Winston Churchill Avenue is an

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights o ...

in the

British overseas territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

, connecting it with

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. Once the customs are crossed, the avenue becomes the dual carriageway () CA-34 (former

national road The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road) was the first major improved highway in the United States built by the federal government. Built between 1811 and 1837, the road connected the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and was a main tran ...

N-351).

Description

The northern end of the road starts at Gibraltar's border with Spain and is bifurcated by

Gibraltar International Airport Gibraltar International Airport, previously known as North Front Airport, is the civilian airport that serves the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The runway and aerodrome is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), and operated by the Ro ...

at Victoria Stadium, which is Gibraltar's major sporting venue. The road intersects the airport's

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

at surface level; movable barricades close when

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

land or take off. In 2009, the

Government of Gibraltar His Majesty's Government of Gibraltar is the democratically elected government of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. The head of state is King Charles III who is represented by the Governor. Elections in Gibraltar are held every four ...

announced that a new highway would be built in order to avoid motor vehicles crossing the runway, which caused congestion. On 31 March 2023, the new road, a dual carriageway named The Kingsway linked the customs checkpoint with Devil's Tower Road, crossing the east end of the airport runway underground, through a 350-metre tunnel. Runway access is now closed to everyday road traffic but is still available for exceptional, specific, or emergency use, as well as for pedestrians, cyclists and mobility scooters, although an alternative subway is provided. File:Winston Churchill Avenue, Gibraltar.jpg File:Winston Churchill Avenue Gibraltar.JPG File:Winston Churchill Avenue runway crossing.jpg File:Winston Churchill Avenue quo, Gibraltar.jpg

Operation Flavius

In 1988, the then-

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

petrol station located on the road was the scene of a controversial British military operation known as

Operation Flavius Operation Flavius (also referred to as the Gibraltar killings) was a military operation in which three members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were shot dead by the British Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar on 6 March 198 ...

. On 6 March, a

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

(SAS) group shot dead three members of a

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

(IRA) team, made up of Danny McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell while they were making their way to Spain on foot. The three were suspected of planning to kill members of a British military band with a car bomb outside the

Governor of Gibraltar The governor of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territories, British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The governor is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the British government. The role of ...

's official residence, The Convent. At the subsequent inquest into the deaths, members of the SAS team stated that they believed that the three were armed and that they were capable of remotely detonating the suspected bomb. The legality of the deaths was challenged in the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...

(see ''

McCann and Others v United Kingdom ''McCann and Others v United Kingdom'' 21 ECHR 97 GC is a legal case tried in 1995 before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding a purported breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by the United Kingd ...

''), but it was eventually ruled that the killings were lawful.UK Law Online
Leeds University, paragraph 15 and 17(c) and (d)

References

Streets in Gibraltar {{Europe-road-stub