North Cross Route
North Cross Route (NCR) was a planned motorway-style road that would have formed the northern part of London’s Ringway 1, the inner ring of the London Ringways. It was designed as a six-lane dual carriageway with grade-separated junctions that would connect to an extended M1. The plan was drawn up in the late 1960s but was never built because of strong opposition and high costs.
The NCR would have started in Harlesden, with its western end having a junction just east of Willesden Junction that would connect to the West Cross Route and the eastern part of Ringway 1 coming from Shepherd’s Bush. A spur from the NCR would link to the Western Avenue (A40) near Gypsy Corner, and Harrow Road (A404) would also connect at this point.
Heading east, the NCR would run in a cutting along the north side of the North London Line to Brondesbury and Kilburn High Road (A5). To make space for the motorway, many houses on the south side of the railway would be demolished, and roads crossing the railway, like Willesden Lane, would be bridged over the sunken motorway.
Between Kilburn High Road and West End Lane, a large Y-shaped junction would be built where the NCR met the planned end of the M1. The plan also proposed continuing the M1 south of its Staples Corner junction with the North Circular Road (Ringway 2) along the east side of the Midland Main Line through Cricklewood. The M1–NCR junction would have slip roads in both directions, and the NCR would gain extra lanes up to a roundabout at Finchley Road (between Finchley Road and Finchley Road & Frognall stations).
East of Finchley Road there were three possible routes toward Camden Town; the preferred route (though it would require tunneling through Belsize Park) aimed to create a good interchange with a planned Camden Town by-pass, linking Albany Street to Camden Road.
Beyond Camden Town, the NCR would follow the north side of the North London Line to Caledonian Road (A5203), then pass through Highbury and Canonbury to Dalston. It would cross Kingsland High Street (A10) and run along Ridley Road Market, with a further junction to the High Street and Dalston Lane.
The final section would run through Hackney town centre, parallel to the railway viaduct, staying south of Sutton House, and continue through Homerton and Hackney Wick. There it would interchange with the East Cross Route from Bow, the proposed M11 from Leyton, and another route toward Angel. To manage these complex connections, the North London Line would be diverted through Hackney Wick.
The NCR and other central London motorway plans grew from pre–World War II ideas in the County of London Plan and the Greater London Plan, and were developed in the 1960s by the Greater London Council. But the projects would have been very costly and faced widespread opposition, so the NCR was dropped from the Ringways plan by 1972, and most of the rest of the scheme was cancelled in 1973. Only the East Cross Route, part of the West Cross Route, and the Westway were built.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 01:41 (CET).