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 character ...
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 4 ...
to
Bisham
Bisham is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. The village is on the River Thames, around south of Marlow in the neighbouring county of Buckinghamshire, and around northwest of Maid ...
, 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,
Surrey and forms one of the motorway spurs to the large town of
Maidenhead. Other key settlements served are
Fulham,
Kingston (London),
Staines upon Thames,
Windsor and a minor approach to
Marlow
Central London part
Kensington and Chelsea
The
South Kensington to
Fulham section starts at the
A4 road This is a list of roads designated A4.
A4 is the name of several roads:
* A004 road (Argentina), a road connecting Buenos Aires-La Plata highway with the Juan María Gutiérrez circle
* A4 motorway (Austria), a road connecting Vienna and Nickels ...
opposite
Brompton Oratory
Brompton Oratory is a large neo-classical Roman Catholic church in the Knightsbridge area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. Its full name is the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or as named in its Grade II* archit ...
and follows
Fulham Road south-west past
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is a 430-bed teaching hospital located in Chelsea, London. Although the hospital has been at its present site since only 1993, the hospital has a rich history in that it serves as the new site for the Westminst ...
, 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
Fulham Palace, in Fulham, London, previously in the former English county of Middlesex, is a Grade I listed building with medieval origins and was formerly the principal residence of the Bishop of London. The site was the country home of th ...
Road), 100m north of
Putney Bridge.
London, Surrey and Berkshire part
Kingston Upon Thames
The hiatus in the road which is
Putney
Putney () is a district of southwest London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
History
Putney is an ancient par ...
and
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 4 ...
is a subsumation into 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'' ...
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
Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.
Toponymy
Wandsworth takes its nam ...
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
Bushy Park in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames is the second largest of London's Royal Parks, at in area, after Richmond Park. The park, most of which is open to the public, is immediately north of Hampton Court Palace and Hampton ...
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 chief ...
including the roundabout opposite the Palace Gates, before continuing west through broad
Hampton
Hampton may refer to:
Places Australia
* Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia
* Hampton, New South Wales
* Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region
* Hampton, Victoria
Canada
*Hampton, New Brunswick
* ...
, passing its prominent
parish church and waterworks to exit
Greater London.
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
Spelthorne in the 1920s.
As Staines Road East, the A308 winds past
Kempton Park Racecourse
Kempton Park Racecourse is a horse racing track together with a licensed entertainment and conference venue in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England, 16 miles south-west of Charing Cross, London and on a border of Greater London. The site has of ...
,
Sunbury-on-Thames 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
**B ...
, 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
The Queen Mary Reservoir is one of the largest of London's reservoirs supplying fresh water to London and parts of surrounding counties, and is located in the Borough of Spelthorne in Surrey. The reservoir covers and is above the surrounding are ...
to form the by-pass to the large town of
Staines-upon-Thames, 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
Staines Bridge is a road bridge running in a south-west to north-east direction across the River Thames in Surrey. It is on the modern A308 road and links the boroughs of Spelthorne and Runnymede at Staines-upon-Thames and Egham Hythe. The br ...
, 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 lo ...
, that has a large cross-river junction at Junction 13, north of
Egham
Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...
.
The road turns north-west, as Windsor Road, in the middle of
Runnymede
Runnymede is a water-meadow alongside the River Thames in the English county of Surrey, and just over west of central London. It is notable for its association with the sealing of Magna Carta, and as a consequence is, with its adjoining ...
'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
Old Windsor is a large village and civil parish, in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, England. It is bounded by the River Thames to the east and the Windsor Great Park to the west.
Etymology
The name originates from ol ...
, 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
Maidenhead, 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
Bisham is a village and civil parish in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. The village is on the River Thames, around south of Marlow in the neighbouring county of Buckinghamshire, and around northwest of Maid ...
which has its riverside and
Abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conc ...
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