Terminal 2, christened the Europa Building when it opened in 1955, has routinely handled eight million passengers a year despite being designed for just 1.2 million.
It has seen the likes of The Beatles and Marilyn Monroe pass through its doors, but will now be torn down to make way for the new home of the Star Alliance airlines.
Construction of the replacement terminal will get underway next year once demolition work has been completed, with the building set to open in 2014.
The new Terminal 2 will cover 180,000 square metres – making it three times the size of the current site – and will be able to handle a total of 20 million passengers a year. That number will rise to 30 million following the addition of a satellite terminal by 2019.
It will also be one of the most energy-efficient buildings in the UK, slashing the current terminal's carbon footprint by 40 per cent due to its roof-mounted solar panels.
"The closure and subsequent demolition of Terminal 2 will make way for our new home at Heathrow," commented Lee Hock Lye, vice president of product and services for the Star Alliance, which includes carriers such as Lufthansa, bmi and Continental Airlines.
"This will finally allow our member carriers to operate under one roof at one of the world's largest aviation hubs, placing us on at least an equal footing with others."
With the closure of Terminal 2, Air France has now moved all its flights to Terminal 4. For further details passengers should visit Heathrow Airport's Which Terminal? page.
© Cheapflights Ltd (Creative Commons photo: markhillary / Flickr)
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