Gallows Corner is a major road junction in

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romford ...

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality * ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record * "Greater" (song), by MercyMe, 2014 *Greater Bank, an Australian ...

, England. It was the site of the gallows of the Liberty of Havering, hence the name.

History

During the 18th century, Gallows Corner was a copse-sided part of the road and, approachable by meagre path only from the south or various small lanes in other directions, a favourite spot for waylaying coaches. It was close to the site for the gallows, thought to be north of what is now Eastern Avenue (west), on a grassy stretch below Masefield Crescent. Several entries in the Romford registers of burials of felons confirm many of those executed there in the 16th and 17th centuries. In grounds of Ravensbourne School is where the small jail stood where the condemned were held. The former name of Straight Road was Gallows Lane.

Junction

The current junction is a large roundabout with five exits and a flyover. The exits are: *Westbound: A12 (Eastern Avenue), towards

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 ...

. *South-westbound: A118 (Main Road), towards Romford. *South-eastbound:

A127 The A127, also known as the Southend Arterial Road, is a major road in Essex, England. It was constructed as a new arterial road project in the 1920s, linking Romford with Southend-on-Sea, replacing the older A13. Formerly classified as a t ...

(Southend Arterial Road), towards

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

. *North-eastbound: A12 (Colchester Road), towards

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in wh ...

. *Northbound: Straight Road, a minor road towards

Harold Hill Harold Hill is a suburban area in the London Borough of Havering, East London. northeast of Charing Cross. It is a district centre in the London Plan. The name refers to King Harold II, who held the manor of Havering-atte-Bower, and who was k ...

Flyover

The flyover links Eastern Avenue (East) with the Southend Arterial Road. According to the ''

Romford Recorder The ''Romford Recorder'' is a local newspaper for the town of Romford, the principal town of the East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the dire ...

'' it was erected in 1970 by Terry and Co; it takes the form of a system of

prefabricated Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...

units (called the Braithwaite FliWay) that was cheaper and quicker to build than a conventional underpass or cast ''in-situ'' flyover. It is notorious for being angular, with sudden changes of slope rather than a smooth arch. The flyover was closed for several months in 2008 for remedial work carried out to the road deck, with several sections replaced. It was found in final inspection that the bridge parapets had suffered severe corrosion. The bridge was fitted with emergency barriers which meant that traffic was restricted to one lane in the London-bound (westbound) direction only. It re-opened to two-way traffic in 2009.

Roundabout

The junction has an above-average number of

collision In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great fo ...

s. Transport for London has put forward proposals to make the junction safer by changing the roundabout layout, adding new white lines and guidance markings, and extending the reduced speed limits on the approaches to the junction. Works were expected to start during spring 2018. Works did not, however, commence in 2018; the local radio station Time 107.5 reported in July 2021 that TfL was planning to submit a bid to the

Department of Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

in Spring 2022 to access £50m of Government funding to address the issues with the junction.

In media

The junction is referred to in the film ''

Layer Cake A layer cake (US English) or sandwich cake (UK English) is a cake consisting of multiple stacked sheets of cake, held together by frosting or another type of filling, such as jam or other preserves. Most cake recipes can be adapted for laye ...

''.

References

{{LB Havering Districts of the London Borough of Havering Areas of London Road junctions in London Roundabouts in England Romford