Old Photos of London
Further to the old motorways gallery, this gallery just shows old London street scenes and photos of major routes in London in the 1960s and 1970s, pictured in old Public Information Films.
To keep it easy we have taken "London" to be everything inside the M25, including the M25 and the Dartford Crossing, but not the roads immediately outside it.
A pre-Worboys road sign at the Chiswick Roundabout, offering directions to far-flung places in the directions they used to be before the motorways were built.
A sign announcing the construction of the M4 Chiswick Flyover, seen from the A4, with an old Routemaster.
A close-up of the gantry sign, showing that the exit is labelled 'North & South Circular Roads', while an unusual decision was taken to write 'London' twice. A giant 'motorway ahead' sign for joining traffic can be seen in the background.
The sign approaching this junction. Another experimental 1960s gantry, too squashed in, with electronic signs included too.
Head west on the M4 between J4 and J4B. This section was later obliterated in a widening project. The small sign says it's 52 miles to Membury services, meaning this must be after 1972.
The M1 Hendon Urban Motorway. Special street lighting was required to ensure the light didn't spill onto the parallel Midland Main Line.
The A40(M) Westway Flyover, supposedly an insight into what more of London would have looked like had the Ringways gone ahead, although this one was especially brutal. On the left is a sign for the now-defunct M41, proudly promising destinations such as Westminster and Brighton - it never made it to either.
Zooming in for a better view. The road is no longer a motorway, and the streetlighting has been taken down.
Heading west now at the start of the controversial road. Curiously, the signs choose not to name the M41 and the A40(M). Oxford is the main forward destination as the M40 ended at J7. "White City" was also an odd choice, and suggests this was a temporary sign that pre-dated the opening of the slip road to Wood Lane.
The approach to the A102(M) Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach from the Horn Lane gyratory on the A206 Woolwich Road.
A battered sign warns that the motorway ends ¼ mile ahead. A large gantry provides matrix symbols to warn of delays.
At the entrance to the tunnel, a messy sign is reluctant to label the road ahead, except to say that it's not the A1 or the M1. Until the M25 was joined together in the 1980s, this would have been the major route to the north. Other signs advise of the height restriction in the tunnel, advise of the escape route for prohibited traffic, and warn that the tunnel's contraflow system isn't in operation and therefore the right-hand lane needs to close.
Although it was based on an existing road, the Blackwall Tunnel approach is a better idea what a typical ringway would be like.
Entering the Blackwall Tunnel, in the older northbound bore with its notoriously low roof and claustrophobic walls.
The M1 as it passes Scratchwood services, pictured in 1982, with the same concrete surface as pictured further up.
The sign for the exit at M11 J5, positioned within roadworks for resurfacing. It is missing a reference to Stansted, but does demonstrate an early use of emergency diversion symbols.
The following exit, where the M11 offers two directions for the M25. Here we see new electronic signals being tested, and the diversion routes continue.
Looking north from the Dartford Toll booth, towards the older western tunnel. Road signs apologise for the roadworks, tell traffic to stay in lane, tell traffic not to overtake, not to exceed the speed limit, and to keep up with the minimum speed limit.
Entering the newer Dartford East tunnel while travelling southbound, with emergency lights to stop traffic. The road layout is curious and difficult to comprehend. It appears to be to allow to vehicles needing assistance to stop before entering the tunnel. Traffic now travels northbound through this tunnel, and the extra lane has been painted out.
A gantry sign, heading north on the M25 at Sunbury in 1988, with the road in its three lane formation.
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