The New Road was a
toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...
built across fields around the northern boundaries of London, the first part of which opened in 1756. The route comprises the modern-day A501 (
Old Marylebone Road,
Marylebone Road,
Euston Road,
Pentonville Road
Pentonville Road is a road in Central London that runs west to east from Kings Cross to City Road at The Angel, Islington. The road is part of the London Inner Ring Road and part of the boundary of the London congestion charge zone.
The roa ...
,
City Road
City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at Angel where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for the eastern part of Lon ...
, and
Moorgate
Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall.
The gate was demolished in 1762, bu ...
).
Background
In the
18th century London began to grow rapidly. Until 1750 there was only one road crossing over the
River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
, namely
London Bridge. But the capital started to sprawl, first
along the river from
the City to
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
, and then north past
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
(in medieval times, the king's hunting grounds) to
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...
and beyond.
The Proceedings of the
Old Bailey Online Project give a good overview of the demographic growth of the capital. From the early
19th century, London was the largest city in the world.
Early history
In 1755 influential residents of
St Marylebone,
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
and
Islington, all separate villages close to London, petitioned Parliament for the right to provide a
turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the peak, in the 1830s, ...
road by-passing the northern boundaries of the built up area of London. The road was intended initially as a
drovers' road
A drovers' road, drove ''roador droveway is a route for droving livestock on foot from one place to another, such as to market or between summer and winter pasture (see transhumance). Many drovers' roads were ancient routes of unknown age; ot ...
, a route along which to drive cattle and sheep, to the live meat market at
Smithfield from roads approaching London from the north and north-west, thus avoiding the congested east–west route via
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...
and
High Holborn
High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...
.
The road would begin at a point close to the junction of the
Harrow and
Edgware Road
Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...
s and head due east past the northern end of Marylebone Lane to
Tottenham Court, and from there via
Battle Bridge, St Pancras, to the top of
St John's Street in Islington, a short distance from the market. The proposal was referred to a parliamentary committee, which, despite opposition from the
Duke of Bedford
Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third so ...
, recommended approval; it suggested that responsibility for the road should be divided between two existing trusts, the St Marylebone (for the section from Edgware Road to Tottenham Court, plus a side street that became Portland Road) and the Islington (for the section from Tottenham Court to the
Angel, Islington).
Royal assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...
for the Act was granted in May 1756. The road was to be a minimum of wide, and no buildings were to be allowed within of the edge - drovers' roads always needed to be wide. The road was built to a minimum width of , and very rapidly. Construction at first was fairly crude, involving mainly cutting down hedges and filling in ditches, and the route was bounded by fence posts.
Initially, each administering trust retained the tolls exacted as travellers passed
its gates, but the tickets were also valid across the section operated by the other trust. As examples of revenue, the St Marylebone trust exacted £400 in 1757, which had risen to £700 in 1764. Five years later the road was extended at its eastern end south-eastwards to
Old Street
Old Street is a street in inner north-east Central London that runs west to east from Goswell Road in Clerkenwell, in the London Borough of Islington, via St Luke's and Old Street Roundabout, to the crossroads where it meets Shoreditch High ...
and onwards terminating near
Moorgate
Moorgate was one of the City of London's northern gates in its defensive wall, the last to be built. The gate took its name from the Moorfields, an area of marshy land that lay immediately north of the wall.
The gate was demolished in 1762, bu ...
.
Later history
The route became an important transport link. In due course it was
improved and metalled. During the remainder of the 18th century the northern edge of London's built-up area moved towards the road, finally engulfing it, although the building margin was enforced.
By 1829 much of the road was bordered by fashionable houses, and in that year that the first
horse omnibus service in London was established by
George Shillibeer
George Shillibeer (11 August 1797 – 21 August 1866) was an English coachbuilder.
Biography
Shillibeer was born in St Marylebone, London the son of Abraham and Elizabeth Shillibeer. Christened in St Marys Church, Marylebone on 22 October ...
. His example was followed by many others, and the route became the main artery for such traffic for the remainder of the century, linking the sought-after north-western suburbs of '
Tyburnia
Tyburnia, a part of Paddington in London, originally developed following an 1824 masterplan drawn up by Samuel Pepys Cockerell (1753-1827) to redevelop the historic lands of the Bishop of London, known as the Tyburn Estate, into a residential area ...
'
[T F T Baker, Diane K Bolton and Patricia E C Croot, 'Paddington: Tyburnia', in A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 9, Hampstead, Paddington, ed. C R Elrington (London, 1989), pp. 190-198. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/middx/vol9/pp190-198 ccessed 2 May 2016] with the financial centre (the
City of London
The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
).
In 1857, New Road was renamed, becoming Marylebone Road, Euston Road
and Pentonville Road.
In 1863, the
Metropolitan Railway opened the first urban
underground railway
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...
in the world. Most of the line followed the route of the New Road from
Paddington
Paddington is an area within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...
to
Kings Cross stations.
In the 20th century, with the advent of motor buses and other motor vehicles, the route became an important
orbital road for the northern part of
inner London
Inner London is the name for the group of London boroughs which form the interior part of Greater London and are surrounded by Outer London. With its origins in the bills of mortality, it became fixed as an area for statistics in 1847 and was u ...
, and part of the
inner ring road.
Currently the road as far as the
Old Street Roundabout
Old Street Roundabout is a road junction in Central London, England. Historically a square roundabout, it is now a three-way junction. It is among access points of the Inner Ring Road for the adjoining St Luke's south part of Islington and ...
is the northern boundary of the
London Congestion Charge area. Traffic can use the route free of charge, but a charge applies when accessing the roads to the south.
References and sources
;References
;Sources
*Sheppard, Francis, ''Local government in St Marylebone 1688-1835'' : University of London Athlone Press (1958)
{{coord, 51.5311, -0.1175, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Streets in the City of Westminster
Streets in the London Borough of Camden
Streets in the London Borough of Islington