City of London Originally, the A11 started at the
Bank of England in the City of London, next to
Bank Underground station, and went eastwards along
Cornhill and
Leadenhall Street, past
Aldgate Pump and along
Aldgate. Hence leading to the current A11 starting point at Aldgate.
Newham From Bow Interchange, A118 briefly becomes a
dual carriageway as it crosses the valley of the
River Lea. This dual carriageway section ends at Stratford town centre, and was a one-way system until 16 September 2018, the eastbound road of which, Great Eastern Road, passed
Stratford station. The formerly westbound road is now two way, called Broadway and The Grove; the latter road runs north–south. The old A11 then becomes
Leytonstone Road;
Maryland railway station turns northwards on the corner where the name change occurs. Meanwhile, the A118 heads eastward along its route towards
Ilford and
Romford. The
A112 also joins the one-way system, heading north–south.
Waltham Forest North of Maryland, the old A11 crosses from the
London Borough of Newham into the
London Borough of Waltham Forest and becomes High Road Leytonstone, passing under the
Gospel Oak to Barking line.
Redbridge Once past the Green Man Interchange, the former A11 route enters the
London Borough of Redbridge and briefly becomes a southern extension to the
A113 before turning into the A1199 (a duplicate designation, given that there is another A1199 in
Islington), and is called Hollybush Hill,
Woodford Road and High Road
Woodford Green. It crosses over the
A406 at Gates Corner (named after a
Ford car showroom, which was turned into residential flats in 2006), but since the A406 was widened when the M11 was constructed there are no slip roads for interchange and the old A11 passes over the top. It merges with the A104 Woodford New Road by the Statue of
Winston Churchill and becomes the A104 High Road
Woodford Green. North, the road was A11 until the
M11 opened in the 1970s, triggering the downgrading of the A11 between Woodford and Stump Cross (see below). Just before leaving London for
Essex, the A104 becomes
Epping New Road.
Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire Shortly after entering Essex, the A11 enters
Epping Forest, following the mainly straight course of the Epping New Road turnpike constructed during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, alongside the boundary between
Waltham Abbey and
Loughton. It then reaches the
Wake Arms Roundabout and becomes the B1393. Just after leaving the forest, it crosses the
M25 motorway (here lowered into a cut-and-cover tunnel), then continuing through
Epping. The B1393 ends at junction 7 of the M11, and the route of the A11 goes along the
A414 through the eastern suburbs of
Harlow, having been rerouted slightly to the west at the end of the 1950s to avoid passing through
Potter Street. The road then becomes the A1184 and goes through
Sawbridgeworth: through the rest of the Essex stretch between Harlow and Stump Cross the road follows a more traditionally English course, characterised by bends of varying and sometimes uneven radii, with just one straight mile (1.6 km) (to the south of
Littlebury) along the north Essex stretch. At Thorley Wash, just south of
Bishop's Stortford, the A1184 turns sharp left to become part of the Bishop's Stortford bypass, but the route of the A11 becomes the B1383 and goes through Thorley Street, Bishop's Stortford,
Stansted Mountfitchet, and
Quendon. It crosses the M11 and passes
Audley End. The B1383 ends at 9A (
Stump Cross), the end of a spur that comes off the M11 at Junction 9, near
Great Chesterford. From there, the former A11 section aligns once more with the current A11. ==References==