M1 Junction 2

[Chris5156]

HE making an order to close the remains of the former southbound slip road:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2564695

There's plans for new luxury apartments and commercial premises on the disused retail park here. Possibly that means the old slip road will be built over.

[jackal]

Consultation to reduce speed limit on the slip roads to 50mph:

https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.co ... sultation/

[Bryn666]

Hardly an imposition given the alignment and fact you're coming off or going onto the 50mph A1 anyway.

I'm surprised the M1 itself has lasted as NSL given the proximity to houses. Presumably being next to a mainline railway helps keep the noise nusiance down a bit.

It's not somewhere I'd aspire to live next to, that's for sure.

[Chris5156]

I'm surprised the M1 itself has lasted as NSL given the proximity to houses. Presumably being next to a mainline railway helps keep the noise nusiance down a bit.

I've never lived next to it, but I've spent enough time in the streets around Mill Hill Broadway to be familiar with it. The M1 provides a constant, low level white noise from the passing traffic, as you'd expect, which is certainly loud but very easy to tune out. The railway produces far louder and less predictable noises from the passage of HSTs and other fast trains, which are significantly more distracting and disruptive than the road traffic, and the sound carries further.

[Bryn666]

Yes, for the first 24 years of my existence I lived next to a railway viaduct on a fairly busy B road before my parents moved to a residential cul-de-sac.

I've since left there and for me it's bliss now having a flat in a residential side street.

[Scratchwood]

HE making an order to close the remains of the former southbound slip road:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2564695

There's plans for new luxury apartments and commercial premises on the disused retail park here. Possibly that means the old slip road will be built over.

The site will become an Amazon warehouse. I assume it'll expand slightly northwards to cover where the old sliproad was

https://www.logisticsmanager.com/greate ... by-amazon/

[ForestChav]

HE making an order to close the remains of the former southbound slip road:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2564695

There's plans for new luxury apartments and commercial premises on the disused retail park here. Possibly that means the old slip road will be built over.

The site will become an Amazon warehouse. I assume it'll expand slightly northwards to cover where the old sliproad was

https://www.logisticsmanager.com/greate ... by-amazon/

Shame, I liked the older slip road (indeed, it managed to get used when the Staples Corner bomb went off). And looking for bits of the other in the car park is like looking for old bits of Winchester bypass on google maps.

[thatapanydude]

Consultation to reduce speed limit on the slip roads to 50mph:

https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.co ... sultation/

Tbh it’s pointless as you can’t even realistically do more than 50, conspiring the bends. I would rather roads like this be kept self regulating.

How could they even monitor the 50mph speed limit? Difficult to see where they can put cameras?

On a side note - I am far too young to know but why wasn’t this link built as a D2 and when was the link built?

[ForestChav]

Consultation to reduce speed limit on the slip roads to 50mph:

https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.co ... sultation/

Tbh it’s pointless as you can’t even realistically do more than 50, conspiring the bends. I would rather roads like this be kept self regulating.

How could they even monitor the 50mph speed limit? Difficult to see where they can put cameras?

On a side note - I am far too young to know but why wasn’t this link built as a D2 and when was the link built?

If it was, wouldn't it simply cause issues with bringing too much traffic from the A1 onto the M1? You'd probably need less capacity from Staples Corner or more north of J2 for it to cope.

[Bryn666]

It was 2 lanes originally. You can see where the matrix signals have been removed.

It had structural issues and was reduced to 1 lane and I think it had a 30mph speed limit for a while.

[Glenn A]

I was on a coach going into London twice in 1989 and 1990 and the lighting and the slip roads, albeit sealed off, were still in place from when the M1 was extended in 1967. There is a very good video on Youtube of two men in an old Mini who discover the old slip road and an unsignposted access road to London Gateway from the A1.

[jonnyf90]

Hardly an imposition given the alignment and fact you're coming off or going onto the 50mph A1 anyway.

I'm surprised the M1 itself has lasted as NSL given the proximity to houses. Presumably being next to a mainline railway helps keep the noise nusiance down a bit.

It's not somewhere I'd aspire to live next to, that's for sure.

I'd prefer next to the M1 than Blackburn.

[Glenn A]

Mill Hill in parts is actually quite a nice place to live and has some very expensive detached properties. Also being close to the A1, M1 and the MML must be a selling point.

[thatapanydude]

Mill Hill in parts is actually quite a nice place to live and has some very expensive detached properties. Also being close to the A1, M1 and the MML must be a selling point.

Agreed !! Mill Hill is one of London’s most desirable parts. Esp east of the A1 from Apex to Hendon. Really good travel access (once had the pleasure of taking 113 all the way to Marble Arch and it’s rather quick thanks to the A41 !!) and the houses are rather plush. The ones on the A1 between Apex and MH Broadway are at least 1.5 million +

[A42_Sparks]

This is how j2 is depicted in my 1972 Esso road atlas (Bartholomew mapping). Not sure how accurate the layout shown is, there appears to be a choice of onslip from A1 to M1 northbound.

[Bryn666]

There were two slip roads at the time - the northernmost one was a temporary crossover the unfinished southbound carriageway.

[baroudeur]

This is how j2 is depicted in my 1972 Esso road atlas (Bartholomew mapping). Not sure how accurate the layout shown is, there appears to be a choice of onslip from A1 to M1 northbound.

I used that junction regularly between 1968 and 1972 commuting from Luton to Kennington in south London.

[drpsg]

Consultation to reduce speed limit on the slip roads to 50mph:

https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.co ... sultation/

Until about 6 or 7 years ago, the northbound on slip had a 30 limit.

[Chris5156]

This is how j2 is depicted in my 1972 Esso road atlas (Bartholomew mapping). Not sure how accurate the layout shown is, there appears to be a choice of onslip from A1 to M1 northbound.

It's correct, except for the mainline of the M1 reaching the A41, which never happened. It was a stub of unfinished mainline waiting for a further southward extension that didn't connect to anything.

Your map does, however, accurately show:
- free-flow on-slip from A1 to M1, as currently in use.
- free flow sliproad from A1 to A41 northbound, using what later became the M1 to A1 off-slip and a temporary ramp. This was designed to avoid A1 traffic crossing the A41 on the level.
- free-flow sliproad from A41 northbound to M1. This has since vanished underneath the Fiveways/Pentavia retail park car park. This slip was for A41 traffic wanting the M1, though as you point out A1 traffic could get to it too. The weaving on the northbound A41 between the A1 on-slip and M1 off-slip doesn't bear thinking about but presumably in the late 60s it wasn't as bad as it would be now!
- free-flow off-slip from the M1 to A41 south, from which A1 could also be accessed. This is the abandoned single-lane sliproad that still exists, and at the time of this map was the only way off the southbound M1.

[Bryn666]

This is how j2 is depicted in my 1972 Esso road atlas (Bartholomew mapping). Not sure how accurate the layout shown is, there appears to be a choice of onslip from A1 to M1 northbound.

It's correct, except for the mainline of the M1 reaching the A41, which never happened. It was a stub of unfinished mainline waiting for a further southward extension that didn't connect to anything.

Your map does, however, accurately show:
- free-flow on-slip from A1 to M1, as currently in use.
- free flow sliproad from A1 to A41 northbound, using what later became the M1 to A1 off-slip and a temporary ramp. This was designed to avoid A1 traffic crossing the A41 on the level.
- free-flow sliproad from A41 northbound to M1. This has since vanished underneath the Fiveways/Pentavia retail park car park. This slip was for A41 traffic wanting the M1, though as you point out A1 traffic could get to it too. The weaving on the northbound A41 between the A1 on-slip and M1 off-slip doesn't bear thinking about but presumably in the late 60s it wasn't as bad as it would be now!
- free-flow off-slip from the M1 to A41 south, from which A1 could also be accessed. This is the abandoned single-lane sliproad that still exists, and at the time of this map was the only way off the southbound M1.

Pathe newsreel footage from the era seems to imply there were signals there.

https://images.britishpathe.com/?id=922 ... size=still

Additionally, Old Maps has it in glorious 1:1250 showing the temporary arrangements in situ.