A40 road in London

A40
Route information
History	Constructed 1920s–1992
Major junctions
East end	M40
West end	Denham Roundabout
Location
Country	Primary destinations	M40 M25
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

The A40 is a major

.

The road has been re-routed several times in the last 100 years – part of the route of the London section of the A40 was laid out in the 1920s and 1930s when

. The route is called The London to Fishguard Trunk Road (A40) in legal documents and acts.

City of London – City of Westminster

The A40 officially starts where

.

Oxford Street is Europe's busiest shopping street. Many chain stores have their flagship store on the street, including

) and became the A40.

Now that Westway is part of the A40, the road no longer follows its western route from the Marble Arch roundabout. To continue on the A40 from Oxford Street, turn northwards into Portman Street (

(Marylebone Road) links with the Marylebone Flyover and the start of Westway.

Westway

Westway is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) long, elevated

, Westway lost its motorway status.

The construction of Westway caused major disruption, with the demolition of houses and roads. When opened it was the largest continuous concrete structure in Britain.

Route

Westway starts from the Marylebone Flyover. Here the Marylebone Road (

Western Avenue

.

Between the Marylebone Flyover and Westway, a 100-metre section of surface-level road allows westbound traffic from the Marylebone Flyover to exit towards the Harrow Road (A404) and eastbound traffic from the Harrow Road to access the Flyover. Eastbound traffic from the Westway cannot exit here to reach the Edgware Road and must continue ahead to the Marylebone Flyover.

After passing

.

Background

Leaving Marble Arch, the A40 continued along

. Before . Still busy, the Uxbridge Road was redesignated the A4020, when Western Avenue was changed from being the A403, and the A40 route changed accordingly,

From

. The M41 and the A40(M) were downgraded to the A3220 and A40 at the same time in 2000.

Western Avenue

Starting at the junction with Old Oak Common Lane and Old Oak Road, East Acton, Western Avenue is approximately 10 miles (16 km) long. This

.

Denham Roundabout

The

).

When the M40 from Denham to High Wycombe was built, Western Avenue was extended at high level to make an end-on join with the motorway, and a larger roundabout was built below the bridges carrying the motorway. When first laid out, the roundabout had the traffic going round it clockwise in the usual way, but as traffic volumes built up the layout was altered – so that the traffic moved round the roundabout in both directions – making it almost a ring road with mini-roundabouts at the points where other roads join the main roundabout.

Gallery

• 
  Holborn Viaduct carries the A40
• 
  High Holborn, Holborn
• 
  Staple Inn, with its distinctive timber-framed façade, on the south side of High Holborn
• 
  The British Museum is just to the north of the A40
• 
  New Oxford Street
• 
  Oxford Street, with Centre Point in the background
• 
  The view west along Oxford Street in December 2006, showing Selfridges department store in the background
• 
  Marble Arch
• 
  Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park
• 
  BBC Television Centre, White City
• 
  Westway at Paddington
• 
  Sculpture "The Window Cleaner" by Allan Sly outside the Edgware Road London Underground station
• 
  Uxbridge Road on the north side of the Green, Shepherd's Bush, formerly A40
• 
  Westway flyover junction at Ladbroke Grove, looking east
• 
  Crowds on Ladbroke Grove during the Notting Hill Carnival
• 
  West Cross Route, looking north towards Westway
• 
  The Hoover Building on Western Avenue in Perivale is an example of Art Deco architecture designed by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners (1932–38)

Part of a larger plan

The West Cross Route in The

as an elevated road. Opening in 1970, together with Westway, it runs north–south between the northern elevated .

In 2000 its status was downgraded to an A-road – a short, 0.75 miles (1.21 km) dual carriageway section of the A3220.

Westfield

A grade-separated junction was built approximately halfway along this section of the A3220 in 2008 to connect to the Westfield London shopping development. This shopping precinct in White City (London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham) is on a site bounded by the West Cross Route, Westway and Wood Lane (A219), and opened on 30 October 2008.^[1]

References

External links

• A40 in central London at SABRE (The Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts)

51°30′55″N 0°05′54″W / 51.5153°N 0.0983°W / 51.5153; -0.0983