London

Signs and sensibility Substack icon 24 September 2026

The one great attempt to make London’s streets logical - and how one retired chauffeur’s favourite routes changed the way you get around the capital.

M4 Chiswick-Langley

An early triumph of the motorway programme, the M4 between Chiswick and Langley linked Central London to Heathrow - then still known as London Airport - and was the start of a new motorway west.

Routes
M4

Western Avenue Extension

The Western Avenue Extension - opened as A40(M) and known as the Westway - was much hated when it opened, but there's no sign of that in the official book published to mark its opening.

Routes

M25 Orbital Motorway

The M25 is either one of the greatest transport achievements of the 20th century or one of Britain's largest planning failures, depending on which way you look at it. This booklet takes the former view, celebrating the completion of the circuit in 1986.

Routes
M25

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The long way round

When a road is closed, why isn't the diversion route just the quickest way past the closure?

Signs and sensibility

The one great attempt to make London’s streets logical - and how one retired chauffeur’s favourite routes changed the way you get around the capital.

A bridge under troubled bridges

A bridge that was ruined by another bridge, and a type of highway planning beyond any of the UK’s worst nightmares.

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Mistakes

Making road signs is a tricky business, but fortunately the professionals who design them get it right. Usually.