The A4 is a major road in
England from
Central London to
Avonmouth via
Heathrow Airport,
Reading,
Bath and
Bristol. It is historically known as the Bath Road with newer sections including the Great West Road and
Portway. The road was once the main route from London to Bath, Bristol and the west of England and formed, after the
A40, the second main western artery from London.
Although most traffic is carried by the
M4 motorway today, the A4 still acts as the main route from
Bristol to
London for non-motorway traffic.
History
Turnpikes
The A4 has gone through many transformations through the ages from pre-Roman routes,
Roman roads (such as
the one passing Silbury Hill), and basic wagon tracks. During the Middle Ages, most byways and tracks served to connect villages with their nearest market town. A survey of Savernake Forest near Hungerford in 1228 mentions "The King’s Street" running between the town and
Marlborough. This street corresponded roughly with the route of the modern A4. In 1632,
Thomas Witherings was appointed Postmaster of Foreign Mails by Charles I. Three years later, the king charged him with building six "Great Roads" to aid in the delivery of the post, of which the Great West Road was one.
It was not until the 17th century that a distinct route between London and Bristol started to resemble today's road. During the 17th century, the A4 was known as the Great Road to Bristol. When
Queen Anne started patronising the spa city of
Bath, the road became more commonly known as Bath Road. Over the years, the direction of the road has taken many detours depending on such factors as changes in tolls or turnpike patronage. For example, in 1750 the toll road from London was altered to go through
Melksham; and in 1695 the map maker, John Ogilby, produced a map of the Hungerford area of the Great West Road showing two possible routes.
As Bath became more popular with the wealthy and famous, it was inevitable that
turnpike trusts would be set up under the terms of the Turnpike Acts to pay for maintenance and improvements to the road. The first turnpike on this road was between
Reading and
Theale in 1714. Due to increasing traffic, sections of the road between
Kensington, over Hounslow Hill, to
Twyford were turnpike by 1717 with the remaining sections placed under turnpike trusts.

As turnpike trusts were individually run, there was the possibility for greatly differing road conditions, especially over the
London Clay basin of
Kensington,
Brentford,
Hounslow and
Slough, where winter conditions left the way muddy and uneven. This was not always the case with the Bath Road, as many of the wealthy landowners along the route co-operated informally and exercised a large amount of control over feeder roads. As a result, control of the Bath Road was easy to maintain and many inns and towns became prosperous.
Tollhouses were established at
Colnbrook,
Maidenhead,
Twyford, Castle Street
Reading, Thatcham and
Benham. During the 1820s, the employment of good surveyors improved the condition of the road and aided an increased flow of wealthy travellers. The tolls raised from such clientele ensured that when the turnpike trusts handed over the route to local highway boards, they had no financial liabilities. Justices of the Peace were empowered by the 1862 Rural Highways Act to combine turnpike trusts into Highways Districts. This meant that by the late 1860s trusts were either not renewing their powers or were being terminated by General Acts of Parliament. For example, most turnpikes in Berkshire, including the Bath Road, were officially wound up by 1878 when legislation transferred responsibility for dis-enturnpiked roads to the new county councils. The tollgate on the Bath Road west of Reading was removed in 1864 as the outward pressure of urban development made rates a more acceptable way of financing the maintenance of what was now a suburban road.
Postal service and coaching
With the improvement being made to the road systems, the business of moving mail became easier and thus more profitable as volumes were able to increase. In Bristol, a postal office had been well established by the 1670s. The journey time to London at this period was about 16 and three quarter hours. A letter from Bath in 1684 took about 3 days going via a postal office in
Marshfield on the Bristol Road. (The route to Bristol did not yet go through Bath at this time). Journey times during the Turnpike era fell with the improvements from 2 days in 1752 to 38 hours in 1782 and 18 hours by 1836. Royal Mail coaches in 1836 were able to do the trip in 12 to 13 hours.
Further improvements to regional post services were made between 1719 and 1763 due to contracts with the London Inland Letter Office negotiated by
Ralph Allen, the postmaster of Bath.
In the early part of the 19th century, coaching was at its height with six
stagecoaches each day carrying passengers to and from London along the Bath Road in 1830, rising to ten by 1836.
Hungerford is at about the midway point of the journey between London and Bristol and was ideally positioned to take advantage of the increase in coaching. In 1836, five companies operated a coaching service through Hungerford.
This peak was to be short-lived following the construction of the
Great Western Railway. The decline in coaching traffic in Hungerford coincided with the building of the Great Western Railway from London to Bath and Bristol, and the subsequent
Berks and Hants Railway line from Newbury to Hungerford itself in 1847.
By 1843, it was reported that the stage coaches had ceased running between Bristol and London.
Route
Holborn Circus to Westminster (0.4 miles)

The A4 begins as
New Fetter Lane in the
City of London at
Holborn Circus on the
A40. It goes in a southerly direction to join
Fleet Street where many British national newspapers at one time had their head offices. The
Office of Fair Trading has its main office here.
Westminster to Hammersmith via Kensington (4.6 miles)
The road heads west through the City of Westminster via the
Strand, passing notable landmarks such as the
Royal Courts of Justice, the
Savoy and
Adelphi theatres, and
Charing Cross railway station.
From Charing Cross station to
Green Park, the westbound and eastbound routes of the A4 are considerably different, due to one-way systems. Westbound, the A4 continues along the Strand up to
Charing Cross itself, then along
Cockspur Street and into
Pall Mall, the location of many exclusive
gentlemen's clubs as well as the
Institute of Directors, before turning right along St James's Street to reach
Piccadilly.
Eastbound from Green Park, the A4 runs along the full length of Piccadilly to
Piccadilly Circus, before turning right along
Haymarket. It bears left along Pall Mall East, then right along the west side of
Trafalgar Square, past the
National Gallery and
Canada House, to Charing Cross. Finally, it bears left along the east side of the Square, past
South Africa House, then right along Duncannon Street to reach Charing Cross station.
The first part of
Regent Street, from Waterloo Place to Piccadilly Circus, is also signed as the A4; all traffic here runs in a northbound direction.

From Green Park, the A4 enters a short tunnel under
Hyde Park Corner, where
Wellington Arch is located. Afterwards, the road continues along the first part of
Knightsbridge, before bearing left onto
Brompton Road. This is an affluent area of London, in which the
Harrods and
Harvey Nichols department stores are located as well as numerous
embassies. At this point, the road enters the
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
At the
Brompton Oratory, the road bears right along Thurloe Place and Cromwell Gardens, past the
Victoria and Albert Museum and the
Ismaili Centre, and onto
Cromwell Road, past the
Natural History Museum. At
Earls Court, the A4 becomes
dual carriageway, and continues along West Cromwell Road, over the
West London Line into
West Kensington and the
Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
A section of the road from Knightsbridge to the
Chiswick Flyover was the first section of
Clearway designated in London. It introduced no stopping on the road during rush hours on 21 August 1961.
Hammersmith to Heathrow Airport (10.7 miles)

The A4 continues along
Talgarth Road past the
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. The road becomes elevated at the
Hammersmith Flyover and heads towards
Heathrow Airport as the Great West Road, passing Hammersmith's two churches of
St Paul and
St Peter. At this point the road is close to the
River Thames.
The road enters
Chiswick and the
Borough of Hounslow, passing
Fuller's Brewery. After
Hogarth Roundabout, the road passes
Hogarth's House and is called Hogarth Lane, then Ellesmere Road and Cedars Road. It becomes the Great West Road again just a few yards short of the start of
Chiswick Flyover, which is junction 1 of the M4.
Gunnersbury's Russian Orthodox Cathedral is clearly visible on the right.
The road then passes the Glaxo-Smith Kline premises in
Brentford where it follows underneath its successor the M4 as far as the bridge over the
River Brent. The stretch between Chiswick's western border to Syon Lane (Gillette Corner) is known as the
Golden Mile with some notable Art Deco factories. The road remains as the Great West Road through
Osterley and
Hounslow where it splits with the
A30, which is known as the Great South West Road. Between the two world wars, the Great West Road was built as a bypass to relieve traffic congestion in Brentford and Hounslow.
After the A30, the A4 changes its name to Bath Road, enters
Cranford, and crosses the
River Crane into the
Borough of Hillingdon. It then passes along the northern boundary of
Heathrow Airport, before leaving the London suburbs over the
M25 towards the west.
Heathrow Airport to Slough (6.7 miles)

After leaving Heathrow Airport, still the A4, it becomes the
Colnbrook Bypass and climbs over the M25 motorway. This bypass for the narrow main road of
Colnbrook was built after the Second World War across farmland between
Harmondsworth and the outskirts of
Langley.
The next major intersection is junction 5 of the M4 (Slough-East) known as the Langley junction. At this point the A4 loses its
trunk road classification.
Continuing towards
Slough town centre, the road, now named London Road, passes Kedermister Park on the right. Changing into Sussex Place, the architecturally impressive St Bernard's former convent is on the right. Becoming the dual carriageway Wellington Street (a late 1960s bypass for the High Street), Tesco's massive 'aircraft hangar' supermarket is on the right and the Queensmere and Observatory Shopping Centres on the left.
The end of this section of the Great Western Road is in the centre of Slough at the junction of William Street and Wellington Street. This spot was formerly the site of Slough's largest roundabout on the south-east corner of Thames Valley University. Nearby is
Slough railway station, served by Great Western Railway.
The roundabout was removed in 2011 and the university's Slough campus closed in 2011 after planning permission was granted for 1,598 flats.
Slough to Maidenhead (6.0 miles)

Continuing from the William Street / Wellington Street junction, in the centre of
Slough, the road heads westwards towards Maidenhead. The short stretch of dual carriageway is Wellington Street, then briefly on the most western end of the High Street, over the railway bridge for the line between Slough and
Windsor Central Station.
The Bath Road begins on the west side of the bridge. On the left is Slough's 1936 Town Hall, now abandoned by the local council, and on the right
Salt Hill Park.
The next major road intersection is by the Three Tuns Pub where the A4 crosses the
A355. This road goes north towards Farnham Royal, Farnham Common, Beaconsfield and the
M40 at junction 2. To the south, it goes towards the
M4 (junction 6, Slough Centre) and
Windsor.
The route at this point runs parallel to both the
Great Western Main Line and the M4. The road continues past the southern fringe of
Slough Trading Estate.
On Slough's western boundary is the Huntercombe Spur roundabout linking the A4 to junction 7 of the M4 motorway. Here the dual carriageway ends. The road bends right at
Taplow and passes under a high railway bridge, then over the River Thames flood prevention channel.
The road then goes over Maidenhead's old bridge
Maidenhead Bridge, spanning the
River Thames, and into the eastern outskirts of Maidenhead.
Along Bridge Road, St Cloud Way and Bad Godesberg Way respectively. The centre of Maidenhead is reached at the roundabout that forms the junction with the
A308. Turning northwards on the A308 would lead to the
A404 towards
Marlow and
High Wycombe. Southwards, the A308 heads towards Windsor and provides an opportunity to branch off for junction 8/9 of the M4.
Maidenhead to Reading (12.3 miles)
Heading out of Maidenhead town centre, the road follows Castle Hill and then Bath Road. At the outskirts, the road forms part of junction 9b of the A404(M)/A404, which links junction 8/9 of the M4 with junction 4 of the M40 at Handy Cross. The A4 crosses open countryside before following New Bath Road on the outskirts of
Twyford. This is a bypass, built in 1929, that deviates from the old route of the A4, and crosses the
River Loddon on its way into the suburbs of
Reading via the village of Charvil.
The A4 passes the King George's Field in
Sonning, which are used as playing fields, and the Reading Cricket and
Hockey Club. As it enters Reading, along the London Road again, it crosses the junction of the A3290 next to
Palmer Park, which leads to Junction 10 of the M4.
The A4 goes over the intersection with the
A329 Cemetery Junction which links
Wokingham with
Pangbourne, passing the Royal Berkshire Hospital and the London Road Campus of the
University of Reading. At London Street and again at Southampton Street, the A4 meets the
A327 twice, since the latter loops round on two branches which meet at Whitley Street. Between the two junctions, the A4 becomes Crown Street for approximately 150 metres.
Reading to Newbury (16.7 miles)
On the other side of the intersection the A4 follows Pell Street and continues westward. Here it crosses the
River Kennet, the
Holy Brook and the
A33 relief road, which goes towards
Basingstoke. In
West Reading, the A4 becomes Berkeley Avenue, and then continues onto another Castle Hill and then the Bath Road. It passes
Prospect Park, and the suburbs of
Southcote, Horncastle and
Calcot, before reaching Junction 12 of the M4. The A4 heads south westerly through
Theale and over the roundabout connecting it to the
A340 which heads towards Pangbourne.
Heading towards
Thatcham, the road passes
Aldermaston Wharf next to the
Kennet and Avon Canal and through the villages of
Woolhampton and
Midgham. A large industrial estate is on the left as the road enters Thatcham. At the roundabout after the industrial Estate the route follows London Road and passes Thatcham towards Benham Hill and
Newbury. At the Benham Hill roundabout it goes along Bath Road where it deviates from Turnpike Road. Bath Road is the original turnpiked road and the road now confusingly called Turnpike Road was originally called The Shaw Road. The turnpike then continues along London Road as it enters the outskirts of Newbury.
Heading towards the centre of Newbury, the route passes the
West Berkshire Community Hospital on the right. To the North of the town centre the road becomes part of an unusual junction with the
A339 that links the new
A34 by-pass to the north with
Basingstoke to the south. The junction is a combination of a figure of eight roundabout with an elevated section that used to be the old route of the A34.
Newbury to Marlborough (18.8 miles)
After the junction, the road heads out of town through
Speenhamland along Western Avenue and Bath Road to the junction with the A34
Newbury bypass. The Newbury bypass was opened, after some controversy, on 17 November 1998, at a cost of £104 million. The route heads over undulating countryside in a fairly straight westward direction towards
Hungerford parallel to the Kennet and Avon Canal and crossing the River Kennet on the outskirts of the town at the same time as intersecting with the
A338. The route does not enter the town centre, but continues westward to the northern side of town on its way to Marlborough via the village of Froxfield and the northern edge of
Savernake Forest.
On entering the outskirts of Marlborough the road follows London Road. Crossing the River Kennet again it briefly shares the highway with the
A346 which connects northwards to
Swindon. It splits again at a roundabout along New Road and Oxford Street into the town centre on the High Street. The High Street is a traditional main thoroughfare for an English market town, in that it is wide, with space for market stalls on either side and in the middle, though these spaces are usually marked for car parking.
Until the late 1980s most of this section, and some of the following Wiltshire section, was configured as three lanes, with the central lane available for overtaking traffic in either direction. This is no longer considered safe so the road now has one wider-than-normal lane in each direction, with
ghost islands at junctions to discourage overtaking at these points.
Marlborough to Chippenham (18.9 miles)
The A4 continues along the High Street on its way out of Marlborough via Bridewell Street and Bath Road. The road passes underneath a covered bridge that links Morris House of
Marlborough College to the North Block of the same establishment. The college is an independent boarding school established in 1843 using some of the buildings that remained after the demise the coaching trade, which saw the original Castle Inn Coaching House close.
The route continues westward through the village of
Fyfield, across
Overton Hill where there is a parking area at the start of the
Ridgeway National Trail and through the village of
West Kennet. On leaving West Kennet there are some parking lay-bys where visitors can walk a short distance from the road to the Neolithic
West Kennet Long Barrow, which forms part of the Avebury World Heritage Site. One mile further along the A4 is
Silbury Hill, which is also part of the Avebury World Heritage Site. A purpose built car park is located beyond the hill on the right travelling westward.
As the route approaches the
Beckhampton roundabout, which forms the intersection with the
A361, it passes by the Waggon & Horses Inn, built in 1669 to profit from the increasing trade along the old Bath Road. It is mentioned in ''
The Pickwick Papers'' novel by
Charles Dickens.

The route continues past
Cherhill and the
Cherhill White Horse can be seen to the left and nearby the
Lansdowne Monument. The route then descends down the Labour in Vain Hill through the village of
Quemerford and into the market town of
Calne.
Heading towards the town centre, the road crosses a double mini roundabout, one exit forming the junction with the
A3102 to Melksham. It follows New Road and passes by the old
coaching inn of the Lansdowne Strand. On the way out of Calne, the road goes along Curzon Street, and then to Chilvester Hill at the roundabout where the northern part of the A3102 splits off towards
Lyneham.
The A4 descends steeply before climbing again up Black Dog Hill past the
Bowood House Estate. The old road used to pass through
Derry Hill, but the New Road, as it is called at this point, indicates that the village was bypassed. There follows a steep descent to the junction with the
A342 Devizes road and a sharp right turn past the Lysley Arms towards
Chippenham.
On the outskirts of Chippenham is a large roundabout, where the old A4 used to carry straight on down London Road and The Causeway into the Town Centre, which has since been pedestrianised. Most traffic turns left to go round the Pewsham Estate relief road called Pewsham Way, which is now the classified A4 route. After four roundabouts, the A4 turns left in a southerly direction at a roundabout, past the Chippenham Magistrates Court. The route heads downhill over the
River Avon on the Avenue
La Fleche, named after one of Chippenham's twin towns, to the Bridge Centre roundabout.
Chippenham to Bath (12.7 miles)

The Bridge Centre roundabout forms a junction of the A4 with the
A420 Bristol Road. The route heads over Rowden Hill past the Chippenham Community Hospital and down to the spot where musician
Eddie Cochran was killed in a car crash on 17 April 1960. A plaque has been placed there in remembrance.
From there it passes under the railway arch built by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the 1830s and on to its junction with the
A350. From this point onwards it regains its
trunk road status and heads up Chequers Hill towards
Corsham. The road passes through
Pickwick, which used to be a village in its own right. Charles Dickens stayed at the Hare & Hounds Inn and used the village name for the title of his novel ''The Pickwick Papers''.
After a series of roundabouts the A4 continues uphill, past what used to be the Ministry of Defence Naval Operations site at Copenacre (now a housing development) before descending steeply to the village of
Box. From the road the
Box Tunnel, built as part of the
Great Western Railway, can be seen clearly. The road bears to the right at the junction with the
A365 to
Melksham, and criss-crosses with the main railway line as far as the roundabout at
Bathford which forms a junction with the
A363 towards
Bradford-on-Avon. The road after this roundabout becomes a dual carriageway until the A4 diverts to the left down a slip road, and the remainder becomes the
A46; this section, the £45 million dual-carriageway
Batheaston/
Swainswick Bypass, opened in summer 1996, was highly controversial both at planning and at construction stages.
The route enters the outskirts of Bath passing by the training grounds of
Bath RFC. After a series of traffic light controlled junctions, the A4 continues straight ahead where it meets the
A36. It passes Hedgemead Park and down
The Paragon before crossing into George Street and to
Queen Square.
Bath to Bristol/Avonmouth (19.6 miles)

In the original 1922 road numbering list, the A4 ended at the junction between George Street and
Milsom Street in Bath. On 1 April 1935, it was extended over the A431 and B4044 to Newbridge, and the A36 to Avonmouth.
From Queen Square, Bath, the A4 carries on to Queen Square Place and Charlotte Street, before heading along the Upper Bristol Road by
Royal Victoria Park to Newbridge Road. The road crosses the River Avon on its way to join the A36 and becomes a dual carriageway again until the roundabout that forms the junction with the
A39 Wells Road at the Globe Inn and exit for the nearby
Bath Spa University. It continues on through the village of
Saltford towards
Keynsham where a roundabout splits the road and the A4 continues as a dual carriageway by-passing the town, crossing over the
River Chew in the process.
The end of the by-pass coincides with the junction of the Avon Ring Road, the
A4174. The route goes through the suburb of
Brislington, going past Arnos Court Park and
Arnos Vale Cemetery. The road runs over a bridge over the
New Cut and into Temple Gate where
Bristol Temple Meads railway station is located. The A4 no longer has a defined route from this point to the start of Anchor Road at
The Centre; originally it went along Victoria Street and Baldwin Street before turning left onto St Augustine's Parade or, later, Broad Quay, but in more recent times it followed Redcliffe Way, via Redcliffe Roundabout (junction with the
A38) across
Queen Square to
The Centre. From there it turns back towards
Bristol Harbour via Anchor Road past the
We The Curious science museum. After another roundabout the A4 follows along Hotwell Road and around a one-way system that merges the A4 with the
A3029.
At this point the A4 regains trunk road classification and passes under the
Clifton Suspension Bridge along the
Portway. It heads out of the city into the suburbs of
Sea Mills and
Shirehampton before going under the
M5 to end at the roundabout that feeds the motorway, the
M49 and
A403 in Avonmouth.
References
External links
A4 roadat the
Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts
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Category:Roads in England
Category:Streets in London
Category:Roads in Berkshire
Category:Roads in Bristol
Category:Roads in London
Category:Roads in Somerset
Category:Roads in Wiltshire
Category:Elevated overpasses in London
Category:Streets in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Category:Streets in the London Borough of Hillingdon
Category:Transport in the London Borough of Hounslow
Category:Streets in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
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