A3
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Was it part of the Ringway plan or was it not? We haven't found much evidence either way. There are many cases in the Ringway proposals that involve an existing radial route that might be described as "already adequate"; roads like the A10 or A13 that, by the 1960s, were already largely dual carriageway and didn't seem sorely in need of improvement. Because the plan overlooked them, however, it's almost impossible to know whether they were meant to become a backwater when other radial routes were upgraded, or whether they were just thought to be good enough to leave alone for now.
The A3 falls comfortably into this category. Already a dual-three lane road for much of the way towards London thanks to the Kingston Bypass, it may not have warranted large-scale improvement works. But on the other hand, there are occasional hints that something big was going on in this area. It's all rather mysterious for now.
Ringway 2 (interchange unknown)
Possible local connections to Wandsworth
A219 Wimbledon (Tibbet's Corner)
A305 Roehampton Lane
Local connections to Kingston & Raynes Park
Local connections to Tolworth & Hook
R3 Southern Section
Local connections to Esher & Cobham
R4 Southern Section
Continues to Guildford & Portsmouth
The route
Running south-west from London, the A3 begins its journey as a major road in Wandsworth (though its actual start is, of course, in the City). Clapham Junction was to be the south-west corner of Ringway 1, with a link motorway running alongside the railway line to Putney in order to reach Ringway 2. The A3 would have connected to the motorway network somewhere around here, but it's not known where. There are hints that the road might have been improved on its journey out of Wandsworth.
At Tibbet's Corner, on the edge of Wimbledon Common, the A3 suddenly transforms from a suburban street to a vast three-lane dual carriageway, with a grade separated interchange linking it to the A219 (shown right circa 1969; click to enlarge). It passes through Roehampton Vale and turns to form the Kingston Bypass, built in the 1930s and improved since then to form a fast, non-stop expressway.
At Hook, the modern A3 turns southwards from the original line of the Kingston Bypass to form the more modern Esher Bypass. Somewhere just south of this point would be the interchange with Ringway 3. The Esher Bypass was built in the early 1970s and was built to a full three-lane motorway specification, complete with hard shoulders, and in fact there are rumours that it was supposed to be A3(M) when it opened. At the southern end of the bypass, returning to the original A3 alignment, there is an interchange with the M25 (Ringway 4) and the route continues out of London towards Guildford and Portsmouth.
History
While we can't be sure about the status of the A3 in the Ringway plan, one thing we do know is that Abercrombie considered the A3 Kingston Bypass unsuitable for one of his new 'parkways'. In the 1930s, it had direct frontage development, and Abercrombie saw more potential in a line reserved immediately to the south east for a proposed A24 realignment (the land for this is still reserved today and unused).
A3 Kingston Bypass in 1963 and 2002. Click to enlarge
So what keeps the A3 in the running as a Ringway-era radial route? The truth is that the evidence on the ground is the strongest indicator that big things were planned for the A3 in the 1960s and 70s. To the southern end of the London section, the 1960s saw the Kingston Bypass rebuilt to dual three-lane standard, with frontage roads to serve the houses and full grade separation at all junctions. This is an expensive and complex procedure and not one likely to be carried out on a minor radial route. Beyond this, the A3 Esher Bypass is, in engineering terms, a motorway.
Towards Wandsworth, the improved road continues to Tibbet's Corner, a huge grade-separated junction. Immediately north-east of this the A3 narrows rather suddenly to form a suburban street that muddles its way through Wandsworth town centre. A junction improvement like this one wouldn't be carried out if there were no plans to continue that enormous road beyond it.
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