The road starts at the end of the A12
Hackney Wick to
M11 Link Road, a section of the
A12 built in 1999 to bypass
Wanstead and to link it with the former A102 (M) (now A12). It meets the Redbridge Roundabout, where the A12 meets the North Circular (A406). Prior to 1989, the road was the M15, providing a direct link onto the M11 motorway. It then heads down to the Gants Hill Roundabout near
Ilford. It passes through a very built up area, and heads through Newbury Park, passing
Newbury Park tube station. It then passes William Torbit School. A few miles further east it loops around the north of the suburban town of
Romford. After this, it ends at the
Gallows Corner roundabout (a former execution site) where the A127 Southend Arterial Road branches off. Traffic wishing to go down to Southend on the A127 may use the flyover, built as a temporary measure in 1969, to avoid the roundabout. It was originally designed for the M12 motorway, which would have run from
South Woodford at the M11 to the proposed
Maplin Sands Airport in
Southend-on-Sea. == History ==