A3: London - Portsmouth

A road with some history and strategic significance, as it connects London with its principal naval port. In the times of the Napoleonic Wars, when the Straits of Dover were vulnerable, this road became London's principal link with the Channel ports. Its history has also given it more than its fair share of reputations for highwaymen.

With the creation of the "ring of steel", no A-roads now meet at the Bank of England, but the A3 gets the closest, starting halfway down King William Street at the Monument (at a junction with Gracechurch Street, the A10), and then crossing London Bridge. The kink at this junction reflects the fact that the present, rather dull 1970s bridge was built slightly upstream of the 18th Century bridge it replaced – the old bridge was rebuilt in Arizona as a tourist attraction - it is said that the buyer thought he was getting the rather more distinctive Tower Bridge!

Although the Bank of England is generally considered the hub of the road numbering system, the A3 was in fact the only single digit road to get there. The other roads at this junction were the A10, A11, A3211, A40 and A501. Following the creation of the "ring of steel", no A-roads now meet there, but the A3 still gets the closest, starting halfway down King William Street at the Monument (at a junction with Gracechurch Street, the A10). This junction was also the original start of the A4, Cannon Street. The A3 next crosses London Bridge. The kink at the Monument junction reflects the fact that the present, rather dull 1970s bridge was built slightly upstream of the 18th Century bridge it replaced - the old bridge was rebuilt in Arizona as a tourist attraction - it is said that the buyer thought he was getting the rather more distinctive Tower Bridge!

The A3 heads south down Borough High Street towards the Elephant & Castle, with the A2 peeling off at Great Dover Street to cut through to join the line of the Roman Watling Street to Dover. As far as Clapham, the A3 now follows the Roman Stane Street, which eventually reaches the coast at Chichester, mainly following the A24 and A29). As a traffic artery this section has another point of interest – deep beneath it runs the first deep-level tube in the world, now part of the Northern Line.

At Clapham Stane Street continues as the A24 along the "south" side of Clapham Common - actually more east. However, the A3 turns west, and runs along the north side of the common to meet the South Circular road, which forms the third side of the common. The A3 and South Circular then multiplex through the congested Wandsworth one-way system before going their separate ways on West Hill, always the most frustrating bit, with the dual carriageway just ahead there never seems to be any reason why climbing West Hill is such a crawl!

At last, at Tibbet’s Corner (junction for the A219, and named after a highwayman who frequented Putney Heath) we are on the dual carriageway, with just the Roehampton traffic lights to go. The road then sweeps down Kingston Vale to the Robin Hood junction, where traffic for the original route through Kingston (now the A308) peels off to the right. Access is also available here to Richmond Park, but not for much longer if the Royal Parks Authority gets its way. (This is also the first set of traffic lights for traffic approaching London).

The Kingston Bypass was built in the 1930s to avoid the congested original Portsmouth road (A307), which ran through the market place. The bypass has been subject to continuous improvement ever since, and is now entirely grade separated. Until very recently it was one of the scariest 70mph roads I know -- at the new 50mph limit it’s much more relaxed, even though with smaller speed differentials it seems fewer people seem prepared to pull over to let people in off slip roads. Look out for speed cameras here: most of them are hidden behind signposts, trees, bridge piers etc.

At Hook the original Kingston bypass peels off as the A309 to the "Scilly Isles" junction with the old Portsmouth Road, whilst the A3 follows the 1970s Esher bypass, which rejoins the original A3 at Painshill (A245) just before the M25 junction, and continues along roughly its original line as far as the outskirts of Guildford.

Guildford does not have a proper bypass – for all its grade separated junctions it is more of an inner ring road following the River Wey and then skirting Stag Hill (with the cathedral) up onto the Hog’s Back. With its narrow lanes, sharp bends and steep hills, the 50mph restriction is quite fast enough.

The A31 coming out of Guildford crosses the A3 at a limited access junction with a flyover, to continue as the "Hogs Back" route to Farnham, whilst the A3 itself follows largely new routing past Compton and Milford, where the original A3 (now A3100) rejoins it, before reaching the only remaining single carriageway section, climbing up to the Devil's Punch Bowl at Gibbet Hill (more highwaymen!) and through Hindhead. The Highways Agency are now, at last, planning to dual this section, building a tunnel under the common. It should open in 2009, and will result in continuous dual carriageway from Tibbet's Corner to the centre of Portsmouth.

Shortly after the present road becomes dual again, the still fairly new Liphook and Petersfield bypass appears. This was being built in the early 1990s, whilst I was a regular traveller on this route, but a change of jobs meant I never had the benefit of it. The original route is now the B2070, whilst the new route partially follows the old B2131 and A235.

Beyond Petersfield the road climbs through the South Downs, before it divides, the A3(M) bypassing Horndean and Waterlooville to eventually merge with the A27, whilst the original A3 takes a more westerly route through these towns. In Cosham it detours to the west to the A27/M27/M275 intersection in Cosham, then multiplexing with the A27 to rejoin its original route. The original route is now numbered the A397 - although being east of the new A3 it is actually in the 2-zone. The A3, having resumed its original route, now shadows the M275 for its entire length, at the end of which the roundabout sports a "priorité à droite" sign, to remind drivers leaving the continental ferry port here which way to look at the junction.

The A3 resumes its primary status and runs through the city centre to end in the Old Town on Broad Street. The Isle of Wight ferries leave from here, but access is on the other side of the harbour. Finding itself surrounded by water on all sides except the way it came in, the A3 has to call it a day!

An account of the first mile can also be found at London Geezer's Webpage

T1(M)

mistral