A406

A406

North Circular Road

Ealing to Beckton

The urban sprawl of the capital is immense and very badly served by roads, without many high-capacity routes linking its various districts to each other and to the wider world. In north London, there is at least the A406 North Circular Road.

Routes

North Circular Road

1960s plans to upgrade the North Circular Road to form one of London's motorway "Ringways" would have seen it change out of all recognition.

Routes

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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Harry Yeadon

A civil engineer, working principally in the North West of England, responsible for many of the area's motorways.