The A308 is a road in England in two parts. The first part runs from

Central London Central London is the innermost part of London, in England, spanning several boroughs. Over time, a number of definitions have been used to define the scope of Central London for statistics, urban planning and local government. Its characteris ...

to Putney Bridge. The second part runs from just beyond

Putney Heath Wimbledon Common is a large open space in Wimbledon, southwest London. There are three named areas: Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath, and Putney Lower Common, which together are managed under the name Wimbledon and Putney Commons totalling 460 ...

to Bisham, Berkshire. It traces four, roughly straight lines, to stay no more than from the Thames. It is a dual carriageway where it is furthest from that river, in

Spelthorne Spelthorne may refer to: * Borough of Spelthorne, a local government district in the county of Surrey, England * Spelthorne (UK Parliament constituency), Surrey constituency in the British House of Commons * Spelthorne College, was a single-cam ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

and forms one of the motorway spurs to the large town of

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

. Other key settlements served are

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, Kingston (London),

Staines upon Thames Staines-upon-Thames is a market town in northwest Surrey, England, around west of central London. It is in the Borough of Spelthorne, at the confluence of the River Thames and Colne. Historically part of Middlesex, the town was transferred to ...

, Windsor and a minor approach to Marlow

Central London part

Kensington and Chelsea

The South Kensington to

section starts at the A4 road opposite Brompton Oratory and follows Fulham Road south-west past Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where it jumps south a block to takeover the

Kings Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

Hammersmith and Fulham

Through broad Fulham which traditionally, as bolstered by its associated London postcode, covers half of the borough, the road becomes New Kings Road, before it ends at the

A219 road A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

( Fulham Palace Road), 100m north of Putney Bridge.

London, Surrey and Berkshire part

Kingston Upon Thames

The hiatus in the road which is Putney and

is a subsumation into the

and then into the A3. The bulk of the road starts, after. It runs from Kingston Vale's Robin Hood Gate roundabout, the only give-way junction of the A3 south-west of Wandsworth and north of

Greatham, Hampshire Greatham ( ) is a village and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Liss, just off the A3 road. The nearest railway station is south of the village, at Liss. Description Greatham is a small vill ...

. The road is named Kingston Vale then Kingston Hill until it falls past

Kingston Hospital Kingston Hospital is an acute hospital in Kingston upon Thames, England. It is managed by the Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. It has an Accident & Emergency Unit, a popular midwife-led Maternity unit, and an sexually transmitted infecti ...

to becomes London Road. Immediately after snaking through central Kingston upon Thames as part of the one-way system, the road passes through a tunnel underneath the

John Lewis Kingston John Lewis Kingston is a John Lewis & Partners department store in Kingston upon Thames, London, England. Opened in September 1990, the store is located adjacent to Kingston Bridge and The Bentall Centre. The building is bisected by the A308 roa ...

department store, before crossing the River Thames at Kingston Bridge where it has another roundabout.

Richmond Upon Thames

The A308 in this borough is called Hampton Court Road, briefly Thames Street and then Upper Sunbury Road. It occupies a space carved out of the Royal Estate for it between Bushy Park and Hampton Court Park, and passes

Hampton Court Palace Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...

including the roundabout opposite the Palace Gates, before continuing west through broad Hampton, passing its prominent parish church and waterworks to exit

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

Surrey

The largely straight road from Hampton Court was surfaced and tolled in the 1780s by the Hampton and Staines Turnpike Trust. In the west its buildings were set back with gardens and therefore it was widened in

in the 1920s. As Staines Road East, the A308 winds past Kempton Park Racecourse,

Sunbury-on-Thames Sunbury-on-Thames (or commonly Sunbury) is a suburban town on the north bank of the River Thames in the Borough of Spelthorne, Surrey, centred southwest of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, in 1965 Sunbury and other ...

and adopts instead of south-west followed after Kingston by west, the direction WNW, allowing it to meet Junction 1 of the M3/the A316 at the Sunbury Cross area also within Sunbury on Thames. On this line, it passes the Sunbury Common part of that town and the south side of the slightly larger town of

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom * Ashford, Kent, a town ** ...

, as Staines Road West and a

dual carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

, passing the Queen Mary Reservoir to form the by-pass to the large town of

Staines-upon-Thames Staines-upon-Thames is a market town in northwest Surrey, England, around west of central London. It is in the Borough of Spelthorne, at the confluence of the River Thames and Colne. Historically part of Middlesex, the town was transferred to ...

, after which it goes back to single carriageway to turn briefly south-west to take the high street roads network, rather than a straight continuation, which becomes the A30, then ends this street as Clarence Street, crosses the Thames (for a second time) at Staines Bridge, and resumes its main third-part orientation. It crosses the

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the lon ...

, that has a large cross-river junction at Junction 13, north of Egham. The road turns north-west, as Windsor Road, in the middle of Runnymede's meadows, with its National Trust buildings and memorials, before leaving Surrey and entering Berkshire.

Berkshire

In Berkshire, the A308 forms the main road of the town of Old Windsor, where it is called Straight Road. It then goes on past the north end of Windsor Great Park, where it is called Albert Road, and through the west side of central Windsor. In Windsor, the A308 is called Osborne Road, Goslar Way and Maidenhead Road which finally re-adopts the normal third part-orientation of WNW. Finally, after sweeping round to its fourth major direction, NNW through Bray under the M4 (the original location of Junction 8), where the road is called Windsor Road and Braywick Road, and wending through

, passing its Victorian

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

, the A308 continues under the names of Gringer Hill, Furze Platt Road and Marlow Road, before terminating at the

A404 road The A404 is a road in the United Kingdom that starts at Paddington in London and terminates near Maidenhead in Berkshire. It is long. Route The road initially follows a course through north-west London via Harlesden, Wembley, Harrow, Nor ...

in the sports-focussed civil parish of Bisham which has its riverside and Abbey ruins 200m north-west. Facing this on the river is the larger, equally well-preserved and green town of Marlow.

References

External links

SABRE Roads Digest – A308
{{DEFAULTSORT:3-0308 Roads in Berkshire Streets in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Streets in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Transport in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Roads in London Streets in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames Roads in Surrey