For other roads with the same name see A21.

The A21 is a major trunk road in Southern England, and is one of the many, connecting London, and various commuter towns to the south coast. It provides a link to Hastings, East Sussex and parts of Kent. 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. People have described the A21 as "A Joke" and Business people were reported to ?hate coming down the A21? ^[1]. 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;^[2] other sections of the road were similarly dealt with later in the century. The road between the M25 and Hastings is designated a trunk road, and is maintained and managed by the Highways Agency.

The A21 is used for the 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,^[3] attracting over 20,000 bikers.

Overall view of the road

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

A21 approaching a queue, on the two-span bridge crossing the Valley of the River Medway near Haysden.

The A21 begins in Lewisham, almost 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 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. The most recent bypass is the two mile Lamberhurst bypass and 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. Another 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.

Traffic Congestion on the A21 near Pembury.

A21 near Sevenoaks Weald^[4] .

A21 approaching London near Hewitts. This section was built in 1986, bypassing the old A21 through Badgers Mount.

The route in detail

London

The A21 starts in Lewisham in London at a roundabout on the A20 known as "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 suburb, 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 entered Kent here and 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

A21 Lamberhurst Bypass, Completed in 2005

A21 at Oakhurst, Kent.

South of the junction with the A25, the road becomes the Sevenoaks bypass which generally has two lanes in each direction. The Sevenoaks bypass runs down around nearby valleys and at one point includes the widest part of the A21 with three lanes climbing Riverhill northbound from the junction near the village of Sevenoaks Weald. The road is then 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 has not very many junctions and runs partly through the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Between Leigh and Haysden the road crosses the Medway Valley by the means of a two-span lengthy viaduct which crosses the River Medway and passes Haysden Water.

The A21 then curves round the area until eventually reaching two junctions with the A26 through Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.

South of here the A21 remains dualled until becoming a single-carriageway between Castle Hill and Pembury, which has had a long history of delays, causing a major bottleneck which is still not resolved as of 2008. ^[5]

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 section was announced.^[6]

Lamberhurst to John's Cross

A21 near Hildenborough.

The next section of road is a single-carriageway which travels past Bewl Water until it becomes the Flimwell bypass. This has recently been reduced to one lane in each direction to reduce speeding. As the Dual Carriageway ends, the road enters East Sussex. The road afterwards near Salehurst, where the 1992 Robertsbridge bypass begins, taking traffic away from the narrow main street in the village. Unlike the bypasses north of here, this is built to a Single-Carriageway standard.

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 B2091, 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 terminate. The A21 then heads through on a wide single-carriageway bypass of Baldslow (Sedlescombe road north) 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 where the road is quite narrow and there are often roadworks. 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 however 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 railway station and the new Priory Quarter business development and then meets the A2101 road again which continues through the town centre to the A259.

Proposed Improvements

Large portions of the A21, through Kent mostly, are dual carriageway with intervening stretches of single carriageway. The current plans are to dual the rest of the road through Kent to alleviate congestion, safety and accessibility problems in the villages along the route.^[9] There are also proposals to dual all of the remaining stretches of Single carriageway which may cause the lane on the short dualled section through the Kent/East Sussex border to reopen.

In 2002 , it was reported that a 22 kilometers (14 mi) section of the A21 south of Flimwell was the most dangerous road in the south east outside London, and the 38th most dangerous in the country,^[10] however it has since been overtaken by the A259 between Pevensey and Bexhill-on-Sea.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

Castle Hill to Pembury

A21 near Whitly Row.

A21 heading Southbound near Sundridge.

Cutting at Forest Hill near Sevenoaks.

Kippings Cross to Forstal Farm

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. ^[32]

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. ^[33] The Bypass is said to cost £40 million. ^[34]

Flimwell to Northbridge street

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.^[35] 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' ^[36][37]

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.^{[38] [39]}

Other Improvements

These schemes have also been proposed:^[40]

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 Medway
• River Teise
• Scotney Castle
• Bodiam Castle
• Hastings Castle

Junctions

See also

Great Britain road numbering scheme

References

External links

• UK Roads Portal A21 information
• CBRD M25 J5
• Road to Nowhere: A21

nl:A21 (Groot-Brittannië) no:A21

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