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 The A307 Portsmouth Road running through Thames Ditton. | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Length | 13.2 mi (21.2 km) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| North end | Kew | |||
| Major intersections |  A205 A316 A305 A308 A240 A243 A309 A244 A245 A3 | |||
| South end | Cobham | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United Kingdom | |||
| Constituent country | England | |||
| Primary destinations | Richmond,Kingston upon Thames | |||
| Road network | ||||
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TheA307 road runs 13.2 miles (21.2 km) through SW London and NW Surrey. It is primary at the north-east end; the remainder is non-primary, generally superseded in the mid-twentieth century in two stages by newer alignments of thePortsmouth Road, the Kingston bypass and Esher bypass of theA3, which runs along a slightly oblique axis.
The road begins at the junction with theA205 South Circular Road besideKew Green(51°28′58″N0°17′13″W / 51.4827°N 0.2869°W /51.4827; -0.2869 (A307 road (northern end))), where it is named Kew Road. It then runs towardsRichmond upon Thames through the west of Kew. At the junction with the A316 in Richmond it becomes a non-primary A-road through the town centre then heads throughPetersham where for fewer than 100 metres it kinks west and then travels south throughHam. AB-class road, the B353, leaves the A307 in Kew and runs around the town centre and up Richmond Hill and by-passing Richmond, before rejoining the A307 at Petersham.
It bisects the north of the town, before becoming the western half of the one-way system inKingston upon Thames. Here it is briefly merged with the A308. It leads south to the northern end of theA240, for 200m travels west to the River Thames, and resuming south becomes at last the old version of thePortsmouth Road (which is also its name here). It runs next to theRiver Thames, heading throughSurbiton. It passes a junction with the A243, shortly before exiting the borough atSeething Wells there next toLong Ditton.
The road now follows an almost straight south-west course (losing the Thames, which atThames Ditton curves away to the north). It passes throughHinchley Wood, crossing theA309 at theScilly Isles roundabout. It forms the High Street ofEsher, crosses the A3 (new Portsmouth Road) by way of a bridge north of Cobham, before terminating near a junction of the A3 inCobham(51°19′56″N0°25′04″W / 51.3321°N 0.4178°W /51.3321; -0.4178 (A307 road (southern end))), which is generally also known as Portsmouth Road.
The A307 follows the old route of the Portsmouth Road, particularly the section south of the junction with theA308. Since two major projects of the 1930s and 1960s respectively the Portsmouth Road, theA3 (Portsmouth Road) of today, has been diverted away from towns/villages instead throughbuffer land 1 mile (1.6 km) or more from urban centres and is a tripled or dualled (duplicated as described at the time) in each direction.
Robert Clive ("Clive of India") diverted it slightly believing it ran too close to his house atClaremont, the landscape garden of which remains and which it still borders.
Awatchman's box that also served as avillage lock-up, dating from 1787, is next to the Fox & Duck in Petersham.[1]
Responsibility for the north section, Kew Road and Richmond Road, passed from the crown to theCommissioner of Works under theCrown Lands Act 1851.
The A307 was closed during 1979 and 1980 for a total of almost 18 months by the repeated collapse of asewer and fresh water culvert in the road's narrowest section which is in Petersham, an ordeal referred to as thePetersham Hole. The route has sometimes been used from a few hundred metres south of the Richmond Gate ofRichmond Park to Kingston as part of theLondon-Surrey cycle classic events routes, depending on the availability of Park Road, Kingston which avoids the hairpin and sharper descent at Richmond Gate.
A roads in Zone 3 of theGreat Britain road numbering scheme | ||
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