A1 road (London)

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A1 road
The current route of the A1 (red) and the historic route of the Great North Road (blue)
Direction	North - South
Start	City of London
Primary destinations1	Holloway
End	Bignell's Corner
Roads joined	A103 road A1000 road A1199 road A1200 road A1211 road A40 road A400 road A406 road A411 road A503 road A598 road A5201 road A501 road A104 road A1199 road A504 road A5109 road A41 road M1 motorway A1(M) motorway
Notes Primary destinations as specified by the Department for Transport.

The A1 in London is an A road in North London. It runs from the London Wall to Bignall's Corner, where it crosses the M25 and becomes the A1(M) motorway, continuing to Edinburgh. (For the road outside London, see the main A1 road article.) The London section passes through 4 London Boroughs: the City of London, Islington, Haringey and Barnet. Whilst the route of the A1 outside London closely follows the historic route of the Great North Road, the London section for the most part does not.

The current route of the London section of the A1 road was (for the most part) designated as such in 1927. It comprises a number of historic streets in central London and the former suburbs of Islington, Holloway and Highgate and long stretches of purpose-built new roads in the outer London borough of Barnet, built to divert traffic away from the congested suburbs of Finchley and High Barnet.

The London section of the A1 is one of London's most important roads. It links North London to the M1 motorway and the A1 (M) motorway, and consequently serves as Central London's primary road transport artery to the Midlands, Northern England and Scotland. It also connects a number of major areas within London, and sections of it serve as the High Street for many of the now-joined villages that make up north London.

Contents 1 St John Street (historic) 2 Aldersgate Street 2.1 John Wesley 3 Goswell Road 3.1 James Parrott and the four-minute mile 3.2 The Dame Alice Owen's School bombing 4 Islington High Street 5 Upper Street 5.1 Places of interest on Upper Street 5.2 Upper Street and the radical left 6 Holloway Road 6.1 Churches 6.2 Holloway Road in popular culture 6.3 Railway stations on Holloway Road 7 Archway Road 7.1 Hornsey Lane Bridge 7.2 Highgate Station & the Northern Heights scheme 8 Aylmer Road 8.1 The Bishop's Avenue 9 Lyttelton Road 10 Market Place 11 Falloden Way 11.1 Henly's Corner 11.2 Big Wood & Little Wood 12 Great North Way 12.1 Finchley Synagogue 13 Watford Way 14 Apex Corner 15 Barnet Way/Barnet Bypass 15.1 Moat Mount & Scratchwood 16 Bignell's Corner 17 References

[edit] St John Street (historic)

St John Street was the first section of the original route of the Great North Road and initially formed part of the A1; however, it no longer forms part of the present route, which runs some way to the east. It is a well-known London street, located in Clerkenwell, Islington. It runs from Smithfield Market and Charterhouse Street in the south to the junction of City Road and Pentonville Road (near Upper Street) in the north, close to the Angel tube station.

The Red Bull Theatre was located on the street between 1604 and 1666, when it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–1799) lived at 13 St John Street. He held "learned suppers" at his house, with guests including James Boswell, Robert Burns and Samuel Johnson.

Nowadays there are many office buildings, restaurants and bars.

[edit] Aldersgate Street

The site of the now-demolished Aldersgate in the London Wall, next to the Museum of London, is the present start of the A1. Aldersgate Street runs north from here to the northern border of the City of London, where it becomes Goswell Road.

Adjacent to the modern roundabout on the site of the Aldersgate is the former headquarters of the General Post Office (closed in 1910 and demolished shortly afterwards), and the adjoining Postman's Park. The southern part of the roundabout and the northern part of the Post Office site stand on the site of a collegiate church and sanctuary founded in 750 by Withu, King of Kent, hugely expanded in 1056 by Ingebrian, Earl of Essex and issued with a Royal Charter in 1068 by William the Conqueror. The site of the church was cleared in 1818 in preparation for the construction of the Post Office.^[1]

The poet Thomas Flatman was born in a house in Aldersgate Street in 1633. As with most historic buildings on this stretch of road, the building no longer stands.

134 Aldersgate Street for many years had a sign claiming "This was Shakespeare's House".^[2] Although the building was very close to the nearby Fortune Playhouse, there is no documentary evidence surviving to indicate that Shakespeare resided here; a subsidy roll from 1598 shows a "William Shakespeare" as owner of the property, but there is nothing to indicate that it is the playwright. The building no longer exists, and Barbican tube station now occupies the site. The nearby Shakespeare Tower is named for this (tenuous) connection.

Barbican tube station was originally named "Aldersgate Street" when it opened in 1865. It was renamed "Aldersgate" in 1910, "Aldersgate and Barbican" in 1923, and "Barbican" in 1968.^[3]

Most of the buildings on Aldersgate Street were destroyed or badly damaged in World War II. The entire length of the eastern side of the street is now occupied by the huge 40 acre (162,000m²) Barbican residential and arts complex.^[4]

[edit] John Wesley

In May 1738 clergyman John Wesley attended a meeting of the Moravians in Aldersgate Street. While attending the meeting, he underwent a profound religious experience, describing it in his journal thus:

"In the evening I went unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter to nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine and saved me from the law of sin and death."^[5]

This moment was for Wesley an awakening to the assurance found in salvation by grace alone and has been referred to by scholars as a defining moment in the Methodist movement.

In 1739 Wesley broke with the Moravians and founded the Methodist Society of England. In the following years, the Methodist church spread rapidly, becoming one of the most influential Christian denominations in the world, particularly in the United States and the British Empire. A memorial at the believed site of the Moravian chapel (its exact address is not known, but it is believed to have been at 28 Aldersgate Street) marks the site of the meeting, and Wesley's Chapel in nearby City Road remains a major focal point of the international Methodist movement.

[edit] Goswell Road

Goswell Road is a road in the south of the London Borough of Islington. It runs north from the border of the City of London to The Angel. There is dispute over the origins of the name, with some sources claiming the road was named after a nearby garden called 'Goswelle' or 'Goderell' which belonged to Robert de Ufford, 1st Earl of Suffolk,^[6] whilst others state it derives from "God's Well", and the traditional pagan practice of well-worship.^[7]

It is mostly occupied by offices and shops, and by the main campus of City University. It also contains the central library of the Society of Genealogists, one of London's most important reference collections^[8] and the Headquarters of EWS Railways at 310 Goswell Road.

The New River originally passed along Goswell Road before turning to terminate at New River Head on Rosebery Avenue.^[9] The course of the river at this point is now entirely underground, and no trace of it can be seen at the surface.

[edit] James Parrott and the four-minute mile

Some sources (notably Olympic medallist Peter Radford^[10]) contend that Goswell Road was the starting point for the first successful four-minute mile run, by James Parrott on 9 May 1770.^[11] Parrott's route began on Goswell Road, before turning down Old Street, finishing at St Leonard's, Shoreditch. Although timing methods at this time were accurate enough, following the invention of the chronometer by John Harrison, to measure the four minutes correctly, and sporting authorities of the time accepted the claim as genuine, the record is not recognised by modern sporting bodies.^[12]

[edit] The Dame Alice Owen's School bombing

On 15 October 1940, approximately 150 people were sheltering in the basement of Dame Alice Owen's School, then situated on Goswell Road. A large parachute bomb hit the building directly, causing the structure to collapse and blocking access to the basement. The blast wave from the bomb caused the pipeline carrying the New River to rupture, flooding the shelter and killing the majority of shelterers.^[13]

A memorial to the victims of the bombing stands in Owen's Fields at the northern end of Goswell Road.

[edit] Islington High Street

Islington High Street is, as the name suggests, the former High Street of the village of Islington, now completely subsumed by London. Only a very short section of this road between City Road and Liverpool Road is designated as part of the A1.

The earliest reference to Islington High Street is its appearance on a 1590 map of the area. At this time, nine inns (including the famous Angel, which has subsequently given its name to the area), as well as housing and a public pond were shown lining the street.^[14] Then as now, Islington was and is unusual in that the village church, St. Mary's, does not stand on the high street but is some way off on Upper Street.

In 1716 Islington High Street came under the control of the newly-formed Islington Turnpike Trust. The Trust grew rapidly, and soon had control of most major roads in the area, building a number of major road arteries through the expanding residential areas, including Caledonian Road, Euston Road, City Road and New North Road.^[15]

The Peacock Inn at 11 Islington High Street dates from 1564, although the current facade dates from 1857. It featured in Tom Brown's Schooldays as the inn at which Tom stays prior to travelling to Rugby. It closed in 1962, although the building still stands.^[16]

Angel tube station on Islington High Street has the longest escalator on the London Underground system, at 318 steps.^[17] In 2006 a Norwegian man made headlines after skiing down the escalator at the station^[18]

[edit] Upper Street

Upper Street is the main shopping street of the Islington borough of inner north London. It runs roughly north from Islington High Street to Highbury Corner.

The hilltop village of Islington originally consisted of two streets in addition to the High Street: Upper Street and Lower Street, which diverged from the High Street at Islington Green and both date back to at least the 12th century.^[19] Henry VIII hunted duck in the ponds off Upper Street,^[20] while Walter Raleigh lived in Upper Street and owned a pub in Lower Street.^[21] Lower Street has since been renamed Essex Road.

St. Mary's Church, Islington was built in 1754^[22] and dominates the Islington skyline. It is still in use today, and is a major venue for performances of traditional religious music. The Little Angel Theatre is a children's puppet theatre in a former Temperance hall, behind the church.

The fields around Upper Street, with their close proximity to the growing city of London, were a major farming area. Islington was the home of the Royal Agricultural Hall, and a number of pubs and shops existed along the street to serve farmers and visitors to the hall.^[23]

In the 18th century Upper Street began to be redeveloped from an agricultural to a residential area. Ten houses were built in 1768 (later named Hornsey Row), and a further group built immediately south of Hornsey Row in 1792.^[24] William Roxby Beverley, the first mathematician to solve the problem of a "magic knight's tour" (a variant on the knight's tour in which the numbered steps form a magic square) resided in these buildings,^[25] now replaced by Islington Town Hall.

In recent years it has become extremely fashionable, and contains numerous pubs and restaurants,^[26] including the now closed Granita where Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were said to have made their deal on leadership once the Labour Party won power.^[27] The southern end of Upper Street also houses the Mall Antiques Arcade, built from a derelict tram shed in 1979, and now one of the world's largest collections of antiques dealers;^[28] there is also an antiques market nearby at Camden Passage.

Upper Street was one of the settings for local resident^[29] Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. The London-based sections of the later books are set in and around Upper Street, the home address of "Fenchurch".^[30] In addition, the character of Hotblack Desiato is named after a local estate agent.^[31]

[edit] Places of interest on Upper Street

Upper Street houses Islington Town Hall, and the adjacent Islington Museum. It also contains the Hope and Anchor, formerly one of the most important venues of the 1970s and 80s punk and new wave scenes, hosting performances by Madness, U2 and Spandau Ballet, among others (and Shakin' Stevens). The Stranglers album Live at the Hope and Anchor was recorded here. The building is still in use as a music venue today.^[32]

Upper Street is unusual in being one of the few streets in London (along with adjoining Liverpool Road) to have a "high pavement". This was constructed to protect pedestrians from being splashed by the large numbers of animals using the road to reach the Royal Agricultural Hall; as a consequence, the pavement of the street is approximately 1 m above the road surface for some of the length of the street.^[33]

In 2005 Islington Council launched "Technology Mile", a project to turn Upper Street in a large scale wi-fi hotspot. Using routers mounted on lampposts anyone with a wireless enabled device can connect to Council services and the internet the entire length of Upper Street, although the best signal is found in the Islington Green/St. Mary's church areas.

[edit] Upper Street and the radical left

In the 1970s & 80s Upper Street was a focal point of the radical left. It was home to Sisterwrite, Britain's first feminist bookshop, as well as the Trotskyist Pioneer Books, the anarchist Rising Free shop (famous for stealing stock from other shops to sell in theirs) and the socialist Red Books.^[34] In the 1980s, Upper Street was home to the Islington Action Group for the Unwaged, a major far left campaigning and activist group, and to the squatter-run Molly's Cafe, a focal point for the anarchist and squatting movement.^[35] Upper Street made headlines on 23 July 1995, when the Reclaim the Streets movement took over the street, barricaded it to traffic and held a long party in the street.^[36]

[edit] Holloway Road

After reaching the eight-way Highbury Corner interchange, the A1 turns north-west as Holloway Road. The origins of the name are disputed; some believe that it derives from Hollow due to the dip in the road, whilst some believe it derives from Hallow and refers to the road's historic significance as part of the pilgrimage route to Walsingham. No documentary evidence can be found to support either derivation.

Holloway Road is one of north London's most important shopping streets, containing major Waitrose, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, James Selby and Argos stores as well as numerous smaller shops. Holloway Road is the site of the main campus of the much-renamed London Metropolitan University (formerly Northern Polytechnic Institute, Polytechnic of North London and University of North London),^[37] probably best known for its striking deconstructivist Orion Building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, which dominates the central stretch of Holloway Road,^[38] and of the headquarters of the National Union of Students^[39] and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.^[40] Most of the shops are clustered in the Nag's Head area, near the junction with Seven Sisters Road.

The earliest record giving the name of the road as The Holloway dates from 1307. The main stretch of Holloway Road runs through the site of the villages of Tollington and Stroud. The exact time of their founding is not known, but the earliest record of them dates from 1000. The names ceased to be used by the late 17th century, but are still preserved in the local place names "Tollington Park" and "Stroud Green";^[41] since that time, the area has been known as Holloway.

In recent years, Holloway Road has become a major focal point for the sale of smuggled tobacco, with large numbers of illegal tobacco dealers congregating in the area. It is believed that this easy availability of cheap tobacco is the primary reason for Islington's very high smoking rate.^[42]

The northern point of Holloway Road is the complex interchange at Archway, where the A1 leaves the historic route of the Great North Road. The traditional Great North Road heads northeast up Highgate Hill (now the B519) before turning north at Highgate to cross the current A1 route. The A1 heads north along the relatively recently built Archway Road. The construction of the interchange left a few buildings isolated in the centre of the roundabout, including the Archway Tavern, made famous on the cover of The Kinks' 1971 album Muswell Hillbillies.^[43]

[edit] Churches

Holloway Road contains two significant London churches. St Mary Magdalene is situated in St Mary Magdalene Gardens near the southern end of the road. Built by William Wickings in 1814, it is one of the best preserved early 19th century churches in London.^[44] Charles Barry, Jr.'s St John's Church is a leading example of Gothic architecture and dominates the northern end of the road.

[edit] Holloway Road in popular culture

Record producer Joe Meek, responsible amongst other things for Telstar by The Tornados, a massive UK and US no. 1 record in 1962, and the highly influential 1959 album I Hear a New World, lived, worked, and committed suicide at 304 Holloway Road,^[45] where he is commemorated by an unofficial blue plaque (actually black). Sex Pistols singer John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) claims to have been born and raised in side-street Benwell Road,^[46] although no documentary evidence survives of this. The road also features heavily as the home of a fictionalised Meek in Jake Arnott's The Long Firm trilogy, and was the setting for George and Weedon Grossmith's Diary of a Nobody.

[edit] Railway stations on Holloway Road

As one of London's primary transport routes during the 19th century railway boom, Holloway Road contains a number of railway stations.

Highbury Corner is the site of Highbury & Islington station, one of London's most important transport interchanges. The Victoria Line, Great Northern & City Railway (now part of First Capital Connect) and North London Line converge at this location. From 2010 it will also be the northern terminus of the East London Line.^[47]

The huge station building was badly damaged by a V-1 flying bomb in 1944 and never rebuilt. The remainder of the building was demolished in 1966 in preparation for the construction of the Victoria Line;^[48] the only surface building is a small entrance hall, set back from the main road and hidden from view behind a post office.

Holloway Road tube station opened with the Piccadilly Line in 1906,^[49] next door to an existing Great Northern Railway main line station^[50] built in 1852. The main line station closed in 1915.^[51] Although Holloway Road is the nearest station to the Emirates Stadium, trains do not stop here on match days due to concerns about overcrowding.^[52]

Upper Holloway railway station was built in 1868 as part of the Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway.^[53] It is served by trains on the Gospel Oak to Barking Line, which now forms part of the London Overground network.

Archway tube station is not actually situated on Holloway Road, but approximately 10 m off the main road on Junction Road, underneath the architecturally striking Archway Tower. Originally known as "Highgate", it was the original northern terminus of the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway and until 1940 was the northern terminus of the Northern Line.

[edit] Archway Road

After the Archway roundabout, the A1 veers away from the historic Great North Road route into a cutting, and becomes Archway Road. The traditional Great North Road at this point heads up a very steep hill to the village of Highgate before passing back down on the northern side. By the early 19th century, this was proving unsuitable for increasingly heavy traffic, and the new Archway Road, crossing the hill at a shallower gradient, was authorised in 1810, financed by tolls. The tolls were abolished in 1876 and traffic increased substantially thereafter, particularly after the introduction of trams on the road.^[54] In 1970 the road was substantially widened from the Archway roundabout to a point just north of the Hornsey Lane Bridge (see below). It was originally intended to widen the length of the road, but a successful protest campaign led to the widening being abandoned; this is generally considered the first successful road protest in the UK.^[55]

The road passes north in cutting in a short dual carriageway through Highgate Hill and under Hornsey Lane before narrowing back to a single carriageway and passing through the eastern end of Haringey. It then veers northeast, crossing the original route of the Great North Road at a point just west of Highgate Wood.

With the influx of Jews to London in the early 20th century, Archway Road became a focal point of London's Jewish community. Highgate Synagogue opened in 1930 at 88 Archway Road, and moved to 200 Archway Road in 1950.^[56]

While Archway Road is an important shopping street, it lacks the large supermarkets and superstores of Holloway Road, and instead retains long rows of small specialist shops.^[57]

The large Jackson's Lane Centre, built in a large converted church near the peak of the hill, is one of north London's leading community arts venues.^[58]

[edit] Hornsey Lane Bridge

During Thomas Telford's construction of Archway Road, it was originally intended that it would pass through Highgate Hill in tunnel. However, the tunnel collapsed, leaving an inadvertent cutting through the hill. In 1813, John Nash built a bridge, known as the Archway, to carry the ancient Hornsey Lane over the cutting.^[59] Between 1897 and 1900, Nash's bridge was replaced with the present cast-iron structure, officially called the "Hornsey Lane Bridge" but locally known as Suicide Bridge.^[60] Suicide Bridge is, as the name would suggest, one of the world's most significant locations for suicides, and is the only significant suicide bridge to pass over land rather than water. It was the subject of Johnny Burke's 2006 film The Bridge.^[61] As one of the locations in London most associated with depression and mental illness, Suicide Bridge was the venue for the mental illness campaign group Mad Pride's inaugural vigil.^[62]

The bridge is accessible from the Archway Road level by a steep flight of steps and as one of the highest points in London, it offers impressive views over London and is a popular spot for photographers.

Hornsey Lane Bridge marks the boundary between Islington and Haringey, and consequently the official boundary between Inner London and Outer London. Although technically the boundary runs down the centre of the bridge, in practice the bridge is treated as part of Haringey and the land beneath it as part of Islington. For historic reasons, the bridge itself is owned and maintained by the City of London Corporation.

[edit] Highgate Station & the Northern Heights scheme

Although Highgate tube station is today a minor stop on the Northern Line, under the Northern Heights project, part of the New Works Programme of the 1930s, it was to have become a major transport interchange. Only the low-level Northern Line station is now in use; however, Charles Holden's abandoned & derelict high-level interchange station remains standing and can be seen from the footpath parallel to Archway Road leading north from the station entrance.^[63] On a clear day, the outlines of the London Underground roundel can still be seen on the brickwork of the station platforms. The abandoned railway lines south to Finsbury Park and north to Muswell Hill were converted to pathways in the 1970s, and remain open today as the "Parkland Walk".^[64]

[edit] Aylmer Road

At the northern end of Archway Road, the road re-intersects with the traditional Great North Road route (at this point called "North Hill"). The roads almost immediately re-diverge, with the Great North Road route heading north as the A1000 towards Finchley, Whetstone and Barnet and the A1 heading west as Aylmer Road. The two routes do not meet again until they converge at Hatfield, well to the north of London.^[65]

Aylmer Road is a very short stretch of road, running east for less than half a mile between the junction with the A1000 in Haringey to the junction with The Bishop's Avenue in Barnet, where it turns northwest and becomes Lyttelton Road. The entire southern side of the road is taken up by Highgate Golf Course, while the northern side is a mixture of small shops, flats and allotments.^[66]

The road is named for General Sir Fenton John Aylmer, VC KCB,^[67] British commander at the Siege of Kut in World War I. He received the Victoria Cross for his part in the assault on Nilt Fort on 2 December 1891.^[68]

[edit] The Bishop's Avenue

Immediately before becoming Lyttelton Road, Aylmer Road crosses The Bishop's Avenue. As with much of the surrounding area, this land was owned by the Bishop of London following a land grant in 704. In 1894, the Church let building plots for construction of homes on the road. In the 20th century much of the land was sold by the Church, which now only owns one house on the road (46 The Bishop's Avenue) and a nearby residential home.^[69]

Despite the relatively modest character of the surrounding area, this small 66-house street (and the parallel Winnington Road) have become the most expensive residential area in the world.^[70] In 2006, the smallest houses in the street were selling for £5 million ($10 million), while a larger house was sold in the same year for £50 million ($100 million). Ten of the houses are owned by the House of Saud, whilst other notable owners of houses on the street include controversial businessman & fraudster Gerald Ronson,^[71] pornography & newspaper magnate Richard Desmond (owner of two houses)^[72] and billionaire industrialist Lakshmi Mittal.^[73]

The road was repeatedly mentioned in Elton John's 1988 reworking of Give Peace a Chance ("Why not talk about Bishop's Avenue/I've got a lovely house on Bishop's Avenue").^[74]

[edit] Lyttelton Road

After crossing the Bishop's Avenue, the A1 becomes Lyttelton Road. Lyttelton Road was built in 1931 in an attempt to divert traffic away from the congested suburb of Finchley,^[70] and runs east-west along the northern foot of Highgate Hill between Hampstead Garden Suburb and East Finchley.

Lyttelton Road is for the most part a nondescript residential road, characterised by large detached houses built with the road in the 1930s.^[75] Due to high traffic on the road and consequent noise and pollution, the houses are set much further back from the road than is typical for English housing, leading to extremely wide pavements and verges in addition to large front gardens. House prices are far lower than on surrounding streets, with houses typically selling for around a tenth of the price of similarly-sized homes on the adjoining The Bishop's Avenue & Winnington Road.^[76]

On the northern side of Lyttelton road stands the Belvedere Court block of flats. Built with the road in the 1930s, the building is now Grade II Listed as a leading example of 1930s architecture.^[77]

[edit] Market Place

After passing playing fields to the south, Lyttelton Road crosses Kingsley Way and becomes Market Place.

As the name suggests, Market Place was formerly the site of a street market. Whilst no trace of the market now remains other than the name, this short stretch of road is still an important shopping district and the site of the local post office and library.

[edit] Falloden Way

Immediately west of Market Place the A1 becomes Falloden Way, which runs west before turning northwest and converging with the North Circular Road.

Falloden Way was built between 1914 as part of a programme of planned extensions to Hampstead Garden Suburb^[78] and runs on embankment due to a dip in the ground caused by the valley of Mutton Brook, which runs parallel to the road immediately to the south for its entire length. The north side of the road is occupied by 1930s housing blocks, whilst the southern side is occupied by a narrow strip of parkland following the brook, and by the northern tip of Big Wood & Little Wood (see below).

Falloden Way is a notoriously dangerous stretch of road. The layout of bus stops and misunderstanding/ignoring of rules regarding their use means buses are often forced to turn sharply out of the stops into fast moving traffic or to stop short of the bus stops presenting a hazard to other drivers.^[79] Additionally, the layout of pedestrian crossings mean a number of pedestrians attempt to run across the road rather than make their way to the inconveniently sited crossings.^[80] In 2006 two bus stops were suspended from use due to the hazards caused by traffic having to cross onto the wrong carriageway to pass stopped buses.^[81]

[edit] Henly's Corner

The western end of Falloden Way is dominated by the complicated Henly's Corner interchange. The A406 runs from the northeast to converge with the A1 from the southeast. The roads run concurrently to a junction with the A598 north-south road, known as Finchley Road to the south of the junction and Regents Park Road to the north (confusingly, as the road is nowhere near Regents Park). The roads continue as a concurrency to the west, past the enormous Finchley Synagogue before diverging; the A406 turns sharply south to parallel Dollis Brook to Brent Cross, while the A1 turns northwest as Great North Way. Seven smaller roads also meet the A1 along the Henly's Corner stretch of road, while a complex system of subways beneath the interchange connect the various pedestrian footways.

Due to concerns about the safety of the underpasses, a number of people prefer to cross at surface level, leading to a number of serious road traffic accidents at the junction. There has been a sustained campaign in recent years to replace the subways with pedestrian crossings^[82] or footbridges.^[83]

[edit] Big Wood & Little Wood

Immediately south of Falloden Way are twin patches of woodland known as Big Wood and Little Wood. They are two of the few surviving remnants of the ancient woodland that once covered what is now north London. Big Wood covers a little over 7 hectares (70,000m²) while Little Wood covers around 2 hectares (20,000m²).

In 704 Wealdheri, Bishop of London was granted the land in the area by Tyrhtel, Bishop of Hereford. From the 8th century until 1933 the land continued to belong to the Bishop of London, the western edge of Big Wood marking the edge of the estate. At the time of the Domesday Book, the land was noted as being "capable of supporting 1000 pigs".^[84]

Over the years the forest was gradually cleared, leaving twin patches of isolated woodland. The exact dates are not known, but it is known that Big Wood and Little Wood were separated by fields by 1767.

In 1907, the woods became surrounded by the newly-built town of Hampstead Garden Suburb. Ownership of the land was ceded by the Bishop of London to the newly created Municipal Borough of Finchley in 1933, which in 1965 passed to its successor, the London Borough of Barnet.^[85]

Big Wood is dominated by large oak trees. It also contains one of London's highest concentrations of Wild Service Trees, while the undergrowth is dominated by Ivy, Yellow Archangel, Common Bluebell and Guelder Rose. As a relatively isolated patch of woodland, it attracts large numbers of birds now rarely seen in the rest of London, particularly Owls and Green Woodpeckers.^[86]

The nearby Little Wood, now separated from Big Wood by housing, is the site of the Garden Suburb Theatre, an open-air theatre built in 1920.^[87]

The nearby Park Farm, on the opposite side of Falloden Way, was owned by circus proprietor "Lord" George Sanger between 1904 and Sanger's murder in 1911. Prior to the construction of the Denman's Drive housing on the field between Little and Big Woods, the field was used for grazing elephants.^[84]

Big Wood was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 1999, and is currently owned and managed by Barnet Council. The current gates to the wood on the western boundary are the Hampstead Garden Suburb war memorial and commemorate the 29 local residents who died in World War II.^[88]

[edit] Great North Way

After the Henly's Corner interchange, the A1 turns northwest as Great North Way. The southern section of the road is mainly residential, whilst the northern stretch is dominated by Sunny Hill Park to the south and the sprawling fields of the Copthall Sports Centre to the north. The Copthall Sports Centre complex includes a large running stadium, a number of tennis courts, the ground of Hendon RFC, a full golf course, a Powerleague centre and, unusually, a large cemetery.^[89]

[edit] Finchley Synagogue

On the Great North Way side of the Henly's Corner interchange stands Finchley Synagogue. Popularly known as "Kinloss", after a nearby street, it is one of Europe's largest Orthodox synagogues, with seats for 1,350.^[90] While a synagogue has stood on the site since 1935, the current building dates from 1967.^[91]

[edit] Watford Way

After passing the Copthall complex, the A1 meets the M1 motorway at Fiveways Corner. As most traffic leaves the A1 at this point to join the motorway, the road narrows north of this point. Immediately after passing Fiveways Corner, the A1 turns sharply north under the name of Watford Way.

Watford Way itself actually runs northwards from Brent Cross, well to the south. However, that section south of Fiveways Corner is designated as part of the A41 and is not part of the A1. Between Fiveways Corner and Apex Corner (see below) the A1 and A41 overlap.^[92]

As the stretch of Watford Way north of Fiveways Corner was built as a bypass, and is also very close to the noisy and polluting M1, there is very little construction along this stretch of road.

[edit] Apex Corner

At the northern end of Watford Way is the large Apex Corner roundabout. The A1 and A41 separate, with the A1 turning to run straight north and the A41 turning west, while Selvage Lane runs southwest to Mill Hill and Marsh Lane runs northeast to Totteridge. Although Apex Corner is adjacent to the M1, there is no interchange with the motorway.

As the car parks of shops at Apex Corner overlook the Midland Main Line, the location is extremely popular with trainspotters.^[93]

[edit] Barnet Way/Barnet Bypass

After passing Apex Corner, the A1 runs north and out of London as Barnet Way (also known as Barnet Bypass), built in the 1920s to divert traffic away from Barnet. Although not technically a motorway at this point, the road runs as dual carriageway throughout and is treated as a motorway for most purposes.

After passing Scratchwood (see below), the A1 heads north, skirting the towns of Barnet and Elstree, before turning northeast and running through open countryside to Bignell's Corner.

The "Thatched Barn" on the Barnet Bypass is reported to have been a secret Special Operations Executive base during World War II.^[94] This has still to be officially confirmed.

The Barnet Bypass was also the location of the last Metropolitan Police Police box in use (prior to the reintroduction of a single new box in Earl's Court in 1996).^[95] The box was taken out of use in 1981, seriously inconveniencing the filming of Logopolis which required a functioning police box as a key element and was intended to be filmed at the spot.^[96]

[edit] Moat Mount & Scratchwood

Just north of Apex Corner, the road passes the 140 acre (570,000m²) Moat Mount open space on the east of the A1. This large Victorian park is a popular camping and walking spot for north Londoners.^[97] A large camping and outdoor activity complex for schools, youth groups and probation services was opened in 1997,^[98] while Nan Clark's Lane, running through the park, is supposedly haunted.^[99]

On the western side of the A1 opposite Moat Mount is the ancient forest of Scratchwood. In recent years, Scratchwood Service Station and the surrounding forest has become a popular spot for dogging.^[100]

[edit] Bignell's Corner

At Bignell's Corner the A1 meets the M25 motorway at a large roundabout. North of Bignell's Corner the A1 becomes the A1(M) motorway, and rejoins the historic Great North Road route, running north to Edinburgh. For information on the A1 outside of London, see the main A1 road article.

[edit] References

v • d • e A roads in Zone 1 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme A1 • A10 • A11 • A12 • A13 • A14 • A15 • A16 • A17 • A18 • A19 • A100 • A101 • A102 • A103 • A104 • A105 • A106 • A107 • A109 • A110 • A111 • A118 • A120 • A124 • A127 • A129 A130 • A135 • A140 • A143 • A146 • A148 • A149 • A151 • A153 • A156 • A157 • A158 • A159 • A160 • A165 • A167 • A168 • A170 • A171 • A172 • A173 • A174 • A177 • A179 A180 • A182 • A183 • A189 • A194 • A1000 • A1018 • A1058 • A1066 • A1068 • A1073 • A1078 • A1079 A1081 • A1082 • A1086 • A1101 • A1107 • A1151 • A1156 • A1198 • A1200 • A1202 • A1205 • A1231 • A1300 • A1303 • A1309 List of A roads in Zone 1

Coordinates: 51°34′40″N, 0°08′45″W