"(15+) Kilometers of Stainless Hand and Foot rail systems". "(11) Luggage Reclaim Carousels". "(4,000+) Airport Seats". "(5) Complete Airbridges (In storage)". So reads the inventory for the sale of this summer; the entire contents of Heathrow Terminal 1 is being plucked out and sold off.
But what kind of people buy up bits of an airport?
Says Daniel Gray, from Global Partners — the company cataloguing and selling the assets — "There are two categories of buyer. The first is other airports — those that are not necessarily first world or Western."
Some of these airports, explains Gray will buy equipment first, then design the airport around whatever check-in desks, reclaim carousels and escalators, and various other furniture, they've purchased.
"The other assets," says Gray, "are memorabilia. Signs, clocks... someone who used to work in immigration and wants to own their old desk."
We have an inkling that other interested buyers will be edgy drinking establishments across London; one aeronautically-themed bar in New Cross springs to mind.
Which might prove the most popular item of memorabilia? Gray reckons the large 'Terminal 1' sign on the front of the building, although he's unsure how much it might fetch. If you're outbid on that, you can always turn to smaller, more niche items, such as displays screens, seats or black and white backdrops of Tower Bridge.
This really does seem to be a case of everything must go.
Global Partners is still cataloguing the major assets at the moment — which appear in this catalogue [pdf]. Keep an eye out for the smaller gimcrack, which will begin to be auctioned off in the coming weeks or months. Unless, of course, you're in the process of building a new airport on a budget. In which case this article has probably made your day.
In the meantime, Terminal 1 remains functional to a degree, as it continues to process baggage. It's unclear what the future of the terminal building — which opened in 1968 — will be.