A3

A3 and A3(M)

London to Portsmouth

The A3 is the historic route south-west from London to Portsmouth, connecting the capital with the home of the navy, and thanks to a steady programme of upgrades since the early part of the 20th Century, it still is, and today it's virtually a motorway from the city to the coast.

Routes

A3

The A3 has been one of London's most important approaches for centuries. Planned upgrades in the sixties were almost all built, but not quite, making a very fast road that fizzles out at Wandsworth.

Routes
A3

What's new

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.

The forever bottleneck, part 2

The second part of the story, where we learn why exactly the M4 gets narrower on the final approach to Europe’s biggest city.

The forever bottleneck, part 1

The M4 into London was one of the UK's earliest and most ambitious motorway projects. It was bold, pioneering... and almost instantly regretted.

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Have you seen...

Mickleham Bends

Once it was one of the UK's most dangerous roads — just what is so special about a bit of dual carriageway in Surrey?