A4 road (England)
The A4 is a major road in England from Central London to Avonmouth via Heathrow Airport, Reading, Bath and Bristol. It is historically known as the Bath Road with newer sections including the Great West Road and Portway. The road was once the main route from London to Bath, Bristol and the west of England and formed, after the A40, the second main western artery from London.
Although most traffic is carried by the M4 motorway today, the A4 still acts as the main route from Bristol to London for non-motorway traffic.
History
Turnpikes
The A4 has gone through many transformations through the ages from pre-Roman routes, Roman roads, and basic wagon tracks. During the Middle Ages, most byways and tracks served to connect villages with their nearest market town. A survey of Savernake Forest near Hungerford in 1228 mentions "The King's Street" running between the town and Marlborough. This street corresponded roughly with the route of the modern A4. In 1632, Thomas Witherings was appointed Postmaster of Foreign Mails by Charles I. Three years later, the king charged him with building six "Great Roads" to aid in the delivery of the post, of which the Great West Road was one.It was not until the 17th century that a distinct route between London and Bristol started to resemble today's road. During the 17th century, the A4 was known as the Great Road to Bristol. When Queen Anne started patronising the spa city of Bath, the road became more commonly known as Bath Road. Over the years, the direction of the road has taken many detours depending on such factors as changes in tolls or turnpike patronage. For example, in 1750 the toll road from London was altered to go through Melksham; and in 1695 the map maker, John Ogilby, produced a map of the Hungerford area of the Great West Road showing two possible routes.
As Bath became more popular with the wealthy and famous, it was inevitable that turnpike trusts would be set up under the terms of the Turnpike Acts to pay for maintenance and improvements to the road. The first turnpike on this road was between Reading and Theale in 1714. Due to increasing traffic, sections of the road between Kensington, over Hounslow Hill, to Twyford were turnpike by 1717 with the remaining sections placed under turnpike trusts.
As turnpike trusts were individually run, there was the possibility for greatly differing road conditions, especially over the London Clay basin of Kensington, Brentford, Hounslow and Slough, where winter conditions left the way muddy and uneven. This was not always the case with the Bath Road, as many of the wealthy landowners along the route co-operated informally and exercised a large amount of control over feeder roads. As a result, control of the Bath Road was easy to maintain and many inns and towns became prosperous.
Tollhouses were established at Colnbrook, Maidenhead, Twyford, Castle Street Reading, Thatcham and Benham. During the 1820s, the employment of good surveyors improved the condition of the road and aided an increased flow of wealthy travellers. The tolls raised from such clientele ensured that when the turnpike trusts handed over the route to local highway boards, they had no financial liabilities. Justices of the peace were empowered by the Highway Act 1862 to combine turnpike trusts into highways districts. This meant that by the late 1860s trusts were either not renewing their powers or were being terminated by general Acts of Parliament. For example, most turnpikes in Berkshire, including the Bath Road, were officially wound up by 1878 when legislation transferred responsibility for dis-enturnpiked roads to the new county councils. The tollgate on the Bath Road west of Reading was removed in 1864 as the outward pressure of urban development made rates a more acceptable way of financing the maintenance of what was now a suburban road.
Postal service and coaching
With the improvement being made to the road systems, the business of moving mail became easier and thus more profitable as volumes were able to increase. In Bristol, a postal office had been well established by the 1670s. The journey time to London at this period was about 16 and three quarter hours. A letter from Bath in 1684 took about 3 days going via a postal office in Marshfield on the Bristol Road. . Journey times during the Turnpike era fell with the improvements from 2 days in 1752 to 38 hours in 1782 and 18 hours by 1836. Royal Mail coaches in 1836 were able to do the trip in 12 to 13 hours.Further improvements to regional post services were made between 1719 and 1763 due to contracts with the London Inland Letter Office negotiated by Ralph Allen, the postmaster of Bath.
In the early part of the 19th century, coaching was at its height with six stagecoaches each day carrying passengers to and from London along the Bath Road in 1830, rising to ten by 1836. Hungerford is at about the midway point of the journey between London and Bristol and was ideally positioned to take advantage of the increase in coaching. In 1836, five companies operated a coaching service through Hungerford. This peak was to be short-lived following the construction of the Great Western Railway. The decline in coaching traffic in Hungerford coincided with the building of the Great Western Railway from London to Bath and Bristol, and the subsequent Berks and Hants Railway line from Newbury to Hungerford itself in 1847. By 1843, it was reported that the stage coaches had ceased running between Bristol and London.
Route
Holborn Circus to Westminster (0.4 miles)
The A4 begins as New Fetter Lane on the very edge of the City of London at Holborn Circus on the A40. It goes in a southerly direction to join Fleet Street. The eastern half of Fleet Street and the area between Fleet Street and the Thames was where many British national newspapers at one time had their head offices.Westminster to Hammersmith via Kensington (4.6 miles)
The road heads west through the City of Westminster via Aldwych and the Strand, passing notable landmarks such as the Royal Courts of Justice, the Savoy and Adelphi theatres, and Charing Cross railway station.From Charing Cross station to Green Park, the westbound and eastbound routes of the A4 are considerably different, due to one-way systems. Westbound, the A4 continues along the Strand up to Charing Cross itself, then along Cockspur Street and into Pall Mall, the location of many exclusive gentlemen's clubs as well as the Institute of Directors, before turning right along St James's Street to reach Piccadilly.
Eastbound from Green Park, the A4 runs along the full length of Piccadilly to Piccadilly Circus, before turning right along Haymarket. It bears left along Pall Mall East, then right along the west side of Trafalgar Square, past the National Gallery and Canada House, to Charing Cross. Finally, it bears left along the east side of the Square, past South Africa House, then right along Duncannon Street to reach Charing Cross station.
The first part of Regent Street, now known as Regent Street St James’s, which runs from Waterloo Place to Piccadilly Circus is also signed as the A4; all traffic here runs in a northbound direction.
From Green Park, the A4 enters a short tunnel under Hyde Park Corner, where Wellington Arch stands. Afterwards, the road continues along the first part of Knightsbridge, before bearing left onto Brompton Road. This is an affluent area of London, containing the Harrods and Harvey Nichols department stores as well as numerous embassies. At this point, the road fully enters the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
At the Brompton Oratory, the road bears right along Thurloe Place and Cromwell Gardens, past the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Ismaili Centre, and onto Cromwell Road, past the Natural History Museum. At Earl's Court, the A4 becomes dual carriageway, and continues along West Cromwell Road, over the West London line into West Kensington and the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
A section of the road from Knightsbridge to the Chiswick flyover was the first section of clearway designated in London. It introduced no stopping on the road during rush hours on 21 August 1961.
Hammersmith to Heathrow Airport (10.7 miles)
The A4 continues along Talgarth Road past the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. The road becomes elevated at the Hammersmith flyover and heads towards Heathrow Airport as the Great West Road, passing Hammersmith's two churches of St Paul and St Peter. At this point the road is close to the River Thames.The road enters Chiswick and the Borough of Hounslow, passing Fuller's Brewery. After Hogarth Roundabout, the road passes Hogarth's House and is called Hogarth Lane, then Ellesmere Road and Cedars Road. It becomes the Great West Road again just a few yards short of the start of the Chiswick flyover, which is junction 1 of the M4 motorway. Gunnersbury's Russian Orthodox Cathedral is clearly visible on the right.
The next major intersection is Chiswick Roundabout, which is the junction for both the North and South Circular Roads. The road then lies directly underneath its successor the M4 as far as the bridge over the River Brent. The stretch between Chiswick's western border to Syon Lane is known as the Golden Mile and has notable Art Deco factories. The road continues as the Great West Road through Osterley and Hounslow where it splits with the A30, which is known as the Great South West Road. Between the two world wars, the Great West Road was built as a bypass to relieve traffic congestion in Brentford and Hounslow.
After the A30, the A4 changes its name to Bath Road, enters Cranford, and crosses the River Crane into the Borough of Hillingdon. It then passes along the northern boundary of Heathrow Airport, before leaving the London suburbs over the M25 towards the west.
Heathrow Airport to Slough (6.7 miles)
After leaving Heathrow Airport, still the A4, it becomes the Colnbrook Bypass and climbs over the M25 motorway. This bypass for the narrow main road of Colnbrook was built after the Second World War across farmland between Harmondsworth and the outskirts of Langley.The next major intersection is junction 5 of the M4, known as the Langley junction. At this point the A4 loses its trunk road classification.
Continuing towards Slough town centre, the road, now named London Road, passes Kedermister Park on the right. Changing into Sussex Place, the architecturally impressive St Bernard's former convent is on the right. Becoming the dual carriageway Wellington Street, Tesco's massive "aircraft hangar" supermarket is on the right and the Queensmere and Observatory Shopping Centres are on the left.
The end of this section of the Great Western Road is in the centre of Slough at the junction of William Street and Wellington Street. Nearby is Slough railway station, served by Great Western Railway.