A21 road (England)

The A21 is a major trunk road in Southern England connecting London with Hastings, East Sussex. Half of the distance covered is over difficult terrain, and the hills and bends on the road result in slow-moving traffic, particularly during weekdays over the more rural stretches; and during the summer with holiday traffic. Once clear of London, the by-passes which exist along the road mean that there are few major settlements directly on the route. The road is frequently congested due to roundabouts and stretches of single carriageway. The Highways Agency has plans to dual more of the A21.

Parts of the A21 follow the turnpike roads: one being the section from Sevenoaks to Tunbridge Wells, opened in 1710 ; other sections of the road were similarly dealt with later in the century. The Hastings Observer reported a 22 kilometers (14 mi) section of the A21 south of Flimwell as being the most dangerous road in the south east outside London, and the 38th most dangerous in the country , although some websites state it as being the A259 between Pevensey and Bexhill-on-Sea.

The A21 is used for the 55-mile Maydayrun to Hastings in which motor cyclers race from South London to the Hastings seafront. It claims to be the largest non-organised event in the UK, attracting over 20,000 bikers.

The road between the M25 and Hastings is designated a trunk road, and is maintained and managed by the Highways Agency.

People have described the A21 as "A Joke" and Business people were reported to “hate coming down the A21” .

Overall view of the road

File:Chevening interchange .jpg

A21 road bridge over the M26 near Chevening, Kent. Also seen is sliproads from the M25.

The A21 begins in Lewisham, almost four miles (6.3 mi) southeast of the centre of London. Passing through Catford, Bromley and Farnborough, twenty miles (32km) from the start of the journey, it reaches the Kent border and the open countryside. Shortly afterwards the first of the bypasses is reached, that avoiding Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells. The second bypass takes the road around Lamberhurst, avoiding a river valley, after which the terrain becomes more difficult: we are on the Weald, for the remainder of the journey. The steep hills and long bends typical of the region contribute to the slow-moving traffic at busy periods.

A short dual carriageway immediately before the crossroads at Flimwell gives little redress, for the 2nd lane in both directions has been permanently coned off, although may re-open if it is extended. Near the end of this dual cariageway the road enters East Sussex. At the The most recent bypass takes the road around the narrow road through Salehurst and Robertsbridge. Immediately before Hastings outskirts is the final hill, almost four miles (6.4km) in length.

File:A21highway.jpg

A21 crossing the River Medway near Leigh

Traffic Congestion on the A21 near Pembury.

A21 near Sevenoaks.

The route in detail

London

Traffic from London (Parliament Square), after negotiating the roads immediately south of the River Thames, uses the A20 road; it enters the A21 proper in Lewisham (Loampit Vale Junction). From there the road uses various roads in Catford, where the A205 (the South Circular Road) crosses the A21; it runs south east up Bromley Hill to enter the London Borough of Bromley, where there are sections of dual carriageway, on the town‘s gyratory system (part of which is called Kentish Way) .

Up Masons Hill the road reaches Bromley Common, the first large-scale open space negotiated; briefly, just before Farnborough, the road becomes Hastings Road. The original A21 went though the town, the High Street is now the B2158. Until now the road has been in a south-easterly direction, but after Green Street Green it turns eastwards towards the valley of the River Darent, and it is at this point that the road pattern makes a complete change from its original route.

The A21 originally climbed to the scarp of the North Downs at Polhill, and then descended through Dunton Green and up the valley of the River Darent to Sevenoaks; through the town centre and then down into the Medway valley via Hildenborough to Tonbridge. The London Road at the north of the town is now the B245; it continued through the long High Street, over the many bridges of the river (during which time it was also part of the A26 from Maidstone ). As the road began to climb out of the valley it took a left fork; shortly after this the route of the modern A21 is rejoined

Badgers Mt. to Pembury

Where the new A21 begins, and also where the A224 joins from the north, the road is called the Sevenoaks Road; at Knockholt (Hewitts Roundabout), the road enters Kent near its junction with a spur from the M25 motorway. The A21 actually multiplexes with the M25 and descends the North Downs Scarp here. The M25 then has to use a slip road in the left lane and the A21 takes priority although is still technically a motorway until the junction with the A25 to Sevenoaks and the M26. The oddness of Junction 5 is due to the M26 once being part of the M25.

South of the junction with the A25, the road enters the longest dual carriageway section along its length, the Sevenoaks and Tonbridge bypasses, which generally have two lanes in each direction. The Sevenoaks bypass runs between the A25 junction, north of Sevenoaks and the A225 junction, between Sevenoaks and Hildenborough, and include the widest part of the A21 with three lanes climbing the hill northbound from the A225 junction. Between the A225 and A26 junctions, the road is known as the Tonbridge Bypass. This section bypasses the original route of the A21 along the B245 through Hildenborough, Tonbridge High Street, and Pembury Road to join the current route near the second A26 junction. The section crosses a few valleys and the River Medway and includes a few bends.

South of here the A21 remains dualled all the way until Kippings Cross, with the exception of a 1.7 mile (2.7km) single-carriageway section at Castle Hill which has had a long history of delays, causing a bottleneck which is still not resolved as of 2008.

A21 Lamberhurst Bypass, Completed in 2005

Pembury to Lamberhurst

The dual carriageway resumes after the Castle Hill bottleneck at the first roundabout since leaving the M25; this section was built to bypass Pembury. The dual carriageway has more bends than before and has less bridges. The road comes to a grade separated junction with the A264 road to Tunbridge Wells and the A228 to Maidstone. There is also a local turning later on into Pembury. From here the road is generally more straight than normal and travels uphill and then level. Later on the dual carriageway ends at a roundabout. The next section of A21 is another major bottleneck, being a single carriageway with frequent bends however in October 2005 the "Preferred Route" to deal with this 3 mile (4.75km) section was announced .

Goudhurst to Robertsbridge

However, some work has been completed. One of these, the 2 mile £18 million Lamberhurst bypass, was opened on 23 March 2005. Here the road had steep inclines into the village and the valley of the River Bewl. Included in the scheme is a land bridge at Scotney Castle . The scheme was also constructed by May Gurney and 50,000 trees are planted on the new road. On the current bypass the A21 skirts to the east on a road through farms until eventually it gets to scotney castle where the dual carriageway stops at a roundabout.

Both Bewl Water and the Bedgebury Forest flank the road before the two-mile (3km) Flimwell bypass. This has recently been reduced to one lane in each direction to reduce speeding. The second of the major works begins at Salehurst, where the Robertsbridge bypass begins, taking traffic away from the narrow main street in the village. It opened in 1992.

Mountfield to Hastings

At Johns Cross the original A21 followed the present day A2100 road through Mountfield, Battle and across the north of Hastings around Hollington and ended at the Baldslow Interchange where the A28 made for the town centre. The present route uses the original A229 and A28 which takes the present route to the east on a relatively straight, though undulating, journey, bypassing Sedlescombe before climbing a four-mile (6.4km) long hill to enter Hastings where the first junction reached is the Baldslow Interchange where currently the A28, A2100 and B2093 roads all end. The A21 then heads through on a single-carriageway bypass of Baldslow along with access to sub-urban streets until eventually the A2101 heads for the Town Centre. The A21 then enters Silverhill where it gets to a junction which is sometimes a major bottleneck afterwards the A2102 heads for St Leonards and the A21 becomes the high street for Bohemia. The route then heads down with access to various emergency services and then enters the town centre. From here the original A21 cut through the town centre to meet the A259 at a roundabout near Pelham Crescent, since the town centre has been pedestrianised the A21 heads down on the sub-urban streets to the east. The remainder of the A21 heads around partly on a one-way system near the Priory Quarter business development and then meets the A2101 road again.

Proposed Improvements

Large portions of the A21 through Kent are dual carriageway with intervening stretches of single carriageway. The current plans are to dual the rest of the road through Kent and there are also plans to improve sections through East Sussex which may cause the lane on the short dualled section through the Kent/East Sussex border to reopen.

Castle Hill to Pembury

The Highways Agency has proposed dualling of the short single carriageway around Castle Hill which is one of the most congested sections of the road. This section will be a two-lane dual carriageway with, possibly, a third lane up the hill. There were plans for an offine bypass with six lanes (three in each direction). There will also be a Flyover/Improvement at Longfield road roundabout, giving access to a proposed new regional hospital at Pembury, as well as another unclassified road being Grade Separated. The Bypass will cost £64 million. An original plan was to re-align the road to the west and bring it up to a six lane (3 in each direction) standard but was put off due to environmental concerns. Construction was expected to start in 2010 and then was delayed to 2012 but the scheme has recently moved to a higher priority and construction is now expected to start in 2011 or sooner .

Kippings Cross to Lamberhurst

When the Pembury bypass ends at Kippings Cross, the next section of A21 is a low quality single carriageway road with several steep gradients across the Weald. There are few major centres of habitation on the road and limited or no footpaths. There are many houses next to the route an the road has very frequent bends. The Kippings Cross to Lamberhurst section has a high accident rate and congestion occurs particularly at peak times.

It is proposed that this section should be turned into a two-lane dual carriageway with footpaths and is proposed to be completely off-line, although mainly following the existing route, and have improvements to the A262 roundabout. The Bypass is said to cost £40 million.

Flimwell to Salehurst

Plans have been published for a new road between the southern end of the Flimwell bypass and the beginning of the Robertsbridge bypass.The 5.5 mile (8.9km) improvement will bypass the villages of Flimwell, Hurst Green and Silver Hill. The improvement will commence at the B2079 junction (Lady Oak Lane) on the short section of existing dual carriageway north of Flimwell and terminate at the roundabout at the northern end of the Robertsbridge Bypass. Although part of the road will be brought up to a dual carriageway standard, parts will become a 'wide single carriageway' .

Baldsow Interchange

When the Hastings-Bexhill Link Road is complete, more traffic will use the already congested road from the A2100/A28 to the A21 at Baldslow Interchange, Hastings. There are plans to build a short link road to the A21 south of the interchange and bring more of the A21, from there up past to a new roundabout in an area north of the interchange, to dual carriageway standard. Another option is to realign the A2100 north of the junction, but this option is less favourable due to environmental concerns.

Other Improvements

These schemes have also been proposed:

Flimwell to Scotney Castle
Robertsbridge to Baldslow

Landmarks

Italic indicates that the landmark is only near or not seen from the route

• North Downs
• Hever Castle
• High Weald
• River Teise
• Scotney Castle
• Bodiam Castle
• Hastings Castle

Junctions

A21 Road
Southbound exits	Junction	Northbound exits
Start of Dual Carriageway		End of Dual Carriageway
Local Road Start/End of Road
Foots Cray, Non Motorway Traffic, Riverhead A224		Foots Cray, Non Motorway Traffic, Riverhead A224
Kent
(M20, M11, M1), Dartford Crossing, Maidstone M25 (M23, M3, M4), Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport M25 Hastings, Sevenoaks A21 (Multiplex)		(M20, M11, M1), Dartford Crossing, Maidstone M25 (M23, M3, M4), Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport M25 Hastings, Sevenoaks A21 (Multiplex)
Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport M25		Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport M25
Brasted, Westerham, Oxted A25 Riverhead, Sevenoaks, Borough Green, Maidstone A25		Brasted, Westerham, Oxted A25 Sevenoaks, Maidstone A25
Sevenoaks A225 Hildenborough B245 S'oaks Weald		S'oaks A225 H'borough B245 S'oaks Weald
Tonbridge (West) A26 S'boro, Tun. Wells, H'sham, Newhaven, Seaford, Brighton A26		Tonbridge (West)A26 Southborough, Tun. Wells, Newhaven A26
Tonbridge A2014 Maidstone, Sheerness A26		Tonbridge A2014', Maidstone A26
Local road		Local road
Royal Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, Crawley, Gatwick Airport, Horsham A264 Pembury, Paddock Wood, Maidstone, Rochester A228		Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, Crawley, Horsham A264 Paddock Wood A228
Pembury Local road		No exit
Local road to Frant		Local road to Frant
Tunbridge Wells Services
Goudhurst, Maidstone (A229) A262 Lamberhurst Local Road		Goudhurst, Maidstone (A229) A262 Lamberhurst Local Road
Hook Green, Lamberhurst Local road Scotney Castle Local road		Hook Green, Lamberhurst Local road Scotney Castle Local road
Local road		Local road
East Sussex
End of Dual Carriageway		Start of Dual Carriageway
Hawkhurst, rye A268		Hawkhurst, rye A268
Local road		Local road
Maidstone A229		Maidstone A229
Lewes A265		Lewes A265
Bodiam, Staplecross Local road		Bodiam, Staplecross
Salehurst, Leehurst Local road		Salehurst, Leehust
Robertsbridge Local road		Robertsbridge
Mountfield, Battle, Hastings (NW), Bexhill A2100		Mountfield, Battle, Bexhill A2100
Cripps Corner		Cripps Corner
Whatlington, Battle		Whatlington, Battle
Sedlescombe		Sedlescombe
Bulverhythe, Battle A2100 Ore a2100 Ashford, Margate A28		Bulerhythe A2100 Ore A2100 Ashford, Margate, Ramsgate A28

Gallery

• 
  A21 at Pembury.
• The A21 at Flimwell, East Sussex. on the hill is the border with Kent.
  The A21 at Flimwell, East Sussex. on the hill is the border with Kent.
• 
  A21 heading Southbound
• Road Bridge at Forest Hill near Sevenoaks
  Road Bridge at Forest Hill near Sevenoaks
• 
  A21 heading towards Hastings.
• 
  A21 (near Tonbridge) heading towards Hastings.
• 
  Lamberhurst bypass.
• 
  A21 at Whatlington.

See also

Great Britain road numbering scheme

External links

• UK Roads Portal A21 information
• CBRD M25 J5