B686

Route

Carlton Road, Nottingham

The B686 is the former route of the A612 in East Nottingham, which was renumbered when the A612 was routed to the South around Colwick and Netherfield.

Starting at a signalled junction on the A612 just by the Nottingham Arena, the road heads roughly North-East through Sneinton and St Ann's (it is pretty much the dividing line between the two areas: heading outbound generally Sneinton is to the right and St Ann's to the left) before climbing a steep hill, leaving the City of Nottingham and entering Carlton. At the top of the hill in Carlton (which gives the road its name of Carlton Hill) there is a shopping centre which is mainly centred on the B686; as a result (as with the earlier section) there are several pedestrian crossings which can make the route slow-moving at peak periods.

After the shopping area, the road descends towards Carlton Square, where it meets Station Road (which was the B686 pre-renumbering but is now unclassified) at a crossroads and becomes Burton Road. Shortly after, at a sports field, the B686 ends - as it always did in its present incarnation - at a signalled junction. This is now with the A6211 (though no evidence of this number exists at ground level) but prior to the A612 being further realigned between Netherfield and Burton Joyce, this was with the A612.

Former Route

The original line of the B686

Prior to the A612 being routed away from Carlton and Sneinton, the B686 occupied Station Road in Carlton, crossed the railway line into Netherfield, then through Colwick, meeting the present route of the A612 at the end of the Colwick Loop Road (which was then unclassified), continuing towards Sneinton on what is the current route of the A612, but entering Sneinton at the Racecourse, to meet the (now defunct) B685 Sneinton Hermitage. Here the B686 turned left to use the Meadow Lane level crossing and end on the A60 to the north of Trent Bridge.

The opening of the bridge and triangular roundabout between Manvers Street and Meadow Lane in the early 1990s allowed this route to be used to send the A612 traffic on, forcing a renumbering in the area.

The western section of Meadow Lane remained the B686 for a few more years before it was renumbered (becoming the A6011). Round the same time the original line of the A612 (which was unclassified for a few years) became the B686.