviation use ended with the creation of the Mercedes-Benz World attraction. A small area inside the track has also been used for house building. With conservation efforts begun in 1990, the Brooklands Museum dedicated to the motoring and aviation uses of the area now inhabits 10% of the site, including the paddock area and Brooklands Automobile Racing Club clubhouse, and most of the northern banked curve of the motor ciruit (Members Banking), plus a WWII era aircraft hangar, and also now incorporates the London Bus Museum. Despite the post war industry and subsequent development, outside of the museum, much of the rest of the outer oval of track, namely the southern banked curve (Byfleet Banking) and the west Railway Straight survive, as well as the southern half of the runway, as part of the community park. The 1932 white art deco Brooklands Aero Clubhouse also survives. Reflecting the site's involvement in the Concorde project, the site is home to two Concorde's, the full size G-BBDG and G-CONC, a 40% scale model. The Brooklands Memorial commemorates the racing course.

Maps

The Brooklands site was created out of 330 acres of farm and woodland, marshy in places due to the river, from the original Brooklands estate, recently inherited by its creator, Hugh Locke King. The circuit was laid out as an oval on a SW - NE alignment, with the northern curve (Members Banking) of a tighter radius than the southern curve (Byfleet Banking), which had a 3,000 feet diameter. The northern side was placed alongside half a mile of the London to Southampton Railway (the present day track that heads NE from Byfleet and New Haw railway station). Inside the northern curve was a hill. Running roughly N to S, the river bisected the oval such that one third of the interior was on its east bank, and the rest on the west.

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  Site map, circa 1919 (SE-NW aligned)

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  Pre-war map of the circuit (N-S aligned)

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  Street map of the present day Brooklands (N-S aligned)

River Wey bridges & bridge views

The bridges over the River Wey as it passes through the Brooklands site are (from north to south):

Around the area where it enters the site, there are:

• 51.356802°N 0.467378°W / 51.356802; -0.467378 - an outer footbridge, parallel to the railway viaduct
• 51.356715°N 0.46723°W / 51.356715; -0.46723 - the Seven Arches railway viaduct
• 51.3564°N 0.466726°W / 51.3564; -0.466726 - the point where the track used to bridge the river as part of Members' Banking, the northern curve of the oval, but which was dismantled during WWII
• 51.356266°N 0.466573°W / 51.356266; -0.466573 - an inner footbridge, which parallels the inside of Members' Banking

Moving south, there are two further bridges in the northern quarter of the river:

• 51.354815°N 0.466163°W / 51.354815; -0.466163 - a road bridge linking Brooklands Drive with the museum, and formerly an aircraft taxi route linking the north end of the runway with the north end of the west aircraft hangars and factories
• 51.353506°N 0.46561°W / 51.353506; -0.46561 - a former WWII Bailey bridge now used as the pedestrian access from the museum car park into the museum's main (west) entrance

The only other bridges across the river are all in the southern third of its course through the site:

• 51.349398°N 0.466737°W / 51.349398; -0.466737 - a road bridge which formerly carried the inner section of the Campbell Circuit
• 51.348289°N 0.46748°W / 51.348289; -0.46748 - the Wellington Way road overpass
• 51.346463°N 0.466302°W / 51.346463; -0.466302 - Aerodrome Road bridge - the road connected the motor circuit paddock with the flying village, just to the west of the southern track bridge (see next)
• 51.346178°N 0.465771°W / 51.346178; -0.465771 - the southern track bridge - it's at this point the river leaves the site, under the bridge which carries the bottom of the straight between The Fork and Byfleet Banking, with the banking of the curve starting immediately to the south

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  The view NE along the outer Members' Banking footbridge, with the railway viaduct to the right
  21 April 2012

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  The view south east under the rail line, to the missing bridge section
  11 October 2005

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  The view north east over the river to Members' Banking, showing the inner Members' Banking footbridge on the left
  21 April 2012

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  The view north to the museum road bridge
  26 February 2012

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  The view east along the museum footbridge, into the museum site
  7 August 2013

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  The view NE to the Campbell Circuit bridge from the west bank
  15 April 2013

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  The view north to the Wellington Way overpass, from the west bank of the river
  15 April 2013

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  The view NE from the southern track bridge to the Aerodrome Road bridge
  15 April 2013

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  Looking NE across the southern track bridge
  15 April 2013

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  The view south along the River Way as it leaves the motor circuit at the southern end, as viewed from the southern track bridge
  15 April 2013

Brooklands Motor Course

Historical motorsport images

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  Car racing on the Byfleet Banking
  1907

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  A Cody Aircraft Mark III passes over the paddock?, possibly at the start of the 1911 Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Race

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  Start/Finish Straight?
  1930

Surviving sections

See Brooklands Motor Circuit surviving sections

Surviving motor course buildings

See Brooklands Museum

Test Hill

See Brooklands Test Hill

Aerodrome & aircraft factories

Historical aviation images

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  A Cody Aircraft Mark III passes over the paddock?, possibly at the start of the 1911 Daily Mail Circuit of Britain Race

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  The Vickers factory c1930, next to the circuit

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  A Wellington bomber back at Vickers in 1941 for a role conversion

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  A light aircraft landing on the runway in April 1993

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  The Brooklands Memorial (bottom right) inside the taxing loop at the north end of the runway, the museum (left) and The Heights office blocks (distant), as seen from the air from a Vickers Viscount on a retirement flight, on 29 July 1996

Surviving aviation buildings

See Brooklands Museum

Surviving World War II defences

See Brooklands Museum

Brooklands Museum

See Brooklands Museum

London Bus Museum

See London Bus Museum

Mercedes-Benz World

See Mercedes-Benz World

Concordes G-BBDG/G-CONC

See G-BBDG (aircraft) and G-CONC (gate guardian)

Brooklands Spa/Hotel

The Brooklands Spa/Hotel is in the north western edge of the site, bordered by the Railway Straight to the north west, the industrial park to the south west, and Mercedes-Benz World to the east and south. It comprises two wings arranged in a V off a central entrance column 51.353171°N 0.470738°W / 51.353171; -0.470738, with the interior angle facing east, onto Brooklands Drive.

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  Looking NW across Brooklands Drive
  27 September 2013

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  The eastern face of the southern wing & central block
  27 September 2013

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  The tip of the northern wing, from Brooklands Drive path
  27 September 2013

Brooklands Industrial Park & Brooklands Aero Clubhouse

The industrial park occupies most of the western half of the site, extending partially over Railway Straight to the west and Byfleet Banking to the south west and south, and bordered by the Spa/Hotel at its northern tip, and Mercedes-Benz World/Sopwith Drive to the east. Brooklands Aero Clubhouse 51.346383°N 0.473925°W / 51.346383; -0.473925 is also within this area, facing Sopwith Drive.

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  A warehouse at the north end of Brooklands Industrial Park in the distance, viewed from the NE from Clubhouse turn and the Wet Skid Circle in Mercedes-Benz World
  26 February 2012

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  The view north east across the carp park to the southern facade of the retail units in the south west corner
  26 September 2010

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  The southern facade of Marks & Spencer, one of the retail units in the south west corner
  22 July 2012

Brooklands Community Park

The community park occupies the SE corner of the site, bordered by Sopwith Drive to the west, Wellington Way to the north west, the River Wey to the north east, and extending across the Byfleet Banking to the south east. Inside the park, the bottom half of the hard runway and associated taxi-way survives.

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  An ice-cream van on the runway, with large play park to the left
  15 April 2013

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  The view north east along the Brooklands Drive footpath as it curves away to the left, to go under Wellington Way. The housing is what lies beyond the River Wey.
  15 April 2013

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  The view north along the Brooklands Drive footpath as it passes under Wellington Way, with the River Wey on right right
  15 April 2013

The Heights business park

The Heights business park now occupies the north eastern portions of the site, bordered by the museum to the north, the River Wey to the west, Wellington Way to the south, and extending east beyond the alignment of the former track - the access roundabout marks the approximate location of the Fork/Vickers, where the eastern straight forked, with the Start/Finish Straight heading NNE (along the alignment of the largest car park), and the outer oval heading NE before curving back west as Members Banking.

• 51.349187°N 0.464886°W / 51.349187; -0.464886 - access roundabout
• 51.349948°N 0.465825°W / 51.349948; -0.465825 - Building 1
• 51.350866°N 0.465503°W / 51.350866; -0.465503 - Building 2
• 51.351757°N 0.465245°W / 51.351757; -0.465245 - Building 3
• 51.352822°N 0.464848°W / 51.352822; -0.464848 - Building 4
• 51.353258°N 0.462456°W / 51.353258; -0.462456 - Building 5
• 51.351938°N 0.461705°W / 51.351938; -0.461705 - Proctor & Gamble building
• 51.350102°N 0.462713°W / 51.350102; -0.462713 - Sony UK HQ building

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  The view south down Test Hill to the bottom, and on to the The Heights business park car park can be seen in the distance
  30 September 2007

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  The west facade of the Proctor & Gamble building
  22 July 2012

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  The entrance (SW corner) of Building 5
  22 July 2012

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  The view NE toward Building 1 from the west bank of the river, looking over the Campbell Circuit bridge
  15 April 2013

Housing

The small amount of housing is on the eastern edge. The three cul-de-sacs Davis Road, Dixon Drive and Mays Close are all inside the course. The alignment of Staniland Drive / Connaught Drive follows the line of the former course.

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  The housing as viewed from inside Brooklands Community Park, looking NE along the Brooklands Drive footpath as it curves away to the left, to go under Wellington Way
  15 April 2013

Footpaths

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  The view north up the west bank of the river. Behind the fence is the Mercedes-Benz Handling Circuit. In the distance is the tail fin of the sultan of Oman's VC10 inside the museum
  15 April 2013

Brooklands Memorial

See Brooklands Memorial