TheLondon Inner Ring Road, orRing Road as signposted, is a 12-mile (19 km) route with an average diameter of 2.75–5.5 miles (4.43–8.85 km), formed from a number of major roads that encircleCentral London.[1] Thering road forms the boundary of theLondon congestion charge zone, although the ring road itself is not part of the zone.
Starting at the northernmost point and movingclockwise, the roads defining the boundary arePentonville Road,City Road,Old Street,Great Eastern Street,Commercial Street,Mansell Street,Tower Bridge,Tower Bridge Road,New Kent Road, theElephant & Castle,Kennington Lane, the roads that constitute theVauxhall Cross one-way system andVauxhall Bridge,Vauxhall Bridge Road, the roads that constitute theVictoria one-way system, Grosvenor Place,Park Lane,Edgware Road, Old Marylebone Road,Marylebone Road andEuston Road.[2]
The route is described as theInner Ring Road because there are two further sets of roads that have been described as London ring roads. TheNorth andSouth Circular Roads together form the second ring road around London, averaging 10–15 miles (16–24 km) in diameter. TheM25 motorway is the outermost road encircling the metropolis, at an average diameter of 40–50 miles (64–80 km).
Plans for an Inner Ring Road were put forward byPatrick Abercrombie[3] in the 1940s,[4] in theCounty of London Plan.
The route is signed as "Ring Road" and is made up of the following:
| Route | Roads |
|---|---|
 A501 | City Road,Pentonville Road,Euston Road; fromPaddington station toMoorgate viaKing's Cross (part of the historicNew Road)[5] |
 A5201 | Old Street, betweenOld Street Roundabout and junction with Great Eastern Street |
 A1202 | Great Eastern Street /Commercial Street |
  A1210 /A1211 | Mansell Street |
 A100 | Tower Hill, Tower Bridge Approach, Tower Bridge Road,Bricklayers Arms |
 A201 | New Kent Road |
 A3204 | Kennington Lane |
 A202 | Vauxhall Bridge Road |
 A302 | Grosvenor Place, Lower Grosvenor Place, Bressenden Place |
 A4202 | Park Lane |
 A5 | southern section of theEdgware Road betweenSussex Gardens andMarble Arch |
Construction of theNew Road fromPaddington toIslington began in 1756[citation needed] to relieve congestion in the built-up area of London. At that time the districts ofMarylebone,Fitzrovia andBloomsbury were on the northern edge of the city, and only the southern parts of them had been built up. The New Road ran through the fields to the north of these three neighbourhoods.
The road is now one of the busiest main roads in the city. It runs fromEdgware Road in the west toAngel, in the east. After being renamed in 1857, the western section between Edgware Road andGreat Portland Street is known asMarylebone Road, the central section between Great Portland Street andKing's Cross is known asEuston Road,[6] and the eastern section from King's Cross to The Angel is calledPentonville Road.
City Road was constructed in 1761 to continue the route eastwards to the northern edge of theCity of London.[7]
Pentonville Road runs west-to-east fromKings Cross toCity Road.
By far the greater portion of the road is in theLondon Borough of Islington but a small part near Kings Cross is in theLondon Borough of Camden, including an entrance toKing's Cross St Pancras Underground station at the formerKing's Cross Thameslink station. It acquired its present name in 1857.[8]
Several halls of residence are located on Pentonville Road:Dinwiddy House (SOAS),Paul Robeson House and Nido Student Living. There are two green spaces along the road,Joseph Grimaldi Park andClaremont Square; the latter's central green area, however, is not open to the public.
This street is distinguished by the "set back" housing lines originally intended to provide an atmosphere of spaciousness along the thoroughfare. It is one of the locations on the UK version of theMonopoly board game, which features areas native to London.
Pentonville Road is one of the many London place names mentioned in the song "Transmetropolitan" bythe Pogues.
Mansell Street is a short road, part of the A1210 route (though sometimes shown as being the A1211), which for most of its length marks the boundary between theCity of London and theLondon Borough of Tower Hamlets, though the southernmost part is entirely in Tower Hamlets. It runs fromAldgate southwards to theTower of London. The northern part, north of the junction with Goodmans Yard and Prescot Street, has one-way northbound traffic, while the southern part has one-way southbound traffic.
Tower Bridge Road is a road inBermondsey in theLondon Borough of Southwark. It runs north-to-south, and connects theBricklayers Armsroundabout and flyover at its southern end (New Kent Road andOld Kent Road) toTower Bridge and across theRiver Thames at its northern end. It also links toLong Lane.
The road has an abundance of antique (or junk) shops along part of its length. There is also Bermondsey Square which holds an 'antique' market every Friday morning, usually known asBermondsey Market, though officially asNew Caledonian Market.
Towards its southern end are a collection of shops, pubs and takeaways.
Kennington Lane is anA-road (classifiedA3204) running between theElephant & Castle to the east andVauxhall to the west.
Starting at the Elephant, Kennington Lane splits off from theA3 by means of aY-junction, whereNewington Butts becomesKennington Park Road. Heading in a southwesterly direction, the road then crosses theA23Kennington Road, before reaching the Vauxhall one-way system, where theA3036Albert Embankment and Wandsworth Road,A202Vauxhall Bridge,Durham Street andHarleyford Road,A203South Lambeth Road, andA3205Nine Elms Lane all converge.
Vauxhall Bridge Road runs south-east to north-west fromVauxhall Cross, over theRiver Thames toVictoria station. At the southernmost point the road runs past the headquarters ofMI6. The section immediately afterVauxhall Bridge north of the Thames is calledBessborough Gardens and is home to theEmbassy of Lithuania.[9] Further along is theEmbassy of Mauritania.[9]
TheVictoria one-way system lies in front ofVictoria station. Clockwise, it includesLower Grosvenor Place,Bressenden Place, and the west end ofVictoria Street.