MT 106/406
Motorways route consideration: proposed extension of Eastern Avenue; preliminary investigations by consultants
| Date range | 1965-1968 |
| Location | National Archives (see all files stored here) |
| Catalogue | See entry |
| File base | Series MT, subseries MT 106 |
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This file is truly delightful. It is likely to bring a smile to your face, probably because it contains the sort of thing that makes trawling through dusty archive documents worthwhile. The thing in this file that makes your day might actually have nothing to do with its subject matter. |
Context
This file is concerned with the Eastern Avenue Extension, a project pursued by the GLC in the 1960s that would have seen a new road cut through East London from Hackney Wick through to Angel, with the aim of completing an east-west "through route" formed by Western Avenue, Westway, Euston Road, this route and Eastern Avenue. It was generally referred to as the Eastern Avenue Extension. The title of the file refers to "motorways", and hand-written on the front cover is the title "Principal Road Motorways" (i.e. motorways operated by local authorities), but there is no mention anywhere else within the file as to whether the road would have been a motorway.
It is enormous, having two big folders tied onto the back of the paperwork with a ribbon.
Controversies around this road, detailed here, include a dispute with Hackney BC who had redesigned a new housing estate to accommodate the road and were now finding it encroaching even further into their proposed tower blocks, the recruiting of consultants to study the best route for the road, and the selection of a more expensive alignment on grounds of amenity. The MOT, oddly, wanted the cheapest route no matter what, while the GLC were much more conscious of environmental concerns.
Contents of note
- Ten plan sheets, showing - in sequence - the whole of the "Regent's Canal" and "Hackney Road" alternative routes for the road, though the Hackney Road version excludes the interchange at Angel which was apparently a separate project.
- The full report investigating possible routes for the road, bound and boxed, and published by Freeman Fox. It contains the precis version of the report (which is still substantial), followed by plan and elevation drawings of all three main route alternatives they studied and outline maps of the ten initial concepts.
People with camera copies
Chris Marshall has a partial copy.
