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Chris5156 wrote:Woodpecker Junction in Leeds is a good one - named after the pub that was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for a bigger junction
Brenley Corner wrote:My main example is the Lombard roundabout at the A23/A236 junction in Croydon named after Lombard Tricity Finance and their building on the roundabout. The building is still there but has had several occupiers since Lombard vacated it.
Currently Vodafone, I think.
The next junction up on the A23 is called Thornton Heath Pond. I suppose the pond must have been in the middle of the island. I have a question on this junction. It's the northern end of the old London Road through Croydon (the southern end is where the A235 Brighton Road meets the A22 and A23 at Purley Cross), but presumably when the Croydon Bypass was built, Thornton Road was already there, and they just linked the Purley Way into it (I think the same applies at the southern end with the Purley one-way system). Why would they have used existing roads to link up with the old ones? Was the area already built up?
A second question, related but unrelated if you get me: how are the names of roundabouts on new roads decided? Is it just the builders' choice, as it is with housing estates? Here in Sussex we have the Budletts and Black Down Roundabouts on the A22 Maresfield Bypass (Budletts is named after a much-lamented restaurant, but I've no idea where Black Down came from. It's nowhere near the Downs, which are a good 15 miles to the south), the Shaw Roundabout on the A22 East Hoathly Bypass, and the Cophall Roundabout at the junction of the A22 and the A27 Polegate Bypass. Again I've no idea how these two roundabouts got their names.
I love the name "Sandyknowes Roundabout", for M2(NI) j4 - it's named after a house called "Sandyknowes" that was demolished to make way for the roundabout!
nirs wrote:I love the name "Sandyknowes Roundabout", for M2(NI) j4 - it's named after a house called "Sandyknowes" that was demolished to make way for the roundabout!
Sandyknowes Roundabout is junction 4 of the M2. It is named after a stately home which used to exist nearby.
One of the busiest junctions in Northern Ireland, this is where the route to Larne splits off the route heading north out of Belfast. Here the E01 and E18 from Larne merge with the E16 from Derry, heading into Belfast together.
How about a soon to be named after an ex landmark junction
This is Jacksons corner which is named after the large department store (which was like entering "Are you being served") now closed but the frontage is listed and the sign is staying - if you go back in gsv you can see it as a department store and an empty shop as well as the various attempts at sorting the junctions traffic flows (they have now given up and gone for a free for all which works better)
The Three Arrows roundabout on the M60/A576, near Heaton Park. The pub closed last year and the building is now "Heaton Park View Nursery" even though the building is right up against the high perimeter wall and affords no view in.
Radar Corner was named after a lattice tower next to the junction on the old A1073 near Crowland. The tower is long gone, the corner is long gone, that A1073 number went when the road was bypassed, the new road being the A16, but the junction on it a few yards away that links the old road to the new there is now known as Radar Corner (or Radar Junction) instead. http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news ... ne-1-96374 dates the tower going as 2008, the new road opened 2010.
crb11 wrote:One more for the list: Caxton Gibbet (A1198/A428 roundabout). The gibbet has been gone 200 years, but there was a pub there with the same name until relatively recently (about 2000 I think).
The original gibbet may have gone - but I recall a replica being there in the 1960's, complete with cage.
According to Wikipedia "There is a modern replica which can be seen in photographs dating back to 1900, the erection of which may have been connected with the nearby inn of the same name.
Duncan wrote:
The next junction up on the A23 is called Thornton Heath Pond. I suppose the pond must have been in the middle of the island. I have a question on this junction. It's the northern end of the old London Road through Croydon (the southern end is where the A235 Brighton Road meets the A22 and A23 at Purley Cross), but presumably when the Croydon Bypass was built, Thornton Road was already there, and they just linked the Purley Way into it (I think the same applies at the southern end with the Purley one-way system). Why would they have used existing roads to link up with the old ones? Was the area already built up?
The 1923 map on Sabre Maps shows Purley Way projected. At that point, Thornton Road is there, and the area SE of it is built up, but the area immediately to the north is still open countryside except for houses along London Road itself. I guess they thought Thornton Road would be sufficient for the task and didn't see the need of the additional building work. I suspect that even today if you rerouted the A23 along a new S2 from the Lombard roundabout to meet the existing road at Norbury it wouldn't improve traffic noticeably.
Duncan wrote:
The next junction up on the A23 is called Thornton Heath Pond. I suppose the pond must have been in the middle of the island. I have a question on this junction. It's the northern end of the old London Road through Croydon (the southern end is where the A235 Brighton Road meets the A22 and A23 at Purley Cross), but presumably when the Croydon Bypass was built, Thornton Road was already there, and they just linked the Purley Way into it (I think the same applies at the southern end with the Purley one-way system). Why would they have used existing roads to link up with the old ones? Was the area already built up?
The 1923 map on Sabre Maps shows Purley Way projected. At that point, Thornton Road is there, and the area SE of it is built up, but the area immediately to the north is still open countryside except for houses along London Road itself. I guess they thought Thornton Road would be sufficient for the task and didn't see the need of the additional building work. I suspect that even today if you rerouted the A23 along a new S2 from the Lombard roundabout to meet the existing road at Norbury it wouldn't improve traffic noticeably.
The worst parts to me always seem to be from the top of the Coulsdon Bypass, especially up to Purley Cross, and between Thornton Heath Pond and Streatham. The traffic then seems to move once you get to Streatham High Road, even though it's a shopping street. I suppose it is a D3 in places. However, I have usually got so fed up with sitting in a queue up to Purley and from Thornton Heath Pond that the traffic moving again doesn't really help. Therefore I stick to the M23, M25 and A3 when heading to my flat.
crb11 wrote:One more for the list: Caxton Gibbet (A1198/A428 roundabout). The gibbet has been gone 200 years, but there was a pub there with the same name until relatively recently (about 2000 I think).
The original gibbet may have gone - but I recall a replica being there in the 1960's, complete with cage.
According to Wikipedia "There is a modern replica which can be seen in photographs dating back to 1900, the erection of which may have been connected with the nearby inn of the same name.
The original gibbet was gone by the 19th century. The nearby Inn was almost certainly named after the gibbet and the original building supposedly was in existence when the gibbet was last used in the 1750s.
The nearby village of Caxton was a stop on the old coaching roads and reputedly plagued by highwaymen. The gibbet seems to have been erected to act as a discouragement to those tempted to follow this trade.
With the coming of the railways and the end of coaching Caxton became almost a ghost town and was only revived when them new fangled motor cars and charabancs started using the road. I suspect that the replica was indeed built by the publican with an aim to attracting passing trade at what was the crossroads of the Old North Road aka Ermine Street and the A45 which was the main route from Ipswich to Coventry. It now presides over the entrance of a McDonalds, make of that what you will.
Apparently the A638/B6463 junction south of Doncaster (the east end of the current stage of the FARRRS road) is called Parrots Corner, but as far as I know there's no longer a parrot there. If there ever was one, it flew away.
There's a pub, but it's called the Hare and Tortoise.
A1(M) junction 61 in County Durham is well known as Bowburn or Durham Services
The north viaduct (the north bridge of the roundabout) is called the Pit Laddie Bridge after the pub that was demolished so that Jct.61 could be built on that spot.
The road workers still call it Pit Laddie Bridge 50+ years later.
Raith Junction, M74 J5, with Raith presumably being a defunct settlement or landmark in the vicinity.
"I see the face of a child. He lives in a great city. He is black. Or he is white. He is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters, he's an American child"
- Richard Nixon
Crewe Toll, initially the name of a junction on what is now the A902 now applied to the wider suburb in Edinburgh. There toll is gone as is Crewe Farm, the place from which it took its name.
"I see the face of a child. He lives in a great city. He is black. Or he is white. He is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters, he's an American child"
- Richard Nixon
Osthagen wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 19:05
Raith Junction, M74 J5, with Raith presumably being a defunct settlement or landmark in the vicinity.
Apparently it's Gaelic for "fort" - and there is the remains of a roman fort in the Strathclyde Country park, just off J5.
The one that always struck me as odd was Cole's Corner in Sheffield. Cole Brothers moved to Barkers Pool in 1963, but everyone still calls the location they used to be Cole's Corner. The store was re-branded as John Lewis in 2002, but from 1963 to 2002 the Cole Brothers store existed but Cole's Corner was nowhere near it!
the cheesecake man wrote: ↑Fri Sep 17, 2021 20:57
Angel Islington: inn closed 1921
King's Cross: cross demolished 1845
I wondered if Raith Junction might be near Raith Rovers but no it isn't.
Raith Rovers play in Kirkcaldy, IIRC. "There'll be dancing in the streets of Raith tonight ..."
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Brenley Corner wrote:My main example is the Lombard roundabout at the A23/A236 junction in Croydon named after Lombard Tricity Finance and their building on the roundabout. The building is still there but has had several occupiers since Lombard vacated it.
Currently Vodafone, I think.
As this old thread has been resurrected:- Advertised as "Offices to Let" for years and then pulled down for new flats. Google car went past last month and they look to be finished soon. from thisto this Incidentally a roundabout that you have to be very assertive and attentive on and really squeeze between the circling traffic, especially if entering from the unclassified Canterbury Road, which is my usual way in. Also expect people to enter without a strict space. But generally don't go down the A23 in South London, it's mostly stationary.