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!
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.