Painshill

Painshill is the first junction on the A3 within the M25. It serves Cobham and Byfleet.

The junction is named after being next to Painshill Park, an 18th Century landscape garden.

History

This was originally a three way junction as what is now the A3 to the north didn't exist until the Esher Bypass opened in 1976. The A3 would have run through Cobham. There is some confusion as to what the junction layout was in the decade prior to 1976. Some maps show a three arm roundabout and others show a short stretch of dualling where the A3 rounded the corner.

Original planned layout. This shows the A3 aligned for the northern route but the basic layout was the same for either route.

Plans for an Esher Bypass have existed since the 1930s with serious proposals getting underway in 1960. Several routes were compared and were narrowed down to two. These were the River Mole (northern) route and the Commons (southern) route. Both were studied in detail. Painshill is where both these routes diverged. The junction design was the same for both routes and up to 1965 the plans showed the London bound exit slip using Seven Hills Road. A year later and all plans showed the layout that was eventually built. To get all the slip roads onto the roundabout the A245 to the north took a long sweeping curve.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A3	(M25) Portsmouth, Guildford, Ripley, Wisley
A3	London, Kingston
A245	Woking, Weybridge, Byfleet, Walton (B365), Brooklands Museum, Mercedes-BenzWorld, Silvermere
A245	Leatherhead, Cobham, Esher (A307), Painshill Park