Monday 16th May 1938

Sir Charles Bressey and Sir Edwin Lutyens published a Ministry of Transport report, The Highway Development Survey, 1937, which reviewed London’s road needs and recommended the construction of many miles of new roads. Amongst their proposals was the provision of a series of orbital roads around the city with the outer ones built as American-style Parkways – wide, landscaped roads with limited access and grade separated junctions. Several key “centres of congestion” were identified in the central area. These included Oxford Circus, Holborn, Hammersmith Broadway, Angel, Archway, Cambridge Circus (which was then a roundabout, albeit a very cramped one), the Britannia junction in Camden Town, and Elephant and Castle. Roundabouts were suggested for all these troublespots, but in fact the report included drawings of what appear to be urban cloverleaf junctions and elevated roads, so bigger things may have been on their minds.Key relief roads were also outlined in the plan. These included an extension of the Embankment so that it linked Putney and the Tower, and a corresponding route on the south side. A “City Loop-Way” was proposed, a circular route skirting the very centre, and an Outer Circle. Drawing on the Royal Commission’s work, they also proposed an “East-West Connection”, linking the Western Avenue at Wood Lane with Leytonstone, via Marylebone Road and Hackney Wick. Outer London got a very thorough examination too. The corresponding “centres of congestion” were identified as the Hanger Lane junction (some things never change), Brent Cross, Staples Corner and Henly’s Corner – all on the North Circular. Many of these junctions were not designed to cope with the level of traffic, and the presence of trams and trolleybuses (which were now on the way out) had posed an obstacle to many types of junction. The whole of the eastern section of the North Circular was also considered to be in need of relief.