South East

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

Up for adoption 24 January 2022

For most people, highway maintenance is not a day to day concern. But not every road is the responsibility of the local council. What if your street is “unadopted"?

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

What's new

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.

The monster seen from below

What might it have been like to stand in one spot and witness the arrival, and the uncertainty, of plans for an urban motorway in West London?

The road that made no sense

It was the UK's only single-carriageway motorway, and twenty years ago it ceased to exist. This is the story of the strange fascination it held, and of my place in history.

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Sir James Drake

County Surveyor and Bridgemaster for Lancashire in the 1950s and 60s, Drake was instrumental in the motorway revolution.