The Sidcup Road Link was one component of the planned improvements to the A20 in south east London. It was actually part of the GLC’s late 1960s A2(M) Dover Radial Route project, but would have resulted in construction of about one third of the new Primary Route replacing the A20.
Development
This scheme has its origins in the London County Council’s early 1960s proposals to bypass the A2 through Eltham. Their concept, for which designs began to be formulated in about 19611, was for a new arterial route (later a motorway) alongside the railway from St John’s to Falconwood.
By 1965, when the GLC’s members were being appraised of the highway plans the new Council had inherited from the LCC, it was linked to the wider concept of an urban motorway network for London. In this guise it had undergone several changes, including the amputation of the section between St John’s and Kidbrooke, which was now part of the South Cross Route; a connection to Sun-in-the-Sands, which would eventually form an onward link to the Blackwall Tunnel and the East Cross Route; and a spur southwards to join it up with the A20, which was the Sidcup Road Link.
By this time the overall Dover Radial Route project would actually have provided three fragments of urban motorway, joining at Kidbrooke, all with the intention that they would form the first stage of bigger schemes. At Kidbrooke a four-way free flowing interchange would be constructed as part of the project, though initially it would only have three arms connected2.
Alignment
This motorway would have connected Kidbrooke and Mottingham, a distance of about 2.1km (1.3mi).
At Kidbrooke Interchange, the mainline of the Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach (aka East Cross Route) would have continued under the junction to become the Sidcup Road Link. The interchange would have also connected the SRL to the South Cross Route, which would form the western arm of the interchange; no access would be provided between the SRL and A2(M) Dover Radial Route since that manoeuvre would be provided for elsewhere – ultimately by Ringway 2.
A vacant corridor was preserved for the SRL along the eastern side of the Ferrier Estate, parallel to Tudway Road. This large social housing estate was built by the GLC between 1968 and 1972, the period in which the DRR project was under active development and legal powers were being sought. After the project stalled, the reserved space became open grassland until the late 2000s, when the Ferrier Estate was progressively demolished and replaced with a modern housing development, whose earliest stages saw mid-rise apartment buildings erected on the motorway line.
The motorway would underpass the A210 Eltham Road and the A205 Westhorne Avenue, with an interchange for the Yorkshire Grey Roundabout that would feature only north-facing sliproads.
Passing through playing fields west of Middle Park Avenue and Churchbury Road, the motorway would then turn east to flow into the A20 Sidcup Road. The eastbound A20 would fly over the motorway to form a free-flowing fork junction.
In the mid 1960s, almost the entire route for this motorway was open land, either protected (in the case of the corridor alongside the Ferrier Estate) or parkland and playing fields. The only significant demolition was through the semi-detached houses lining Eltham Road and Westhorne Avenue.
Public inquiry
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Yorkshire Grey controversy
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Connection to A20 at Mottingham
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References
- “Dover Radial Route” at LCC/PP/RD/001 indicates that the concept was being discussed by the LCC’s Roads Committee in 1961 but that designs had not yet been produced. ↩︎
- “Eltham: M2 Motorway: link to Sidcup Road and Rochester Way Relief Road” at CRES 65/191: plan 2 shows the layout of the scheme as intended ca. 1966, which includes Kidbrooke Interchange in full. ↩︎