"Andrew Wyatt" wrote:
Opinions requested - in two weeks time on a Thursday my family will be
coming to visit us, and will be driving from Heathrow Airport to
Walthamstow, starting out from Heathrow at about 15:30.

I guess the two obvious routes are M25-M11 or A4-A406-A10. What do you
think would be quickest at that time of day? Typically, how busy are the
two roads main roads (M25/A406) then?

Depends how confident they are with the back streets (or not-so-main roads)
really.

Bits to avoid are the A406 between A4 and A40 (Hanger Lane), North Circular
around the A1 junction (Henlys Corner) and near Bounds Green/New Southgate,
and the rest should be ok. Others have mentioned the roadworks on the M25
near Waltham Cross as well, so with that in mind, I'd go one of two ways:

1. M25, then A40/M40 to Hanger Lane [1], then A406 to Brent Cross, taking
A41 towards London. Third left (excluding the ones on the sliproad just as
you join the A41) into Wayside, 2nd left into Armitage Road, straight across
two sets of lights, and follow the road up to Meadway until Kingsley Way
(about 0.8 miles), then left onto Kingsley Way, straight over the first set
of lights (A1 junction), and right at the top onto East End Road, which
leads into East Finchley. Then just follow the A504 through East Finchley,
Muswell Hill, Hornsey, leading up to Seven Sisters, and up to Walthamstow
from there. From joining East End Road things might be a little slow, but
far less worse than the alternatives IMHO.

2. M25 around to the A10 junction, then A10 towards London, and first left
towards Enfield Lock - then follow the A1055 past Enfield Lock and
Brimsdown, either picking up the North Circular where you come to it, or
just carry on to Tottenham Hale and go into Walthamstow from there.

Either of those should avoid most of the worst traffic blackspots for that
journey.

--
[1] You could go A30/A312, or M4/A312, but you're probably as well just
staying on the M25 if you're starting on it, and if you go A30/A312 the
queues can be a pain coming up to the M4.