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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 |
| Major intersections |  A3 A3036 A3205 A3212 A3217 A308 A304 A3218 A4 A315 A4020 A402 A40 |
| North end | Ladbroke Grove |
| Location | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Road network | |
TheA3220 is aprimaryA road inLondon, England. It runs north fromClapham Common to theA40Westway atLadbroke Grove.
The road crosses theRiver Thames atBattersea 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 aone-way system. 500 m after crossing theA315, the route returns to being a standard bidirectionalsingle-carriageway road for some 750 m as far as theHolland Park roundabout, from where it forms thedual-carriagewayWest Cross Route, formerly the M41 motorway.
TheWest Cross Route (WCR) is a 0.75 mile (1.2 km) segment ofdual carriageway section of the A3220 route in centralLondon in TheRoyal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, with a small part being shared with borderlining boroughHammersmith and Fulham. It runs north–south between the northern elevated roundabout junction with the western end ofWestway (A40) and the southernHolland ParkRoundabout. It opened in 1970, together with Westway.
The WCR was formerly the M41 motorway. Its status was downgraded to anA-road in 2000 when responsibility fortrunk roads inGreater London was transferred from theHighways Agency to theGreater London Authority. Approximately halfway along the road's length a new junction was built to serve theWestfield London shopping development. The WCR was originally the designation for the western section ofRingway 1, the innermost circuit of theLondon Ringways network, a complex and comprehensive plan for a network of high-speed roads circling centralLondon designed to manage and control the flow of traffic within the capital. The road would have run fromBattersea toHarlesden and would have paralleled theNational RailWest London line as an elevated road. Although the road no longer has motorway status,[citation needed] pedal cycles are prohibited by a sign at Holland Park roundabout.
The WCR and the other roads planned in the 1960s forcentral London had developed from early schemes prior to theSecond World War throughSir Patrick Abercrombie'sCounty of London Plan, 1943 andGreater London Plan, 1944 to a 1960sGreater 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 theEast 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 intoNorth Kensington and on to the junction with theNorth Cross Route atHarlesden. 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 overKensington (Olympia) station to a westbound-only interchange with theA4 atTalgarth Road. It would then have been elevated overEarls Court Exhibition Centre, skirted the western edge ofBrompton Cemetery, and passed byStamford Bridge stadium before an eastbound-only interchange along Lots Road to meetCheyne Walk. Next the WCR would have crossed theRiver Thames on a new bridge and entered Battersea where it would have had a junction with theSouth Cross Route.[1]
Download coordinates as:
A roads in Zone 3 of theGreat Britain road numbering scheme | ||
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51°29′23″N0°11′41″W / 51.4897°N 0.1947°W /51.4897; -0.1947 (A3220 road)