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roads.org.uk
Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
@roads.org.uk
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We write about UK road infrastructure and history! Join us for updates and other stuff from the UK's favourite roads website, www.roads.org.uk
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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 18d
New! After eight years of waiting, they're online! See London's unbuilt motorways as even their planners never could in our amazing, immersive Ringways Map, hosted by the amazing SABRE Maps. It *might* be the best thing we've ever done. #ringways
The Ringways Map is here
The wait is over! The full map of the Ringways, London’s unbuilt urban motorway network, is now online. Not even the system's planners had anything like this.
www.roads.org.uk
roads.org.uk
The UK's last long distance motorway isn't without controversy - but for a while one thing it did lack was anywhere to stop for a toilet break. Our guide to the M40 has all you need to know. www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m40
M40
The second motorway from London to Birmingham, calling in at Oxford on the way, is calmer and prettier than the alternative - but caused far more problems to build.
www.roads.org.uk
November 21, 2025 at 5:48 PM
roads.org.uk
There used to be a lot of temporary flyovers in the UK - but by their nature they disappear eventually. We paid a visit to the rickety Army and Navy Flyover in Chelmsford just before it got its marching orders. #chelmsford www.roads.org.uk/blog/what-go...
What goes up must come down
Nothing lasts forever. This week, after 43 years, the "temporary" Army and Navy flyover has been given its marching orders.
www.roads.org.uk
November 20, 2025 at 6:41 PM
roads.org.uk
There's a lot more flags on English streets than there were a few months ago. Most are St George's Crosses and Union Jacks. So why are Kent County Council putting EU flags on their signs? www.roads.org.uk/blog/red-whi...
Red, white and blue
Kent County Council is run by eurosceptic nationalists. So why are they putting EU flags on their road signs?
www.roads.org.uk
November 19, 2025 at 6:58 PM
roads.org.uk
Not long now until Christmas. If you've already been asked what you'd like, maybe our list of road themed gifts will help? www.roads.org.uk/blog/gifts-r...
Gifts for road lovers
Keep being asked what you want for Christmas? No problem: here’s our pick of road-related Christmas treats for 2021.
www.roads.org.uk
November 18, 2025 at 5:47 PM
roads.org.uk
Skelmersdale's link to the motorway network has a strange history, and the book that celebrated its opening reveals some little-known secrets about unrealised plans for the New Town. Take a look in our museum of Opening Booklets. #skelmersdale www.roads.org.uk/opening-book...
Black and white aerial photograph of the M6/M58 interchange under construction, with looped sliproads near the camera and two huge roundabouts Plan of new roads serving Skelmersdale New Town, including the M6, a "regional road" linking it to the motorway, and several main roads in the town itself Black and white aerial photograph of the western part of Skelmersdale, with a pair of huge roundabouts under construction and labels for some of the roads and housing estates
November 16, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
The '60s saw the start of construction of the main spine of the UK's motorway network; 15 Nov 1963 & Minister of Transport Ernest Marples, an interesting character in his own right, officially opens the Staffordshire-Cheshire section of the M6. @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk
A quite lavish brochure issued to commemorate the opening of the Hanchurch, Staffordshire, to Lymm, Cheshire, section of the M6 motorway that was formally opened by the Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples, on Friday 15 November 1963. Marples, whose tenure as Minister in the Conservative Government, was controversal given his links to the building company Marples Ridgway, was busy at the time as various sections of motorways opened at which he presided. This thirty three mile section of motorway, for which Staffordshire County Council and Cheshire County Council had acted as agents for on behalf of the Ministry of Transport, linked the recently opened Stafford - Hanchurch sections of 1962 in the south and the Lymm to Bamber Bridge section to the north that had opened on 29 July 1963. The main contractors were Scott & Wilson, Kirkpatrick & Partners as consulting civil and structural engineers along with main contractors Tarmac Ltd., on the North Cheshire section, Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co. Ltd., for the South Cheshire section and John Laing Construction Ltd. for the Staffordshire section. As well as the motorway segregated junctions were constructed with the A556, A54 for Holmes Chapel, A534 for Sandbach and the junction at Barthomley for the eventaul A500 North Potteries link road. Two service stations at Keele and Knutsford were also constructed. The brochure contains facts and figures as well as numerous photographs of construction and completed features. It was printed in Stafford by R. W. Hourd & Son Ltd. The cover is white, the two council coat of arms either side of the main title set in Chisel typeface. Text below in red and black.
November 15, 2025 at 11:08 AM
roads.org.uk
Our Motorway Database is famous for its strip maps of major roads, but there's more to them than meets the eye. Take a look at our guide to make the most of the colours and symbols that pack so much information into these tiny maps. www.roads.org.uk/motorway/key...
Key to exit lists
For the full detail on the UK motorway and expressway network, you can’t beat the exit lists in our Motorway Database. Here's how to get the most out of them.
www.roads.org.uk
November 15, 2025 at 3:20 PM
roads.org.uk
The UK's road numbers all radiate from a central point in London. So if you follow them back to the start, you'll find a central point, right? Er, no. Join us in the search for the hub that never existed. www.roads.org.uk/blog/middle-...
The middle of nowhere
A national system of road numbers radiating from a central point suggests there is… well, a central point. But if you go looking for it you’ll find it doesn’t exist.
www.roads.org.uk
November 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
roads.org.uk
Have you heard? Our epic Ringways Map was finally published last week, laying out London's unbuilt urban motorways in full detail for the first time ever. Our blog post has all the details: www.roads.org.uk/blog/ringway...
A map of Clapham Junction with two huge triangular motorway interchanges overlaid on it, connected by a six carriageway road, and with other motorways radiating out in all directions. Images in this post contain OS data © Crown copyright and database right (2017). A map of Chiswick, with the Chiswick Roundabout at the centre, over which a sprawling motorway interchange has been drawn A map of Denham, just outside Uxbridge, over which a huge motorway interchange has been drawn, showing a four-level stack and braided sliproads connecting to other adjacent interchanges A map of Harlow, over which a much bigger and more extensive road network has been drawn
November 13, 2025 at 6:41 PM
roads.org.uk
Roads are full of numbers - not just A and B-roads, but junctions, kilometre posts and street lights too. If you're au fait with all of those, perhaps we can introduce you to one for the real nerds. They're called Road Codes. www.roads.org.uk/blog/matrix-...
Matrix signs reloaded
There's a system for everything on the roads, but few are as ingenious or obscure as Road Codes to identify electronic equipment.
www.roads.org.uk
November 12, 2025 at 6:58 PM
roads.org.uk
In the early 70s, South East London came within inches of building a massive four-level motorway interchange. What happened to the Shooters Hill to Falconwood Motorway? #eltham www.roads.org.uk/ringways/sou...
A2 and A2(M)
London's ancient main road to Canterbury and Dover has been bypassed over and over again, and in the sixties was supposed to be replaced in part with an urban motorway. Parts were finished in the…
www.roads.org.uk
November 11, 2025 at 5:47 PM
roads.org.uk
If you liked the Ringways Map, this is for you 👇🏻
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk SABRE Maps @maps.sabre-roads.org.uk · 11d
Well, we promised a follow-up for #MapMonday to the fascinating London Ringways #Map for another major city in Great Britain, so here it is...

The Greater Glasgow Transportation Study from 1968.
November 10, 2025 at 6:08 PM
roads.org.uk
It's meant to spare you from a nasty collision, but is the Accident Black Spot sign really helping? We pay a visit to Essex to see the resurrection of a questionable idea from the past. #essex www.roads.org.uk/blog/acciden...
Accident Black Spot
Someone's been bringing 1950s signs back from the dead. Is that wise?
www.roads.org.uk
November 10, 2025 at 5:08 PM
roads.org.uk
It is a VERY good week for maps 🤩
maps.sabre-roads.org.uk SABRE Maps @maps.sabre-roads.org.uk · 12d
Keep your eyes on SABRE Maps tomorrow - following the Ringways Map publication, we'll be publishing another huge set of plans for a different major city in Great Britain so that you can compare them clearly against our huge map collection. Any ideas as to which city it will be?
Planning #map extract of an unbuilt motorway to motorway junction just outside a major city in Great Britain
November 9, 2025 at 7:56 PM
roads.org.uk
If you've just arrived via the Ringways Map, hello! 👋 You might like this podcast I recorded for Radio 4 a few years ago, telling the Ringways story and how I came to be writing about it. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
BBC Sounds - The Boring Talks, #32 - Roads That Don't Exist
Chris Marshall loves roads... even those that don't actually exist.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 4:32 PM
roads.org.uk
We've spent a lot of time this week talking about unbuilt motorways in London, but Glasgow has plenty of those too - and we've got a whole page exploring the amazing artist's renderings of the futuristic world planners hoped to create. #glasgow www.roads.org.uk/articles/gla...
Colour painting of a city seen from the air, with boxy modernistic buildings and lots of green space and a large motorway interchange at the centre Black and white sketch drawing of a four-lane road passing underneath two curving flyovers; a pair of blocky brutalist tower blocks are on the left Black and white sketch drawing of a mother pushing a pram, with a child next to her holding a doll. They are walking along a path underneath a motorway flyover towards two brutalist tower blocks Black and white sketch drawing of two large motorway viaducts, beneath which is a pedestrian subway sunken into the ground. In it several groups of people are gathered, seemingly in casual conversation
November 9, 2025 at 3:03 PM
roads.org.uk
Blimey, it’s not normally this lively in my weird little niche. Am I going viral? Is this blowing up? Is it time to hire an agent?
A BlueSky notifications button with “30+” notifications lit up
November 9, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
jim.londoncentric.media
I’d always wondered why no one had ever published a full, detailed map of the 1960s plan to turn London into a giant web of US-style urban motorways…. It turns even the politicians and designers didn’t make one at the time. It just didn’t exist. Until now.
November 9, 2025 at 8:40 AM
roads.org.uk
Earlier this week I spoke to London Centric about the Ringways Map and all things unbuilt London - they’ve dedicated the whole of their latest edition to the story! substack.com/home/post/p-...
Would your home have been under a motorway?
"The most astonishing and destructive thing never to happen to London," says the man who has spent twenty years researching the first true map of the unbuilt Ringways.
substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:26 AM
roads.org.uk
Not just a lost council but also a lost street layout and probably several lost subways too!
ianvisits.co.uk ianVisits @ianvisits.co.uk · 13d
A relic from the days of the GLC - next to one of the subways at Aldgate.
November 8, 2025 at 6:50 PM
roads.org.uk
One tiny A-road ties together Northern Ireland's motorway network and makes sense of Belfast's streets. Are we wrong to love the small but mighty A12 Westlink? #belfast www.roads.org.uk/motorway/a12...
A12 (Northern Ireland)
These two miles of dual carriageway in central Belfast somehow manage to form the most important link in Northern Ireland's road network.
www.roads.org.uk
November 8, 2025 at 3:20 PM
roads.org.uk
Our whistlestop history of the UK's road network is sometimes picked up as a learning resource in schools. (More so than our story about a stolen cake, which tells you a lot about priorities in education.) Take a look at our timeline of 20th century highway history. www.roads.org.uk/articles/tim...
Timeline
A whistle-stop tour of the motor age, from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. No pedestrians, horse drawn vehicles, invalid carriages or motorcycles under 50cc please.
www.roads.org.uk
November 7, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Reposted by Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
romanpalace.bsky.social
Wow! 😮🤩
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓

itiner-e.org

We might have to have a lie-down.
A map of part of Britiain and northern europe showing loads and loads of roman roads, picked out in red.
November 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
roads.org.uk
Unstable, unsafe and scheduled for demolition: catch Gateshead’s iconic, never-finished double-deck flyover while you still can. Our photo gallery will show you the sights. #gateshead www.roads.org.uk/photo/gatesh...
A concrete flyover structure that appears to stop in mid-air, with a road beneath and sliproads connecting the flyover to the ground. A brutalist concrete tower block is in the background A pedestrian subway ramp spirals down into the ground between concrete walls, in the shadow of an enormous elevated road that blocks out the sky A flyover sliproad comes down to ground level on the right, with queueing cars, while on the left another road emerges from beneath the flyover
November 6, 2025 at 6:41 PM
roads.org.uk
Not many roads are named for the shape they make on a map, but the A500 is. Its number takes second place to its affectionate nickname, the Stoke "D" Road. #stoke www.roads.org.uk/motorway/a500
A500
A spine road for the Potteries, making sense of the jumbled towns and villages that cluster around Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme and keeping the M6 free of local traffic.
www.roads.org.uk
November 5, 2025 at 6:58 PM