B6426

This article is about the current B6426, in Hatfield.
For the former B6426 between St Albans and the A1 south of Hatfield, see B6426 (St Albans - Water End).

Hatfield Library

The B6426 follows a former route of the A414 through Hatfield before that road was diverted onto the present bypass. Our route is itself a later route of the A414 (dating to the growth of the New Town in the 1960s); the original route was along St Albans Road West and a now-inaccessible route through the town centre.

Starting at a large roundabout where it meets the A1001 and A1057, the former following the original A1 western bypass, we head east along the D2 Cavendish Way. We soon go over the A1(M), although that road is in tunnel under the Galleria shopping centre on the left and so is not immediately obvious.

We bear left at the next roundabout to remain on Cavendish Way, although the road is now S2 as it runs between housing estates. On the far side the road becomes D1 plus cycle lanes as we skirt the town centre on Queensway, bearing left at the next roundabout.

At the next roundabout we cross the B197, after which the surrounding architecture becomes older as we join the original line of the A414. We run past pre-WWII semis and some more modern buildings and then go over the East Coast Main Line, ending at traffic lights on the far side on the original route of the A1. Now the A1000 comes in from the right and continues ahead; the old A1 to the left is no longer a through route owing to the collapse of the railway bridge.