Place Name
Directional, part of the A40. It used to be known as “the road ending in a field” on account of the fact it was to take so long to complete. First proposed and rejected in 1903, by 1911 the need for a new road had become ever more urgent. The Times reported: “[A] point in its favour is that it would relieve not only the Hammersmith and Hounslow road, but also the Shepherd’s-bush and Ealing road, which at the present time is inconveniently congested during most of the twenty-four hours. The Board of Trade report specifically refers to this idea as likely to form the Western Avenue, and it is interesting to know that Sir Herbert Jekyll [the engineer who compiled the report for the Board] gives his support to the Wormwood Scrubs idea on the very sound ground that it is in this direction that open country comes nearest to the centre of the metropolis.” Five years later the London Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade said of the proposed works, “large as the expense may be, it should be remembered that the cost of inaction is also heavy. The time lost daily by millions of people through insufficient road accommodation is alone equivalent to a loss of money which, though impossible to estimate, with accuracy, must be very large.” Work began in 1920. In 1926 it was announced that the road would have lime, oak, Norwegian maple, and Cornish elm planted alongside it between Hammersmith boundary and Greenford. But by the following year the works hit problems as the Government withdrew funding for the scheme, resulting in the road ending abruptly at Wood Lane creating heavy congestion. In 1934 a letter in The Times compared the state of British road building with that of its industrial counterpart on the Continent: “It may be broadly stated that Germany is building roads 25 years in advance of traffic requirements, and England reluctantly and expensively 25 years after the need has been demonstrated. The Western Avenue proposed by the Roads Improvement Association to the Royal Commission on London Traffic in 1903 as an immediate requirement is still unfinished.” On January 5, 1943, The Times announced that at long last Western Avenue which “had the reputation of being the most delayed road scheme in Great Britain” was completed. It said: ” The first section of this arterial highway was begun in 1920. By the end of 1929 five miles had been completed, but there was then a long delay because of the call for national economy. Eventually by 1937 11 1/2 miles of the road were open for use by traffic. In February 1939, a beginning was made with the last stage of construction when the Ministry of Transport announced the proposed expenditure of £200,000 for the erection of a viaduct, two bridges, and an embankment on the last stretch.”
