Once upon a time, there was a road named the A259. It ran along the coast all the way to Dover. However another road named the A20 bullied the A259 into giving up its Folkestone to Dover stretch, meaning it now terminated in Folkestone. It also rerouted itself to avoid the town centre. The little stump left over was given a new identity, the A2033.
Route
The A2033 starts at the A259 TOTSO at Earl's Avenue, continuing along Sandgate Road where the A259 left off. It soon comes to a roundabout, and we say goodbye to Sandgate Road as we head left onto Castle Hill Avenue. At the next roundabout we head right, going past Sainsbury's Folkestone before meeting Folkestone's "ring road". The A2033 goes around the SAGA building and Middleburg Square. At the bottom of the "ring road" the one way system continues. Heading northbound, we head left at the roundabout and afterwards the road splits. A branch of the A2033 heads under the viaduct towards the A259 along Foord Road. The other bit continues as a one-way road along Dover Road. We give way to traffic from Tontine Street, which has a bad reputation in Folkestone, before continuing along Dover Road. Eventually we become two-way again and the A2033 terminates at a roundabout with the A260 just underneath a railway bridge.
If we start at this roundabout and follow the A2033 in the other direction we begin by heading east along Southern Way. There is a dispute amongst the map books as to whether we are on the A260 or A2033 at this point, but I shall include this here just in case. Just before the level crossing, we TOTSO right onto a one-way street, The Tram Road, with the Folkestone Harbour branch line running alongside us. Entering the Harbour, there's a short one way system before we head up Tontine Street. At the end of this we can either head north on the route above, or head south and go "around the back" to eventually end up back on the "ring road".
History
Until the early 1990s the A2033 used to head further north than it does today. It continued from the roundabout along Dover Road, heading west at the top of the road along Hill Road until it met the A20 (now B2011). Today this stretch is part of the A260.