MT 106/151
North Circular Road: comprehensive improvement
| Date range | 1961-1964 |
| Location | National Archives (see all files stored here) |
| Catalogue | See entry |
| File base | Series MT, subseries MT 106 |
Context
In the very early 1960s the Ministry of Transport began drawing up proposals to comprehensively improve the A406 North Circular Road in London, then a trunk route. The redevelopment plans were not showy or costly, and rather than hire consultants it had one of its engineers survey the route, take some traffic counts and write a report.
The June 1961 report by CG Havers of the Metropolitan Traffic Division sets out a programme of works, which split the route into sections, most of which would be improved across two stages, with the intention that the road would be dualled and grade-separated by the end of the 1970s. This plan appears to have been absorbed by the GLC and seems to have been the 'live' proposal for the North Circular as part of the Ringways plan.
Diagrams, maps and plans accompanying the report are held at MT 106/152.
Contents of note
- Entire 1961 report which, to say it is a proposal to spend colossal sums of money improving one of the busiest trunk routes in the London area, was not published and instead appears here fresh from the typewriter.
- Newspaper reports covering the announcement of £50m of investment in the North Circular.
- Traffic census data for all junctions on the North Circular circa 1961.
- MT 106/193 Highways planning projects: construction of new, and improvements to existing trunk roads; comprehensive improvement of Western Avenue (A40) (Edgware Road, Hampstead/Willesden) (1961-1963)
- MT 106/152 North Circular Road: plans (1961-1964)
People with camera copies
Chris Marshall has a partial copy, including the full 1961 report and other assorted files.
