Rural roads

The Improbable A39

It crosses cattle grids and untamed moorland, it climbs 1-in-4 hills and plummets through hairpin bends, it runs single-track through woodland and historic villages. It's rugged and beautiful. Is it really the A39?

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A39

A470 End to End

The road that connects Wales together, but which nobody really uses... All five hours of the A470, from Llandudno to Cardiff, are here.

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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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Alley by gaslight

Some of Central London's quieter streets are still, surprisingly, lit by old and rather beautiful gas lanterns. Here are a few, by day and by night.