Bank

Bank, located at the Bank of England in London, is a traffic light junction between several unclassified roads. It is considered to be the hub of the English numbering system. It sits at the tri-point of the 1-, 3- and 4- zones. The 5-zone and 2-zone start nearby (at St Pauls and London Bridge respectively).

The junction also acts like a hub for roads in the Square Mile of the City of London, and is near the middle of the City. Three more roads (Queen Victoria Street, Walbrook and Lombard Street) diverge near to the junction, which has 6 roads (5 major), meaning that roads radiate from here to everywhere in the City.

From Monday 22nd May 2017, motorised traffic other than buses were banned from the junction after it was identified that the accident rate at the junction was higher than average.

History

The fairly minor appearance of this junction belies its history, where it was one of the most important junctions in the country.

In Roman times it was where the forum was and major Roman Roads radiated from the junction to all parts of the country.

The original classification of road numbers did not assign routes up to the City of London, which were retrospectively added later, but Bank was considered to be the 'hub' of the English road network right from the start. Once numbering was assigned to roads in The City, the A3, A10, A11 and A40 all began here. The A1 at St Pauls and A5 (at Marble Arch) ended on the A40 and the A4 (at the Monument) and the A2 (at Borough) ended on the A3.

Routes

With the Ring of Steel security measures, classification was removed from roads in the area.

Route	To	Notes
King William Street	London Bridge, Southwark Bridge	Was A3
Threadneedle Street	Liverpool Street station	Was A10
Cornhill	Aldgate	Was A11
Poultry	St Paul's	Was A40
Prince's Street	Moorgate, Guildhall	Was A501
Queen Victoria Street		leaves Poultry. Was A3211
Lombard Street		leaves King William Street. Was B131

Links

BBC News

• Bank: Traffic banned to improve safety at dangerous junction (20.05.2017)