13 Facts About London Ringways

London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre.

The London Ringways originated from these earlier plans, and consisted of the main four ring roads and other developments.

Some traffic routes originally planned for the London Ringways were re-used for other road schemes in the 1980s and 1990s, most significantly the M25, which was created out of two different sections of London Ringways joined together.

The project caused an increase in road protesting and an eventual agreement that new road construction in London Ringways was not generally possible without huge disruption.

Since 2000, Transport for London Ringways has promoted public transport and discouraged road use.

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The Royal Commission on London Ringways Traffic produced eight volumes of reports on roads, railways and tramways in the London Ringways area, including a suggestion for "constructing a circular road about 75 miles in length at a radius of 12 miles from St Paul's".

In May 1938, Sir Charles Bressey and Sir Edwin Lutyens published a Ministry of Transport report, The Highway Development Survey, 1937, which reviewed London Ringways's road needs and recommended the construction of many miles of new roads and the improvement of junctions at key congestion points.

North of the Westway, it would have continued to follow the West London Ringways line, crossing the Great Western railway and the Grand Union Canal, linking with the North Cross Route at Willesden Junction.

Since the London Ringways Plan was cancelled, most of the route has been upgraded, some of it close to motorway standard, but this has been done in a piecemeal manner.

The section in West London Ringways was eventually built to a lower standard as the A312.

Once the London Ringways were cancelled completely, there seemed little point in finishing the M23 as it would drop all its traffic onto suburban streets.

Several schemes which were roughly on the line of the London Ringways, including Ringway 1 at Earl's Court and Fulham, and Ringway 3 at Hayes, were cancelled.

In 2000, Transport for London Ringways was formed, taking responsibility for all related projects in Greater London Ringways, including roads.