A2018
A2018 | ||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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From: | Bexley (TQ497733) | |||
To: | Dartford (TQ534742) | |||
Distance: | 2.8 miles (4.5 km) | |||
Meets: | A223, A2 A226 | |||
Former Number(s): | A210, A2, B2210 | |||
Highway Authorities | ||||
Traditional Counties | ||||
Route outline (key) | ||||
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Route
The A2018 is a short A-road on the eastern edge of Greater London.
Bexley - Dartford
The road starts from the small roundabout with the A223 in the busy but attractive Bexley Village. We soon the leave the houses behind as we start to go up Vicarage Road and the road enters a cutting. At a sharp bend and a steep hill Vicarage Road becomes Dartford Road and we arrive at Coldblow which is aptly named in the winter. We pass some more fields on our right and the road then drops down into and out of a hollow. We leave the London Borough of Bexley and enter Dartford and the road becomes Old Bexley Lane. There is a coal post (not in good condition) which marked the boundary for the City Of London to collect a duty for coal and wine entering London. The wall on our right was part of the boundary of Bexley Hospital which is now part of the new Bexley Park housing development.
We pass through Maypole, which developed to house the Bexley Hospital workers, and then two roundabouts. We are now on the edge of Dartford Heath and we arrive at the junction with the A2 (Dartford By-Pass). After the roundabout Old Bexley Lane carries on as a dual carriageway across the heath and at the next roundabout the Rochester Way, which was part of the A2 until the Dartford By-Pass was completed in 1970, comes in from the left; it is now a dead-end. The A2018 becomes Shepherds Lane and we enter the outskirts of Dartford. As soon as the houses start the dual carriageway ends, and although the original formation remains the lane is slung into the middle and a cycle lane starts. At the next set of traffic signals we cross the first Dartford By-Pass, opened as A2; this didn't last long, however, as that road was rerouted onto Shepherds Lane in 1927 and so the new line of the A2 would have turned right here. Now the A2018 just carries straight on over the B2174 and winds round several bends. We pass Dartford Grammar School for Boys which Mick Jagger attended; there's now a public arts centre named after him in the school grounds. The A2018 terminates at a roundabout with the A226, which is the original line of the A2.
History
What is now the A2018 has been renumbered on several occasions, almost all related to upgrades of the A2. In 1922 the road was the original eastern end of the A210. When the A295 Bexleyheath bypass was renumbered as the mainline of the A2 in 1927 the road was severed, with the A210 cut back to end on the new route of the A2 and the final section into Dartford numbered A2018.
In 1935 the road from Bexley to the A2 was downgraded, becoming the B2210. However, the road was upgraded again following the construction of the current A2 in 1970, with the A2018 number extended along the whole route.
Original Author(s): A211 Driver
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