A111

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A111

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From:

Palmers Green (TQ325926)

To:

Potters Bar (TL259008)

Length:

7 miles (11.3 km)

Meets:

A406, A10, A105, A110, M25, A1000

Highways Authorities

Enfield • Hertfordshire

Traditional Counties

Hertfordshire • Middlesex

Route

Section 1:Palmers Green - Cockfosters

Begins as the poor relation on the Great Cambridge Roundabout (A406/A10) from which it is poorly signposted (northbound traffic has to take the A10 north exit and veer sharp left, southbound is shunted round a silly little link onto the eastbound A406 sliproad causing jams galore at all hours). The whole roundabout is frankly a mess, and the recent installation of traffic lights has helped, but not enough, especially where the A111 is concerned.

It marches north-westwards along Hedge Lane to a traffic-light controlled crossroads with the A105 (signage here poor or non-existent) and takes a little rightward kink to get it over the railway line from Moorgate to Hertford North. It potters along through long swathes of residential houses (the Cranley Gardens to the left is not the one that Dennis Nilsen used to live in), past a large building to the right which just says 'HOSPITAL (closed)' on Multimap but which I have been assured is the nursing home where they put General Pinochet when he was over here and all that fuss took place about his extradition. Up a little hill and we come to Southgate tube station and a busy shopping area at a somewhat elongated roundabout with pedestrian crossings half way round which are the cause of many rear-end shunts involving drivers not expecting them. One of the signs here reads WINCHMORE HILL N21, which made me boggle the first time I saw it as I thought Winchmore Hill Road must bear that classification... I can be slow sometimes; of course it's merely the postcode district (though why it's put on the sign I can't think).

Chase Side,London N14

Along Chase Side past more shops, round a roundabout next to a pub and an Asda supermarket, and onwards out of Southgate. There's a traffic light controlled junction one arm of which is the B1453, though it's not signed on the ground, and passing sports grounds and college campuses on either side we come to a spot familiar to many road geeks—the A111/A110 roundabout, whose every traffic sign is a beautiful example of pre-Warboys signage. Has anybody ever managed to ascertain just why these signs were never replaced? I do hope they're preserved officially rather than just the result of being overlooked.

Chris (c2R) writes:

Sadly one of the signs has now been vandalised. I think the reason for the signs still being there is that they were new just before the Warboys signs came out, and therefore never got replaced as it was pointless to replace them as they were brand new anyway.... so yes, I think it is a sadly neglected and overlooked roundabout.

The roundabout also marks the very edge of the London postal district, points north and west of it being Hertfordshire; indeed the boundary runs across the middle of the roundabout, which I suppose may have some bearing on the signage situation if the two authorities concerned were each hoping the other would attend to it.

We're now heading almost due north, past Cockfosters tube on our right where the Piccadilly line terminates and neat little parades of shops on our left. The further we progress along Cockfosters Road the posher the houses on either side get until one has the distinct suspicion that the rich and famous live nearby. Trent Park is to our right, a golf course to our left, and then we skirt the village of Hadley Wood, all big houses and expensive cars.

Section 2:Cockfosters - Potters Bar

Now we're in open countryside, and it's hard to believe we're only a couple of miles from nondescript London suburbs as we put our foot down and whiz up the hill across the Middlesex/Herts country boundary and arrive at junction 24 of the M25, a standard and not too busy roundabout where we can also take the A1005 and head back towards Enfield, if we want. The A111 continues over the roundabout into Potters Bar, though I barely know the final stretch along Southgate Road. It ends at traffic lights with the High Street (the old A1, now A1000). The B556 takes up its banner on the other side of the crossroads and runs on to South Mimms village (from where it's hard to reach the services of the same name) and all the way to the A5183 (former A5). Was the B556 formerly part of the A111 too? No clues from the 1922 listing which claims it starts at Barnet and ends at Woodford via Edmonton (no doubt the North Circular took over that part of its role). How it got to Barnet I've no idea unless it originally ended at the A110 roundabout; the A110 has always had its present route so the A111 can't have used that, and there are no obvious other routes for it to get into Barnet. But the current A5120 was originally numbered B556, so there's been some renumbering somewhere hereabouts...