 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2009) |
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|---|---|
 Earls Court Road (A3220), in 2015 | |
| Route information | |
| Length | 5.3 mi (8.5 km) |
| Major junctions | |
| South end | Clapham Junction |
 A3  A3036  A3205  A3212  A3217  A308  A304  A3218  A4  A315  A4020  A402  A40 | |
| North end | Ladbroke Grove |
| Location | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Road network | |
The A3220 is a primary A road in London, England. It runs north from Clapham Common to the A40 Westway at Ladbroke Grove.
The road crosses the River Thames at Battersea Bridge. Turning left at the northern end of the bridge, the A3220 follows the northern bank of the Thames for some 500 m before swinging northwestward and becoming two separate roads as part of a one-way system. 500 m after crossing the A315, the route returns to being a standard bidirectional single-carriageway road for some 750 m as far as the Holland Park roundabout, from where it forms the dual-carriageway West Cross Route, formerly the M41 motorway.
The West Cross Route (WCR) is a 0.75 mile (1.2 km) segment of dual carriageway section of the A3220 route in central London in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with a small part being shared with borderlining borough Hammersmith and Fulham. It runs north–south between the northern elevated roundabout junction with the western end of Westway (A40) and the southern Holland Park Roundabout. It opened in 1970, together with Westway.
The WCR was formerly the M41 motorway. Its status was downgraded to an A-road in 2000 when responsibility for trunk roads in Greater London was transferred from the Highways Agency to the Greater London Authority. Approximately halfway along the road's length a new junction was built to serve the Westfield London shopping development. The WCR was originally the designation for the western section of Ringway 1, the innermost circuit of the London Ringways network, a complex and comprehensive plan for a network of high-speed roads circling central London designed to manage and control the flow of traffic within the capital. The road would have run from Battersea to Harlesden and would have paralleled the National Rail West London line as an elevated road. Although the road no longer has motorway status, [1] pedal cycles are prohibited by a sign at Holland Park roundabout.
The WCR and the other roads planned in the 1960s for central London had developed from early schemes prior to the Second World War through Sir Patrick Abercrombie's County of London Plan, 1943 and Greater London Plan, 1944 to a 1960s Greater London Council (GLC) scheme that would have involved the construction of many miles of motorway-standard roads across the city and demolition on a massive scale. Due to the huge construction costs and widespread public opposition, most of the scheme was cancelled in 1973 and the WCR, Westway and the East Cross Route in east London were the only significant parts to be built.
At the northern end, had the road been built in full, the entry and exit ramps to and from the elevated roundabout with the Westway would have been slip roads. The main route would have continued north beneath the roundabout into North Kensington and on to the junction with the North Cross Route at Harlesden. The alignment of the slip roads leaves a wide space between for the unbuilt carriageway. On the north side of the roundabout, two short stubs indicate the starting point of the slip roads that would have been provided for traffic joining or leaving the northern section of the WCR.
South of the Holland Park roundabout, which the WCR would have passed above on a flyover, the route would have continued along the alignment of the West London Line passing over Kensington (Olympia) station to a westbound-only interchange with the A4 at Talgarth Road. It would then have been elevated over Earls Court Exhibition Centre, skirted the western edge of Brompton Cemetery, and passed by Stamford Bridge stadium before an eastbound-only interchange along Lots Road to meet Cheyne Walk. Next the WCR would have crossed the River Thames on a new bridge and entered Battersea where it would have had a junction with the South Cross Route. [2]
A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme | ||
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The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its 67-mile (108 km) length, it is classified as a trunk road and therefore managed by National Highways. Almost all of the road has been built to dual carriageway standards or wider. Apart from bypass sections in London, the road travels in a southwest direction and, after Liss, south-southwest.
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston Bypass, which later became part of the M6.
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Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham 4.9 miles (7.9 km) west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan.
The Westway is a 2.5-mile (4 km) elevated dual carriageway section of the A40 trunk road in West London running from Paddington in the east to North Kensington in the west. It connects the London Inner Ring Road to the West London suburbs.
The North Circular Road is a 25.7-mile-long (41.4 km) ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting various suburbs and other trunk roads in the region. Together with its counterpart, the A205 South Circular Road, it forms a ring road around central London. This ring road does not make a complete circuit of the city, being C-shaped rather than a complete loop as the crossing of the River Thames in the east is made on the Woolwich Ferry.
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The West Cross Route (WCR) is a 0.75 mile segment of dual carriageway of the A3220 route in West London running north–south between the northern elevated roundabout junction with the western end of Westway (A40) and the southern Holland Park Roundabout. It runs through Shepherd's Bush to its west and Notting Hill to its east.
East Cross Route (ECR) is a dual-carriageway road constructed in east London as part of the uncompleted Ringway 1 as part of the London Ringways plan drawn up the 1960s to create a series of high speed roads circling and radiating out from central London. The road was constructed between 1967 and 1973 and runs from Hackney Wick in north-east London, through the Blackwall Tunnel, to Kidbrooke in south-east London. The ECR was initially designated as part of the A102, but has, subsequently, been partially renumbered so that sections of it are now the A2 and A12.
The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by the Greater London Council (GLC) to alleviate traffic congestion on the city's road system by providing high speed motorway-standard roads within the capital, linking a series of radial roads taking traffic into and out of the city.
North Cross Route (NCR) was a planned motorway-standard road which would have formed the northern section of Ringway 1 and would have formed the innermost circuit of the London Ringways network. The six-lane dual carriageway with grade separated junctions to an extended M1 motorway was planned during the late 1960s along with the rest of the Ringway scheme. It was never constructed due to large-scale opposition from many quarters.
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South Cross Route (SCR) was the designation for the southern section of Ringway 1, the innermost circuit of the London Ringways network, a complex and comprehensive plan for a network of high speed roads circling and radiating out from central London designed to manage and control the flow of traffic within the capital.
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