When it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 1969, it was the largest new airport terminal in western Europe.

At the time of its closure on 29 June 2015, to make way for the expansion of Heathrow Terminal 2, it had been handling only twenty daily flights by British Airways to nine destinations.

A new pier (the so-called Europier) was added in the 1990s which increased the capacity of the terminal, catering for wide-body aircraft.

[citation needed] In 2005, a substantial redesign and redevelopment of Terminal 1 was completed, which saw the opening of the new Eastern Extension, doubling the departure lounge in size and creating additional seating and retail space.

[9] The main terminal building is now empty and some of the ancillary structures and contact piers have been demolished.

[10] Due to its impending closure, there were just seven shops left airside in the terminal by June 2015: Boots, Cocoon, Dixons Travel, Glorious Britain, WHSmith and World Duty Free.

[2][11] As part of the three central terminals at Heathrow, it was linked to the M4 motorway via the M4 spur road and through a tunnel under the north runway.