MT 106/117

Highway projects: `D' ring road, Sunbury to South Mimms

Date range	1960-1963
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 106

Context

This relates to planning for the "D" Ring Road around the west side of London before it became a motorway and while it was still meant to follow existing roads through suburban Northolt and Harrow. It is not, on the whole, one of the more interesting things I have read.

The main interest here is one of the plans at the back, which indicates the aspirations for the "D" Ring circa 1960 - namely that it would link the Basingstoke Radial (now the M3) with the A11, using existing roads through Harrow and east from the A121 at Waltham Abbey, and that would effectively be it. The North Orbital Road would do more of the orbiting, reaching Dartford. Turning it into a complete circuit was a confection of the 1960s.

There's a fair amount here about how unpopular the route through Harrow was, and the celebration that occurred when the Ministry announced, in 1963, that it had appointed a firm of consultants to find a new line for the road.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy.