A23 - Chelsea to Brighton?

[scrogghill]

Hello.

Big fan of your various botched roadsigns threads, but didn't think this is quite the same.

Does anyone have any explanation for this? It's on Beaufort Road in Chelsea, just north of King's Road heading towards Battersea Bridge:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.48547 ... 312!8i6656

The current one has the arrow to the left of the text, but is otherwise the same.

I've seen this for years & never been able to work out why it's here. Hasn't the A23 always started at Lambeth North tube station?

scrogghill

[Steven]

Hasn't the A23 always started at Lambeth North tube station?

No, it originally started in Purley with the A22 carrying on in towards central London. IIRC, it was one of the big 1935 changes though, so it's been there for quite some time!

The 1922 MoT map shows the original numbers.

[scrogghill]

I didn't know that. The genesis of Purley Cross in it's current form...

I still don't get how an A23 sign got put up on an unclassified road in Chelsea though.

[jervi]

My best explanation would be the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run , or maybe other London to Brighton event that takes the "A23" as THE ROUTE, although south of Crawley for the past few decades they use the B2114 / B2036 & A273 rather than a D3 / D2 HQDC.

[traffic-light-man]

Could it just be that it needs brackets around A23, and should be black-on-white?

Looking at the map, there's a fairly straight route to the A23 along the A3220/A205, and the A23 goes to Brighton!

[Bryn666]

It'll be a sign error, the London Boroughs are notorious for them.

[Chris5156]

It may be related to the Through Routes system introduced in the 1950s, within which there were a small number of set destinations for directions out of London. If you were in Chelsea, Brighton would be the best match for southbound traffic in that situation, and the A23 the road you'd direct traffic towards. It was the same system responsible for signposting the A203 in Brixton as leading towards Aylesbury and the A41.

[scrogghill]

That modern Through Route sign in Lordship Lane is a stinker on numerous levels...