A12/Route

London - Brentwood

The A12 approaching the Green Man roundabout in Wanstead

The A12 starts at an arbitary point underneath the A13 East India Dock Road Underpass, just to the north of the A102 Blackwall Tunnel. Although this is the middle of the A12/A102/A13 junction, it is a slightly odd place for a road to start as it is not a decision point - You can either leave the A102 a couple of hundred yards to the south, via the Robin Hood slip road, which will take you onto the westbound A13, or you can leave the A12 a couple of hundred yards to the north via St Leonard's Road Slip, which will take you onto the eastbound A13.

From its slightly anonymous start location, it multiplexes with the A102 (including the former A102(M)), meeting the A11 at the Bow flyover. This first section runs alongside the tower blocks of Poplar and, along with the River Lea to the east, forms a significant barrier to east-west movement in this part of London. Indeed, between the A11 and A13 to the east of the A12, there are areas which can only be accessed by using a section of the A12.

The other unusual feature of this part of the A12 was that it formed the northern end of the Blackwell Tunnel tidal flow system. On the southbound carriageway are a series of signs, gantries and barriers, whose function was to close the right hand lane of the A12 to allow northbound traffic to use its continuation through the Blackwell Tunnel. Only the last 300 yards or so of the A12 (heading southbound) actually operated this tidal flow and this was only implemented in the morning peak period. The tidal flow was discontinued by former London Mayor Ken Livingstone on safety grounds. Boris Johnson had promised to restore the scheme but did not mention it in more recent plans.

A rainbow over the Eastern Avenue

The A12 leaves the A102 at the Hackney interchange - a large, sweeping turn to the right which is only a small part of what was supposed to be a multi-motorway interchange as part of the "London Ringways" project. It continues east, alongside the Olympic Park and crosses the River Lea, leading into the Hackney-Leyton link. This section of road was highly controversial as it was marred by the infamous "M11 Link Road Protest" which involved the first wide scale, high profile series of demonstrations against the construction of a road in London. It eventually opened anyway in 1998 and today performs an important high quality connection towards the London Docklands. This section of the road runs in a series of underpasses which give way to a concrete cutting. The speed limit of 50mph is enforced by GATSOs. This leads to the "Green Man" roundabout in Wanstead, leading onto the original 1920s Eastern Avenue road project.

Because of its considerable age, and the amount of development that was allowed to enroach upon it, Eastern Avenue must be the most dreary exit of any from London, infested with traffic lights and roundabouts, as Western Avenue used to be 20 years ago. The high points (!) are probably the Redbridge roundabout, where the A406 Barking-Woodford road flies over, Gants Hill, where the A1400 link (formerly A406) meets up, Newbury Park tube station, (where you start to wish the tube went to Chelmsford!), the lights with the A125 towards Romford and Gallows Corner, a TOTSO where the Southend Road (A127) gets a flyover but the A12 has to mix it on the roundabout underneath. Avoid this whole section: use the A13 and M25 instead, or even the A13 and A130, which will get you to Chelmsford without benefit of the A12. With the opening of the A130 Howe Green and Rettenden bypass this route is now dual carriageway throughout.

At Gallows Corner we TOTSO as we briefly join the original London - Colchester Roman road, which has been shadowing us from Stratford as the A118 through Ilford and Romford, but this lasts only as far as as the Brook Street roundabout west of Brentwood, where the road drops to a single lane as it passes under the M25.

Brentwood - Ipswich

A12 Ingatestone Bypass - the sharp bend in the road is generally considered unsuitable for a modern trunk route

The A12 east of the M25 is a key strategic route, being one of the main roads into East Anglia (the other being the M11/A11) and the main route from London to the Port of Felixstowe. In December 2003, junction numbers appeared on this section between the M25 (11) and the A14 near Ipswich (33). Despite its importance, and being entirely grade separated along this length, the road is largely a set of bypasses and simple on-line improvements, with only a few places where the road widens to 3 lanes from 2.

The first part of this section involves individual bypasses of Brentwood, Mountnessing and Ingatestone. The latter of these is the earliest, and features a particularly sharp bend at its eastern end, where the road briefly widens from 2 lanes to 3 to bypass Margaretting. Just south of Hyland's Park, the A12 swings round to the right on the Chelmsford Bypass. The bypass runs some considerable way out of town, and loses to distance what it makes up for in speed. The bypass is one of the first landmarks recognisable from the air flying over from the continent. The A130 comes in from Southend halfway round.

A12 at Rivenhall, by the Fox Inn, now closed. It was the only pub on the A12 mainline between the M25 and A14.

At the top of the Chelmsford bypass, there's another three lane section to bypass Boreham and Hatfield Peverel, before dropping back down to 2 lanes, and briefly runs as an online upgrade of the original route up to the Witham bypass. Like Chelmsford, the bypass diverts some way east of the town, making a longer loop than the straight Roman Road that goes through the middle. At the end of this, there's a more noticeable online upgrade of the original route though Rivenhall, with several at-grade junctions and a few sadly derelict pubs, cafes and service stations. The next bypass is for Kelvedon, which is laid out in a similar fashion to Witham, and then a longer online dualled section up to Mark's Tey, where the A120 joins from the west. The A12 manages to squeeze through the gap between the railway and the old road, and there's a straight 3 lane section up to the A133, which takes traffic into Colchester along the original bypass.

Approaching the A14 at Copdock, near Ipswich. This is the first at-grade junction for the A12 since the M25

The A12, meanwhile, takes the 1980s bypass around the town. There's no junction with the A134, but there is one for Colchester United football ground and the hospital. There's a rather complicated junction with the A120 again, which heads off east towards Harwich, and the old road coming in from Colchester.

After Colchester the standard of road drops, with more straightforward online dualling with at grade junctions, though there is a bypass of Stratford St Mary, which crosses the River Stour and the boundary between Essex and Suffolk. There's a short bypass of Capel St Mary, and a longer bypass of Copdock and Washbrook, leading up to the A14, where you are confronted with a massive former Toys R Us. Here the original A12 went straight on into Ipswich (now the A1214), and traffic is now signposted along the A14 over the Orwell Bridge.

Ipswich - Lowestoft

A12 Wickham Market Bypass. North of here, the road reverts to its original single carriageway alignment for the first time

At the other side of the Orwell, the A12 diverges from the A14, and heads up to various industrial and retail parks at Falcon Park, passing BT's research establishment at Martlesham Heath with its distinctive tower. We meet up with the A1214 making its route through the centre of Ipswich, after which there's a bypass of Martlesham and Woodbridge. The A12 continues to bypass the original route, running to the west of Ufford and the east of Wickham Market. After that, the dual carriageway gives up, the standard of road drops noticeably, and for the first time since London we're back onto the original, unimproved, road.

Beyond this, apart from the Saxmundham bypass, the A12 mostly follows the original alignment up to Lowestoft. It gradually gets closer to the coast, and it forms part of a dam for the Blyth Estaury at Blythburgh. Past Yoxford there's a distinctive signpost telling us London is 100 miles away.

At Pakefield, just south of Lowestoft, the A12 diverts onto a single carriageway relief road. It soon meets up the original road and continues to run past the harbour and station and through the town centre, where it now terminates on the A47. Through traffic to Great Yarmouth is recommended to use the A1117, which avoids the entire mess.

Prior to 2016, the A12 continued to Great Yarmouth, but this section has since been renumbered as a section of the A47.

It is proposed in 2024, that the new Gull Wing bridge in Lowestoft will become part of the A12. It will also mean that Peto Way and the northern section of the A1117 to the A47 north of Lowestoft would be re-designated as the A12. Extending the length of the A12 by around 3 miles, bringing it closer to Norfolk again.

The new post-2024 alignment of the A12 at Lowestoft will be at the end of Tom Crisp Way at Horn Hill, the A12 will go left at the roundabout onto a new roundabout on Waveney Drive, where the route then heads right across the new Gull Wing bridge. Once over the bridge, the A12 goes straight across a new roundabout on Denmark Road to meet Peto Way. There was then several roundabouts, which mainly consist of the A12 continuing straight on as well as a set of traffic lights at Somerleyton Road. The A12 will then continue along the 2015-built A1117 northern extension to meet the A47 again at Corton.

Former Section: Lowestoft - Great Yarmouth

The quality of road improves again heading towards Great Yarmouth, with some online dualling and a bypass of Hopton.

The A47 (formerly the A12) crossing the east end of Breydon Water

As the A12 approaches Great Yarmouth, it runs onto the course of the old Lowestoft - Great Yarmouth railway, which takes it away from the main urban area. There's a grade separated junction with the A143 from Beccles, and an at grade roundabout with the A1243 going towards the town centre and the seafront. The last section of the road takes it across a swing bridge to the east of Breydon Water up to a roundabout just north of Great Yarmouth Station.

And that's the end of the road. You've got a choice of turning right onto the A149 back towards Great Yarmouth and Caister on Sea, or left onto the A47 Acle Straight towards Norwich. Either way, that's it for the A12.