Staples Corner is a major road junction in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, United Kingdom. It is about north-west from

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

and directly to the west of the

Brent Cross Brent Cross is originally the name of a crossroads that today forms a major interchange for traffic in the London Borough of Barnet, England. Located a mile from the centres of Hendon and Golders Green, the area also contains the Brent Cross ...

crossover. It has two linked roundabouts and flyovers, which connect the A406

North Circular Road The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London in England. It runs from Chiswick in the west to Woolwich in the east via suburban North London, connecting ...

with the A5

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 ...

and the start of the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

. Also running through Staples Corner, between the two roundabouts, is the

Midland Main Line The Midland Main Line is a major railway line in England from London to Nottingham and Sheffield in the Midlands. It comprises the lines from London's St Pancras station via Leicester, Derby/Nottingham and Chesterfield in the East Midlands. ...

and

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying m ...

railway line.

Construction

The Staples Corner junction was built in accordance with plans from the 1960s to continue the M1 further south to

West Hampstead West Hampstead is an area in the London Borough of Camden in north-west London. Mainly defined by the railway stations of the same name, it is situated between Childs Hill to the north, Frognal and Hampstead to the north-east, Swiss Cottage to ...

. These proposals, part of the

London Ringways The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by the Greater London Council (GLC) to alleviate traffic con ...

Plan, would have seen a three level junction with the M1 as the middle level crossing above the roundabout on a flyover and passing under the A406 flyover. South of the junction the motorway would have headed through

Cricklewood Cricklewood is an area of London, England, which spans the boundaries of three London boroughs: Barnet to the east, Brent to the west and Camden to the south-east. The Crown pub, now the Clayton Crown Hotel, is a local landmark and lies north- ...

on an elevated roadway to meet the

North Cross Route North Cross Route (NCR) was a planned motorway-standard road which would have formed the northern section of Ringway 1 (London Motorway Box) and would have formed the innermost circuit of the London Ringways network. The six-lane dual carriagewa ...

section of the London Motorway Box (Ringway 1) at an elevated Y-shaped junction. Most of the Ringways Plan including the North Cross Route was cancelled in 1973. The A406 flyover opened on 18 August 1976. Staples Corner is named after the Staples Mattress factory, which was at the road junction from 1926 to 1986. Harold Heal commissioned the designing and building of the factory.

Incidents

On 28 October 1988, two southbound Class 31 locomotives ran away and crashed down the bridge onto the North Circular Road. The locomotives were unmanned and no one was hurt. On 11 April 1992, a

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

100 lb

van bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

devastated Staples Corner, causing serious damage to roads and nearby buildings and the closure of the junction (see 1992 Staples Corner bombing). Another bomb exploded near the junction on 8 October 1993, causing damage but no injuries. The B&Q DIY store damaged by the bomb (on the site of the original mattress factory) was demolished, and replaced by a branch of Staples office supplies. Staples stayed at the site until 2017, when the retailer closed all its UK physical stores. There is a large retail park at Staples Corner, located between the A5 and the railway line. Close by is the

Brent Cross Shopping Centre Brent Cross Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre in Hendon, north London, owned by Hammerson and Abrdn. Located by the Brent Cross interchange, it opened in 1976 as the UK's first out-of-town shopping centre. Brent Cross attracted 15–1 ...

, named after the A406 and A41 road junction. The format of the Staples Corner junction was modified during the reconstruction works necessitated by the bombings. An additional sliproad onto the M1 from the east was added to remove the need for traffic coming from that direction to travel around the roundabout to access the motorway.

Redevelopment

In early 2008, a planning application was submitted to develop the Brent Cross area into a new town centre, on both sides of the North Circular Road. The Staples Corner junction would be completely redesigned, with no south-bound A5 to west-bound North Circular Road travel, and no east-bound North Circular to south-bound A5 travel possible, except by using new roads at the eastern side of the M1 motorway junction.

Notes

External links

Apex Corner – images of Staples Corner

Brent Cross planning application

Alternative transport plans for Staples Corner area
{{coord, 51.5718, N, 0.2287, W, type:landmark, display=title Streets in the London Borough of Barnet Streets in the London Borough of Brent Road junctions in London M1 motorway