B6388

Route

Gleadless Road

The B6388 serves the southeastern suburbs of Sheffield.

We start at traffic lights on the A61 (former A6134) Inner Ring Road and head south along London Road; this is briefly dual but quickly becomes S2 (plus northbound bus lane) as we pass inner city shops and takeaways. After passing Highfield Library the road forks left at traffic lights (right is the B6081) and shortly reaches a T-junction. The B6388 properly TOTSOs right but this is a bus gate; it quickly reaches traffic lights where the A621 heads right. and the A61 left and ahead. Other traffic must turn left at the T-junction onto the one-way (and unclassified) Asline Road then negotiate a one-way system on the A621 to reach the A61.

Heading into the city, it is not possible to follow all of the B6388 route northbound as the A61, which it multiplexes with, does not permit right turns onto London Road (B6388) from Queens Road (A61). Instead Wolseley Road (A621) and Abbeydale Road (B6081) must be followed to join back up. In effect, then, the B6388 is in two separate sections with no simple multiplex in either direction.

The B6388 reappears by turning southeast off the A61 between the two junctions in the previous paragraph. It crosses the River Sheaf and Midland Main Line then TOTSOs right at a crossroads to climb into the suburb of Heeley. We now follow a traffic-calmed route through the suburbs, passing from the terraced houses of Heeley to the suburban semis of Rollestone and then the flats of Gleadless; the latter two also have grassed and wooded areas adjacent to the road. There's a TOTSO left and we climb steeply to return to the semis. The B6063 comes in from the left and then we pass a line of shops to reach traffic lights on the A6102.

There's a one-way system on the far side of the main road. Eastbound traffic goes straight across the junction whilst westbound traffic takes the next road south and has to multiplex briefly along the A6102. Both directions share the carriageway with a tram line (which came in along the central reservation of the A-road). We follow the line (the branch to Halfway) through the White Lane stop to the edge of open country where, at traffic lights, the tram continues ahead onto the fields whilst the B6388 bears slightly right. We now follow an unexpectedly rural road into Ridgeway, another suburb of Sheffield but administratively separate before reentering the city at Highlane. A steep descent, past houses and a pub set back somewhat, takes us to journey's end at a T-junction on the A6135.

History

On classification in 1922 the northern end of the present B6388 was part of the A621; that part of London Road between Abbeydale Road and Wolseley Road was the B6068 (quickly renumbered A6100); the section from here to Gleadless was unclassified; and the remainder was part of the B6054.

The B6388 came into being in the mid-1920s, taking on the unclassified section mentioned above. Road improvements in Sheffield have extended the road to the city centre, whilst the eastern end of the B6054 was not taken over until later; that road existed in two separate halves until then.