The route of the A1 in London runs from the northern end of
St. Martin's Le Grand in the City to
Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, then travels on the northern fringe of
Greater London to
Bignell's Corner, where it crosses the
M25 and becomes a motorway, designated
A1(M), which alternates with the dual carriageway
A1 as it continues to
Edinburgh. The London section of the road passes through part of the
City of London and three
London boroughs:
Islington,
Haringey and
Barnet. The A1 is one of London's main northern routes, When originally designated in 1921 the A1 started a little further north along Aldersgate Street at Aldersgate Bars, The route runs north from
Aldersgate along Aldersgate Street which is a modern dual carriageway, and from the 13th century was known as a wide street with fine buildings and travellers' inns; these were destroyed or badly damaged during
the Blitz, and from 1965 to 1976 the 40 acre (162,000m²)
Barbican Estate, an arts complex and residential estate, was constructed along the entire eastern side of the street. At the end of Aldersgate Street stood Aldersgate Bars, which marked the limits of the City of London.
Islington The route enters the
London Borough of Islington at
Goswell Road, becoming a single carriageway running north from the border of the City to
Angel through a mix of offices and urban housing. Goswell Road and
St John Street were the ancient routes from the City to Islington, with St John Street being the start of the
Great North Road until the
General Post Office headquarters was built at St Martin's-le-Grand in 1829, whereafter stagecoaches used Aldersgate Street and Goswell Road. The
New River originally flowed across Goswell Road, but is now underground and no trace of it can be seen at the surface. The street was reported in 1720 to be "meanly built and inhabited", containing numerous inns and brothels, and it largely remained a slum area until the rebuilding that took place after the Second World War – in particular the residential development outward from the
Barbican and
Golden Lane estates since 1980, replacing warehouses with flats. The
Peacock Inn, one of the nine inns, and which operated on Islington High Street from 1564 to 1962, was where Tom of ''
Tom Brown's Schooldays'' stayed prior to travelling to
Rugby School. In 1716, Islington High Street came under the control of the newly formed Islington Turnpike Trust. The Trust grew rapidly and soon had control of most major roads in the area, building a number of major road arteries through the expanding residential areas, including
Caledonian Road,
Euston Road,
City Road and
New North Road.
Upper Street, running roughly north from Islington High Street to Highbury Corner, is the main shopping street of
Islington, and dates back to at least the 12th century. Livestock herded along the Great North Road for
Smithfield Market, would – when passing through what was mainly fields and farmland – pause at lairs built between Upper Street and
Liverpool Road by an enterprising farmer, Richard Laycock; Laycock's lairs would be used in 1861 for the site of the
Royal Agricultural Hall, and a number of pubs and shops existed along the street to serve farmers and travellers headed for Smithfield. In the 18th century, Upper Street began to develop from an agricultural to a residential area. Ten houses were built in 1768 (later named Hornsey Row), and a further group built immediately south of Hornsey Row in 1792. Liverpool Road, originally called Back Road, was used as an alternative to Upper Street for the Smithfield herders, and both streets have a "high pavement" constructed to protect pedestrians from being splashed by the passing animals; in places, the
pavement is approximately 1 m above the road surface. After reaching the eight-way interchange at Highbury Corner, the A1 turns north-west as
Holloway Road. Until the 14th century the route turned off along what is now Hornsey Road – the
A103 road – to go through
Muswell Hill, but when that became impassable a new route along Holloway Road via Highgate was created in the 14th century. since that time, the area has been known as
Holloway. The northern point of Holloway Road is the complex interchange at
Archway. The construction of the interchange left a few buildings isolated in the centre of the
roundabout, including the Archway Tavern, which appears on the cover of
the Kinks' 1971 album
Muswell Hillbillies.
Haringey After the Archway roundabout, the A1 enters a cutting, and becomes
Archway Road. The original road north went up the very steep Highgate Hill (now the B519) to the village of
Highgate. By 1808 this was proving unsuitable for increasingly heavy traffic, and a road, crossing the hill through a tunnel at a shallower gradient, was proposed by a mining engineer, Robert Vazie; a turnpike trust – the – was set up by the '''''' and work started in 1810. The brick built tunnel collapsed during construction on 13 April 1812, and
John Nash constructed a brick bridge, using a series of arches like a canal viaduct, to carry Hornsey Lane over what was now a
cutting. and the new Archway Road were opened in 1813, though the road surface, being constructed of sand and gravel, proved difficult for heavy traffic. Parliamentary Commissioners took over the road, and
John Benjamin Macneill, chief engineer to
Thomas Telford, proposed using
Roman cement and gravel, an innovative technique that was used for the first time on Archway Road, and is the basis for modern road building. Between 1897 and 1900, Nash's bridge was replaced with the present cast-iron
Hornsey Lane Bridge, designed by
Sir Alexander Binnie, accessible from the Archway Road level by a steep flight of steps. is informally called "Suicide Bridge" as it is a known
suicide spot. It was the venue for the mental illness campaign group Mad Pride's inaugural vigil in 2000, and was the subject of Johnny Burke's 2006 film
The Bridge. When, at the end of 2010, three men in three weeks committed suicide by jumping from the bridge, a campaign was set up by local residents for better anti-suicide measures to be put in place. (right) An inquiry was held into widening the section from the Archway intersection to the Hornsey Lane Bridge to a three lane dual carriageway in 1969 and work started in 1971. It was originally intended to widen a further section of the road, but severe disruption led to the first inquiry being abandoned in 1978, and a second inquiry in 1984, chaired by Air Marshal Sir
Michael Giddings, was also abandoned. The traffic flow was projected to increase to 180,000 cars a day by 1981, but by 1986 the actual flow was only 30,000 a day. When originally constructed, Archway Road went through countryside with few buildings – though by 1828 the Woodman pub at the junction with Muswell Hill Road, and the now demolished Wellington pub at the junction with North Hill provided refreshments to travellers; however, with the coming of the railways in 1867 ribbon development started along the road, including the Camra Heritage listed Winchester Tavern with the distinctive attached parade of shops and house with deep arched eaves built by the Imperial Property Investment Co in 1881. At the northern end of Archway Road, the road re-intersects with the traditional Great North Road route (at this point called
North Hill) via
Bakers Lane. The roads almost immediately re-diverge, with the Great North Road route heading north as the
A1000 towards
Finchley,
Whetstone and
Barnet and the A1 heading west as
Aylmer Road. Aylmer Road is a very short stretch of road, running west for less than half a mile between the junction with the A1000 in
Haringey to the junction with
The Bishops Avenue in
Barnet. The southern side of the road is partly taken up by Highgate Golf Course, while the northern side is a mixture of small shops, flats and
allotments. The road is named after
Sir Fenton Aylmer, who received the
Victoria Cross for his part in the assault on
Nilt Fort on 2 December 1891.
Barnet After crossing
The Bishops Avenue, the A1 becomes
Lyttelton Road, which was laid out in 1931 as part of the residential development of the area, and runs east–west along the northern foot of
Highgate Hill between
Hampstead Garden Suburb and
East Finchley. It is for the most part residential; on the northern side stands the
Belvedere Court block of flats. Built with the road in the 1930s, the building is now
Grade II Listed as an example of 1930s architecture. After passing playing fields to the south, the A1 briefly becomes
Market Place, a former street market that has evolved into a short stretch of shops, then becomes
Falloden Way – built between 1914 and 1924 as part of a programme of planned extensions to Hampstead Garden Suburb, and runs on an
embankment due to a dip in the ground caused by
Mutton Brook, a tributary of the
River Brent, which runs parallel to the road for its entire length, mostly along the south side. The north side of the road is occupied by 1930s housing blocks, whilst the southern side is occupied by a narrow strip of parkland following the brook, and by the northern tip of
Big Wood and Little Wood – two of the few surviving remnants of the ancient woodland that once covered what is now north London. The A1 merges with the
North Circular Road (A406) and the two routes run briefly
together, crossing over the
Henlys Corner interchange. Henlys Corner is a junction with the 1820s turnpike road,
Finchley Road, which was built to provide a by-pass to the route north from London through Hampstead; the name changes to Regents Park Road on the northern, Finchley, side of the junction. The junction had an £8million upgrade completed in January 2012, which included Britain's first "hands-free" pedestrian crossing to allow Orthodox Jews to reach the nearby Finchley Synagogue, one of Europe's largest, without operating machinery on the Sabbath. While a synagogue has stood on the site since 1935, the current building dates from 1967. . This junction was modified in 2011 to provide extra filter lanes. After the Henlys Corner interchange, the routes diverge, with the A406 going south to
Brent Cross, while the A1 turns north-west as
Great North Way through the leafy suburbs of
Mill Hill and
Hendon. Great North Way, built in 1926, joins
Watford Way carrying the
A41, completed in 1927, at Fiveways Corner, and in 1970 a junction with the
M1 motorway was created. The A41 and A1 continue
together as Watford Way via Mill Hill Circus to Apex Corner, where they separate, with the A41 turning west, and the A1 turning to run straight north. After passing Apex Corner, the A1 runs north and out of London as the dual carriageway
Barnet Way (or
Barnet Bypass). This dual carriageway was part of a 1920–24 road improvement programme that was mentioned in parliament in 1928 as hopefully being completed by the end of that summer. The northbound carriageway passes the entrance to
Scratchwood, an area of ancient forest which is now a
local nature reserve, then crosses the A411 from
Watford to
Barnet at the Stirling Corner roundabout. A proposed link road at this roundabout, estimated at £22.8million in 1987, would have provided access to the M1, but the plans were subsequently abandoned. The link had been planned during discussions for the Hendon Urban Motorway, which was intended to carry the M1 all the way down to Hyde Park Corner as part of the
London Ringways scheme; the interchange would have been junction 3 on the motorway; which is currently the unnumbered junction for
London Gateway services. Past Stirling Corner, the A1 skirts
Borehamwood, before turning northeast and running through open countryside to
Bignell's Corner. At Bignell's Corner the A1 crosses under the
M25 motorway at a large roundabout near
South Mimms services. North of Bignell's Corner the A1 becomes the A1(M) motorway for a while, and follows the Great North Road route, running north to
Edinburgh. ==Construction==