Carryfast:
cav551:
I’ve been struggling with this one because it doesn’t look much sense on a modern map, so the only reason I can think is that the North Circular was nothing like it is today but carried the same traffic. We went to Keymarkets at Brandon a lot, particularly load and go so getting away mid morning or midday. Start at Paddock Wood.Join the A 228 at Beltring go through East Peckham and up Seven mile Lane to the A20. Grind up the old Wrotham Hill and follow the A20 to Cliftons r/a at Eltham; right Westhorne ave and South Circular from Well Hall r/a and over the Woolwich Ferry. A117 and what is now South Woolwich Manor Way up to East Ham, left and very short right up East Ham High st to join the A116 across Wanstead Flats to Leytonston.
Seems like a drastic alternative assuming Dartford Tunnel was an option…
Yes it does seem very strange now but the M25 and M11 hadn’t been built in the early and mid '70s so from the Dartford Tunnel to go roughly North you needed to either go east first to the A128 and up through Brentwood which we did when going to Halstead or go up through Beacontree Heath which we did as an alternative to a Woolwich ferry route when going to Hainault (Pricerite?? or was it Macfisheries??). Otherwise it would have been A13 to Barking then Ilford, Gants Hill, Chigwell. We only really used the Dartford Tunnel for Essex and East Anglia.