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#1
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Pointless Roads
I find a lot of roads which serve no purpose, apart from acting as improptu urinals at 3am. For example, Woodville Road NW6. Despite having a guide at the pathetic website http://www.londontown.com/LondonStre..._road_344.html, it contains no properties, and it isn't useful for any likely journey, especially since Tennyson Road gained a barrier just south of Priory Park Road. Why was Woodville Road built? Why was it given a name, when it could have been considered a part of Donaldson Road (compare with the almost-as-useless southern part of Hazelmere Road one block over)? Now that land is so valuable that school playing fields are being built upon all over the place, why isn't something built on Woodville Road, perhaps leaving a footpath along one side? |
#2
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Pointless Roads
On Fri, 6 Apr 2007, John Rowland wrote:
Why was Woodville Road built? Any chance it predates the railway, and is related to the ancient road layout? I don't know the history of the area, and can't find the area on a suitably old map. Although i did find a nice collections of maps he http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb...._pages/lon.htm tom -- You may laugh. But me, I feel the chill wind of futurity down my spine... -- Mr Snips |
#3
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Pointless Roads
Tom Anderson wrote:
Any chance it predates the railway, and is related to the ancient road layout? I don't know the history of the area, and can't find the area on a suitably old map. www.old-maps.co.uk has a map from 1874, apparently just when the area was being built up. The railway's there but everything else is fields. U |
#4
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Pointless Roads
On 6 Apr 2007 11:52:21 -0700, Mr Thant
wrote in om: Tom Anderson wrote: Any chance it predates the railway, and is related to the ancient road layout? I don't know the history of the area, and can't find the area on a suitably old map. www.old-maps.co.uk has a map from 1874, apparently just when the area was being built up. The railway's there but everything else is fields. I remember when it was all fields! -- Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration, Brunel University. ] Room 40-1-B12, CERN KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty". |
#5
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Pointless Roads
In message , John Rowland
writes Why was Woodville Road built? Why was it given a name, when it could have been considered a part of Donaldson Road It is shown as a continuation of Donaldson Road in the 1948 and 1954 editions of the Bartholomew Greater London Reference Atlas, but as Woodville Road in the 1961 edition. So the dreadful deed was presumably perpetrated between 1954 and 1961. Perhaps it was a cheap way of commemorating some venerable Councillor Woodville or similar? -- Paul Terry |
#6
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Pointless Roads
Paul Terry wrote:
In message , John Rowland writes Why was Woodville Road built? Why was it given a name, when it could have been considered a part of Donaldson Road It is shown as a continuation of Donaldson Road in the 1948 and 1954 editions of the Bartholomew Greater London Reference Atlas, but as Woodville Road in the 1961 edition. So the dreadful deed was presumably perpetrated between 1954 and 1961. Perhaps it was a cheap way of commemorating some venerable Councillor Woodville or similar? Good thinking. My 1957 Geographers Atlas of London shows Woodville Road, so that puts the change between 1954 and 1957. But I wouldn't trust maps to be accurate over something like this, and it's possible that the maps were altered to correct an earlier error rather than reflect a recent change. Anyway, my main point is why this piece of tarmac is there at all. The eastern part of Littleton Street in Earlsfield is a similar waste of land. There are numerous others. |
#7
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Pointless Roads
On 7 Apr, 13:13, "John Rowland"
wrote: Paul Terry wrote: In message , John Rowland writes Why was Woodville Road built? Why was it given a name, when it could have been considered a part of Donaldson Road It is shown as a continuation of Donaldson Road in the 1948 and 1954 editions of the Bartholomew Greater London Reference Atlas, but as Woodville Road in the 1961 edition. So the dreadful deed was presumably perpetrated between 1954 and 1961. Perhaps it was a cheap way of commemorating some venerable Councillor Woodville or similar? Good thinking. My 1957 Geographers Atlas of London shows Woodville Road, so that puts the change between 1954 and 1957. But I wouldn't trust maps to be accurate over something like this, and it's possible that the maps were altered to correct an earlier error rather than reflect a recent change. Anyway, my main point is why this piece of tarmac is there at all. The eastern part of Littleton Street in Earlsfield is a similar waste of land. There are numerous others. Bacon's shilling map of 1880 seems to show development extending westwards from Kilburn High Road. Might Donaldson Road/Woodville Road have marked the limit of one builder's laying-out of streets, and only become logically surplus to requirements when the next section of Brondesbury Villas was commenced? StuartJ |
#8
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Pointless Roads
John Rowland wrote:
Anyway, my main point is why this piece of tarmac is there at all. The eastern part of Littleton Street in Earlsfield is a similar waste of land. There are numerous others. The eastern part of Littleton Street provides access between the western and eastern parts of that estate. Pre-1950 developments generally had easy access by road within the estate, thus reinforcing the sense of community , but more recently there's been a fetish for incredibly complex networks of cul-de-sacs which probably use more tarmac than the older designs. Google Earth shows your "wasteful" stretch of tarmac with 15 cars parked on it, so it seems quite useful really. -- Richard J. (to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address) |
#9
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Pointless Roads
"Richard J." wrote in message k... John Rowland wrote: Anyway, my main point is why this piece of tarmac is there at all. The eastern part of Littleton Street in Earlsfield is a similar waste of land. There are numerous others. The eastern part of Littleton Street provides access between the western and eastern parts of that estate. Pre-1950 developments generally had easy access by road within the estate, thus reinforcing the sense of community , but more recently there's been a fetish for incredibly complex networks of cul-de-sacs which probably use more tarmac than the older designs. Google Earth shows your "wasteful" stretch of tarmac with 15 cars parked on it, so it seems quite useful really. I think I've read somewhere that a lot of these 'pointless' roads are not easy to develop because they often contain the neighbourhood utilities, especially sewers, and diverting everything so that a house or two can be built is not worth the hassle... Paul S |
#10
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Pointless Roads
Richard J. wrote:
John Rowland wrote: Anyway, my main point is why this piece of tarmac is there at all. The eastern part of Littleton Street in Earlsfield is a similar waste of land. There are numerous others. The eastern part of Littleton Street provides access between the western and eastern parts of that estate. The architecture suggests that these are actually two separate estates built a significant portion of a century apart. The road geometry tells the same story. But while it is easy to contrive two points for which this part of Littleton Street is the shortest route, I suspect you could go a full week (year?) without an actual person driving an actual journey which would be lengthened by more than five yards if the road was shut. The only journeys for which the road is a significant short cut are so short that they would probably be walked anyway. There is a place in London where a (decent length) road has been blocked at one end, and a small residence for teachers has been built on the former road. I can't remember where it is right now. |
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