A310
From Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki
| A310 | ||||
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| From: | Hampton Wick (TQ174694) | |||
| To: | Brentford (TQ164769) | |||
| Length: | 5.1 miles (8.2 km) | |||
| Meets: | A308, A313, A309, A305, A316, A3004, A315 | |||
| Primary Destinations | ||||
| Kingston upon Thames • | ||||
| Highways Authorities | ||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||
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Route
The A310 starts on a roundabout at a junction with the A308 on the Middlesex bank of Kingston Bridge, and follows the Thames downstream to Brentford, mainly through ordinary suburban streets. At Teddington, it passes an enormous and never-finished church, now seeing use as a concert hall. During WWII, it is said to have appeared on German bomber pilots' maps as "Cathedral".
Approaching Twickenham, the road runs close to the river, Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill Castle (now a college) appearing on the other side of the road. The area also has associations with Alexander Pope, whose house at Cross Deep was connected to a riverside garden by a grotto extending undrrneath the road.
In Twickenham town centre we turn right to briefly multiplex with the A305, before bearing left to part company with it again 100 yards further. Twickenham does not present its best face to the main road, the riverside being a little to the south-east. We continue north, along London Road, crossing the railway line by a long bridge at the railway station, and then turning right at a mini-roundabout (left is the B361 leading to the International rugby ground - the whole area is completely seized up on match days).
We have the curious situation at the next roundabout that this road, known as London Road, crosses one of the principal radial routes into London - the A316. Of course, before the construction of Twickenham Bridge (and Chiswick Bridge) in 1933, the principal route from Twickenham to London was indeed along the A310 London Road to Brentford and the A4. After crossing the A316, the A310 continues north through Isleworth and past the West Middlesex Hospital to meet the A315 at Busch Corner, near Syon Park.
Original Author(s): T1(M)
