The London Inner Ring Road, or Ring Road as signposted, is a 12-mile (19 km) route with an average diameter of 2.75–5.5 miles (4.43–8.85 km) formed from a number of major roads that encircle Central London.[1] The ring road forms the boundary of the London congestion charge zone, although the ring road itself is not part of the zone.
The route is described as the "Inner" Ring Road because there are two further sets of roads that have been described as London ring roads. The North and South Circular Roads together form the second ring road around London, averaging 10–15 miles (16–24 km) in diameter. The M25 motorway is the outermost road encircling the metropolis, at an average diameter of 40–50 miles (64–80 km).
Construction of the New Road from Paddington to Islington began in 1756[6] to relieve congestion in the built-up area of London. At that time the districts of Marylebone, Fitzrovia and Bloomsbury were on the northern edge of the city, and only the southern parts of them had been built up. The New Road ran through the fields to the north of these three neighbourhoods.
The road is now one of the busiest main roads in the city. It runs from Edgware Road in the west to Angel, in the east. After being renamed in 1857, the western section between Edgware Road and Great Portland Street is known as Marylebone Road, the central section between Great Portland Street and King's Cross is known as Euston Road,[7] and the eastern section from King's Cross to The Angel is called Pentonville Road.
City Road was constructed in 1761 to continue the route eastwards to the northern edge of the City of London.[8]
This street is distinguished by the "set back" housing lines originally intended to provide an atmosphere of spaciousness along the thoroughfare. It is one of the locations on the UK version of the Monopoly board game, which features areas native to London.
Pentonville Road is one of the many London place names mentioned in the song "Transmetropolitan" by The Pogues.
Mansell Street is a short road, part of the A1210 route (though sometimes shown as being the A1211), which for most of its length marks the boundary between the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, though the southernmost part is entirely in Tower Hamlets. It runs from Aldgate southwards to the Tower of London. The northern part, north of the junction with Goodmans Yard and Prescot Street, has one way northbound traffic, while the southern part has one way southbound traffic.
The road has an abundance of antique (or junk) shops along part of its length. There is also Bermondsey Square which holds an 'antique' market every Friday morning, usually known as Bermondsey Market, though officially as New Caledonian Market.
Towards its southern end are a collection of shops, pubs and takeaways.
^"Even before the war was over a regional planner, Patrick Abercrombie, had prepared two proposals, the County of London Plan and the Greater London Plan, which would lend London 'order and efficiency and beauty and spaciousness' with an end to 'violent competitive passion'. It is the eternal aspiration, or delusion, that somehow the city can be forced to change its nature by getting rid of all the elements by which it had previously thrived."
London: The Biography, Peter Ackroyd, Vintage, 2001, page 755