After the Second World War, the concrete runway at Filton Aerodrome was extended westwards by John Laing & Son to enable the huge Bristol Brabazon airliner to take off safely. This extension required demolition of the hamlet of Charlton; it also severed the pre-war Filton bypass. The three-bay Brabazon Hangar was built in the late 1940s under the direction of T. P. O'Sullivan. The hangar doors and the railway level crossing for the aircraft were the largest in the world at the time. After a worker was crushed and killed while taking a sleep in one of the folds of the hangar doors, a siren was installed to warn employees when the doors were being operated.