ABB125
Established Member
Kind of spurred by comments made in one of the (numerous!) East-West Rail threads, I thought I'd start one about the 1970s (I think) plans for an enormous amount of road-building in London. It's fascinating to look at the plans and imagine what London would be like had the proposals gone ahead in full. Most of the roads were cancelled, due primarily to the absolutely astronomical costs and opposition from people whose houses would be flattened; there are isolated sections that were built though.
The ringways are far too complex for me to write about here, so here are some links to websites which do just that:
(There's many hours of reading here about ringways; there's also a huge amount of other interesting content on these two sites!)
Personally, I think the ringway proposals were rather too excessive if everything was to be built. However, elements of the plans should have gone ahead, such as the completion of Ringway 2 (ie: the North Circular), with the major radial routes extended to it (the M23, for example, just fizzles out into nothing inside the M25) but with no improvements inside the ring (so a bit like the Peripherique in Paris, but a bit further from the city centre, so maybe the A86 instead). When compared with other major European cities (Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam etc) London really is the poor relation when it comes to road provision. (Perhaps surprisingly, Berlin doesn't actually have that many major roads through it (although I suppose that's down to its recent history), so perhaps it's the best model for my vision of London.)
What do other forum members think?
The ringways are far too complex for me to write about here, so here are some links to websites which do just that:
Ringways
The story of an incredible plan to reshape London into a city of motorways, with the history from creation to cancellation and details on every unbuilt road.
www.roads.org.uk
Pathetic Motorways
Examines and pokes fun at some of the lesser known British motorways. Includes photos and videos
pathetic.org.uk
Personally, I think the ringway proposals were rather too excessive if everything was to be built. However, elements of the plans should have gone ahead, such as the completion of Ringway 2 (ie: the North Circular), with the major radial routes extended to it (the M23, for example, just fizzles out into nothing inside the M25) but with no improvements inside the ring (so a bit like the Peripherique in Paris, but a bit further from the city centre, so maybe the A86 instead). When compared with other major European cities (Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam etc) London really is the poor relation when it comes to road provision. (Perhaps surprisingly, Berlin doesn't actually have that many major roads through it (although I suppose that's down to its recent history), so perhaps it's the best model for my vision of London.)
What do other forum members think?