A recent read of Ian Fleming’s Moonraker (1954) and mention of the Battle of Britain Memorial has reminded me of what a trek it was to reach the A1 or the M1, A40 etc, and how many changes there have been since then to getting as far as crossing the river Thames - as applicable - let alone a route through London. It was more than just Dover and Folkestone though; there were Ferry Ports all along the South Coast.
My early sixties memories of travelling on the Dover route north included having to use the A2 all the way from Dover to the Medway towns - in those days thick and dark with hop gardens in the summer / autumn period. This was before the M2 opened in 1963 or the Canterbury Bypass in the mid-’70s. If you were going east into Essex you took the Dartford-Tilbury Ferry, as the Dartford Tunnel was still under construction. The Swanscombe drag, now an 8-lane highway was then a narrow, steep hill known as ‘death hill’. And of course all routes through London went straight through the middle, dodging the trolleybuses and market wagons. ‘Nother world really!
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I didn’t realise that Sabre had that range of maps available, I had found somewhere that you could get old OS maps up but only sheet by sheet.
Its a nice resource.
I can’t believe that you are even older than me. 
Perhaps I never needed to use those routes in the old days. 
But I can’t remember such problems. 
I don’t think I’m older than you! I was just a youngster then, but had a real interest in the road, routes and vehicles. I was describing the routes as observed from the family car.
It was just that I remembered breaking down with my Kew Dodge artic near where the old A2 met the M25 and while it was repaired at a nearby garage I had a night out in a large hotel near the junction and I could swear the Tunnel was open then. That was in the early 60s. They had a Magirus Deutz vehicle in the garage at the time. Also around that time I worked for an owner driver based at Dixons of Derby and he had me running coal out of the Kent pits. I suppose we could have gone all the way to London to turn north though because I certainly never took, or even knew of the existance of, a ferry, apart from the Woolwich one of course.
It was with that Commer of his that my brakes froze on coming down that really steep hill, it wasn’t cold, but the compressor wasn’t up to the job and a few dabs at the brakes and they all stayed firmly on. Better than not at all and piling up down the bottom of course. 
The tunnel opened in late 1963, the same year as the M2 opened.
Dartford tunnel opened end 1963.
A20, A25, A 232, A 240, A 243, A312 and A 412 were all major strategic routes to the A40 and A41.Also North and South Circulars.I use them all even more now to avoid the M25 and M1.
Tower Bridge was a common junction linking Kent for traffic choosing to go through London.
Southampton the A34 was the default route as now.
Newhaven obviously A23 to A25 or A232 etc.