The North Circular Road (officially the A406), is a 25.7-mile-long (41.4 km) ring road around the northern half of inner London. Although it is now a single continuous road, it was formed from component sections, some of which are named North Circular Road while others retain their separate names, e.g. Gunnersbury Avenue, Hanger Lane. The term "North Circular" is used as a more accurate synonym for A406, including for route planning purposes. The road runs from Chiswick in the west to North Woolwich in the east via suburban north London, connecting various suburbs and other trunk roads in the region.
Together with its counterpart, the South Circular Road, it mostly forms a ring road around inner London, except for crossing of the River Thames to the east, which is done by the Woolwich Ferry.
The road's route was established in 1911 and it was constructed in the Interwar period, connecting local industrial communities and bypassing London. It was upgraded after World War II, and was at one point planned to become a motorway as part of the controversial and ultimately cancelled London Ringways scheme. In the early 1990s, the road was extended to bypass Barking and meet the A13 north of Woolwich, though without a direct link to the ferry.
The road's design varies from six-lane dual carriageway to urban streets; the latter, although short, cause traffic congestion in London and are regularly featured on local traffic reports, particularly at Bounds Green. The uncertainty of development has caused urban decay and property blight along its route, and led to criticism over its poor pollution record. Several London Borough Councils have set up regeneration projects to improve the environment for communities close to the road.
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Route
The North Circular Road forms the northern part of a ring-road around Central London. The route identified for it in 1911 lay substantially through green fields (unlike that for the South Circular Road), and consequently much of it is on purpose-built roads rather than urban streets. Some sections of the latter have been upgraded, often involving the demolition of houses and urban infrastructure.
The route is mostly grade-separated dual carriageway from the A40 at Hanger Lane to the A13 in Beckton except for the Drury Way/Brentfield Road junction, the Golders Green Road/Brent Street junction, Henlys Corner and the section from Bounds Green to Green Lanes. Sections of road which existed before they were incorporated into the North Circular are most likely to have retained their original names, e.g. Gunnersbury Avenue, Bowes Road.
Gunnersbury, Hanger Lane and Brent Cross
The road begins in Gunnersbury at the Chiswick flyover (junction 1 of the M4), from which the South Circular Road (A205) heads south over Kew Bridge, and the A4 heads east towards Chiswick and west towards Brentford. The first section runs along Gunnersbury Avenue through Gunnersbury Park to Ealing Common, with a mix of single and dual carriageways, where it becomes Hanger Lane.
The road crosses the Great Western Main Line west of Paddington to the Hanger Lane gyratory system, a large roundabout on top of the Western Avenue (the A40) with Hanger Lane tube station. This is one of the busiest junctions in London, used by 10,000 vehicles an hour.
From Hanger Lane the A406 was built as the North Circular Road. Originally it was a single carriageway but with space for frontage roads, except beneath the West Coast Main Line near Stonebridge Park. The road has been widened repeatedly (including beneath the West Coast Main Line) and is now a six-lane dual carriageway that connects the industrial estates in the area. Beyond Stonebridge Park, there is a junction with IKEA and the Neasden temple to the southeast, and the road runs alongside open land south of the Welsh Harp Reservoir.
Beyond the reservoir, there is a large interchange with the Edgware Road (A5) and junction 1 of the M1 motorway at Staples Corner, and a junction for the Brent Cross Shopping Centre at the Brent Cross Interchange (joining the A41 from Finchley). This section of the North Circular was used for filming the car chasing sequences in Withnail and I.
Northeast of Brent Cross, at Henlys Corner, the North Circular briefly shares carriageways with the A1, which joins it from the northwest and leaves it to the southeast to head into Central London. The junction complex also serves the Finchley Road and pedestrian traffic, and consequently is a major bottleneck on the route.
Transport for London have invested in the junction, including a special hands-free traffic-light-controlled pedestrian crossing which allows members of the local Jewish community to cross the road safely on the Sabbath. The road passes north of St Pancras and Islington Cemetery towards Friern Barnet and Muswell Hill. The road narrows to four lanes to pass under the East Coast Main Line, and continues as single-carriageway Telford Road towards Bounds Green.
Southgate, Woodford and Beckton
Traffic on the North Circular must turn right from Telford Road into Bowes Road at a traffic-light-controlled junction, which causes problems with heavy goods vehicles. The road continues past densely packed housing and business areas before widening at Green Lanes and assuming the North Circular Road name again. At Great Cambridge Interchange, its most northerly point, the A406 crosses Great Cambridge Road (A10). The disused Angel Road railway station is partially located beneath the flyover at Angel Road, in an area marked for redevelopment known as Meridian Water. This leads onto the Lea Valley Viaduct that provides a safe crossing of the River Lea's flood plain. The viaduct is part of the original construction and was one of the first of its kind to be built using reinforced concrete.
After the viaduct the road becomes Southend Road, passing north of Walthamstow, and immediately before the Crooked Billet junction, the former site of Walthamstow Stadium. It continues eastward, cutting through a southern section of Epping Forest and meeting the Woodford New Road at Waterworks Corner, before an elevated junction with the M11 motorway and Southend Road heading to Gants Hill. The South Woodford to Barking Relief Road (the section between the M11 and A13) opened in 1987. Previously, the A406 extended along Southend Road and Woodford Avenue as far east as Gants Hill. The current route of the North Circular Road turns south, passing Eastern Avenue (A12) on a flyover at the Redbridge roundabout. It passes Romford Road (the historic Roman Road from London to Colchester) to the west of Ilford and London Road, Barking, and ends at a roundabout with the A13 Newham Way/Alfred's Way in Beckton.
To reach the Woolwich Ferry, traffic must follow local roads to the ferry terminal – the A1020 Royal Docks Road, and the A117 named successively as Woolwich Manor Way, Albert Road and Pier Road. The Woolwich Ferry leads across the River Thames, connecting with the eastern end of the South Circular Road on the other side of the river. The junction with the A13 has been built to enable the North Circular to be continued across the junction to the Thames Gateway Bridge if and when it is built.
History
Early history
In 1904 in his submission to the Royal Commission on London Traffic, William Rees Jeffreys proposed "A Boulevard round London", arguing that a road round London is perhaps the most urgently required of all the new roads. At present the traffic wishing to get from one side of London to the other has to pass through the congested central portions. The route sketched in the map would enable travellers to get from one side of London to the other without passing through it.
The Royal Commission did not adopt this proposal, but it was picked up by the London Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade. This was established to co-ordinate the activities of the various local authorities responsible for roads in their areas. Its 1910 Report put forward a proposal, which was revised in 1911 and which essentially set out the route which was subsequently implemented. The 1911 Report explained:Further consideration having shown the impossibility of satisfactorily widening and improving the whole length of Forest Road at Walthamstow, and other parts through Tottenham and Hornsey, a new line is now suggested for the proposed North Circular Road, some two miles further north, passing through Friern Barnet and Edmonton.Both schemes were based on existing roads, which were to be improved and connected together by new sections into a circumferential road. From 1913 local authorities and other interested parties held a series of Arterial Road Conferences. Their remit was broader than the Royal Commission's had been and they proposed roads extending from Uxbridge to Southend-on-Sea. In 1916 the second full Arterial Road Conference approved the London Traffic Branch's 1911 plans for London with minor additions.
Construction of the North Circular Road started in 1921 as an unemployment relief scheme with the Government providing funding to local authorities. The first lengths of road to be built were those where it was easiest: on undeveloped land which could be acquired compulsorily at low cost, notably between Harrow Road and the future Henly's Corner. Much more problematic were places where development had already taken place. Various manufacturing industries, including furniture production, had moved away from the East End in the early 20th century to areas on the fringes of London including Tottenham and Edmonton. This required changes to the 1911 route and led to the inclusion of a notorious bottleneck at Angel Road station. From there the Lea Valley viaduct, built in 1924–26, carried the road to Walthamstow, with the road ending at a junction with Forest Road. The final section to open, in 1934, was that from Hanger Lane to Stonebridge Park, which required diversion of the Grand Union Canal, including an aqueduct over the new road.
London Ringways
After reviewing traffic conditions in 1961, the Ministry of Transport planned to increase the capacity of the North Circular Road, grade separating as many junctions as possible, particularly those connecting with important arterial routes. In the 1960s the Greater London Council developed the London Ringways Plan to construct a series of circular and radial motorways throughout London with the hope of easing traffic congestion in the central area. Under this plan the North Circular Road was to be improved to dual-carriageway standard throughout the majority of its length by the late 1970s.
The Ringway projects were extremely unpopular and caused widespread protests, which led to the cancellation of the plans in 1972, particularly after the Westway had opened in the face of large-scale protest two years earlier. In 1974, the MOT scaled back plans to improve the North Circular Road, though by the end of the decade they had revised plans to improve the route to dual carriageway throughout without any property frontages. In 1979, the Ministry of Transport planned to improve the Great Cambridge Road Roundabout with a £17 million scheme that would have demolished over 100 houses and shops. This was cancelled and replaced with a straightforward underpass in 1983, costing £22.3 million.
South Woodford to Barking Relief Road
The section of the North Circular south of Charlie Brown's Roundabout in South Woodford is the "South Woodford to Barking Relief Road". Prior to its opening, the signposted North Circular route from the Waterworks Roundabout to the Woolwich Ferry was on local roads via Whipps Cross, Wanstead, Manor Park and Beckton. As well as delays for the ferry, traffic could also be held due to closure of bridges in the Royal Albert and King George V Docks. The road was originally planned to be a continuation of the M11, but the standard of road was decreased to a basic dual carriageway. It was proposed to be built in the 1980s concurrently with the controversial M11 link road.
Henlys Corner and Bounds Green improvements
The North Circular Road ceased to be a trunk road in 2000, when control of all roads inside Greater London passed to Transport for London (TfL). In 2004, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone promised limited improvements to the road, but received criticism for not approving earlier plans for widening the often heavily congested road at critical sections. In 2009, it was announced that major works between the Bounds Green Road and Green Lanes junctions would finally go ahead, having been proposed for over 90 years, and was completed the following year. The work improved the carriageway between these junctions, widening Telford Road to two lanes and improving all of the junctions along the route. Improvements were also made to walkways and cycle paths along this route. However, unlike elsewhere on the North Circular, the new junctions are not grade-separated and have been designed with environmental concerns in mind. The opened scheme is a reduced specification from 1960s plans, which projected this section of the North Circular to be dual carriageway.
In April 2011, after many years of proposals and delays, construction began on a major upgrade of the Henlys Corner interchange. An underpass was originally proposed but this was heavily criticised by local residents, and would have been very costly, and it was subsequently scrapped. The upgrade scheme improved on the current junction by adding extra lanes and allowing easier left and right turns, speeding up queue times. Cycle paths and safer pedestrian crossings, like the Wilmer Way footbridge, were included.
In July 2013, a task force set up by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson proposed that long sections of the North Circular (as well as the South Circular) should be put underground in road tunnels, freeing up space on the surface to provide public space, extensive cycle routes, and better links to existing communities currently severed by the road. Caroline Pidgeon, deputy chair of the London Assembly's Transport Committee, responded, "It doesn't make sense and it won't add up – [there's a] £30bn estimate, but I'm sure it'll cost at least double that, and the reality is we'll lose homes around these roads and so on."
Environment and safety
The North Circular Road has received regular criticism over its poor safety record and piecemeal improvement schemes due to a lack of funding since it opened to traffic. In 1989, Michael Portillo, then a Member of Parliament for Enfield Southgate, complained that 367 houses were scheduled for demolition as part of improvements to the North Circular in his constituency. Friends of the Earth have complained about rising costs and delays to junction and safety improvements. In 2003, environment cabinet member Terry Neville said that TfL's proposed improvements for improving the North Circular were "a sham" and that the local council wanted a six-lane motorway to properly solve congestion.
The uncertainty over the future of the North Circular Road has blighted properties on and near it, particularly around Bounds Green. Around 1972, approximately 400 homes on the road were compulsorily purchased by the Greater London Council in conjunction with widening schemes that were then cancelled. The properties have suffered from a lack of long-term care. Since TfL took responsibility for the road, land for future schemes has been left dormant, resulting in urban decay with derelict properties. Compulsorily purchased properties were let out to various short-term tenants, which led to them housing prostitutes and migrant workers living in increasing squalor. Pedestrians have become too frightened to use underpasses along the road, particularly to access North Middlesex Hospital. Areas close to the road, such as the alleys behind properties on the Telford Road section, have suffered from fly tipping and anti-social behaviour.
In 2011, Enfield Borough Council proposed a North Circular Area Action Plan, which would regenerate the area immediately around Telford Road and Bowes Road, and encourage growth. This includes new pedestrian crossings and improved access to existing open spaces, including Arnos Park and Broomfield Park.
In 2002, the North Circular was rated as Britain's noisiest road by the UK Noise Association. In 2013, the road was named in a BBC report as being the most polluted in London, including the highest surveyed levels of benzene and nitrogen dioxide. A report in the Sunday Times, referring to the North Circular, said "if you want to pull back the lid of your convertible and drink in the fresh air, look elsewhere". In 2019, a BBC News report said that the section between Chiswick and Hanger Lane was the most congested in Britain.
Junctions
The North Circular Road has a wide variety of styles and standards of junctions connecting to other roads. These range from the complex, grade-separated design at Charlie Brown's near Woodford, to at-grade junctions with traffic lights. The original road contained entirely at-grade junctions; many of these were improved and grade separated during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Public transport
There are four bus routes that largely serve their routes on the North Circular Road:
London Buses route 34: between Arnos Grove and South Chingford (Crooked Billet Roundabout)
London Buses route 112: between North Ealing tube station and Finchley (Great North Road), serving Brent Cross Shopping Centre
London Buses route 232: between Brent Park and Palmers Green (Green Lanes), serving Brent Cross Shopping Centre
London Buses route SL1: between Arnos Grove and South Chingford (Crooked Billet Roundabout)
Cultural references
The North Circular Road is mentioned in the poet Louis MacNeice's 1938 piece, Autumn Journal. In it, he describes the features along the road, including factories, prefabricated buildings, bungalows and petrol pumps "like intransigent gangs of idols". Keith Moon played his first gig with The Who at a pub on the North Circular Road on 2 May 1964.
The original Ace Cafe was on the North Circular Road. Open 24 hours a day, it catered for late-night party-goers and boy racers. It was a popular place for cars to be hot-wired and stolen, as drivers knew they could make a quick getaway. IWG founder Mark Dixon's first business on returning to Britain after an extended time abroad was a hot-dog stand on the North Circular Road, making his own buns. He grew the business into a full-time bakery which he sold in 1989 for £800,000.