M11 Link Road Protest
A recent article posted onto Weekly Tales, exploring the events surrounding the construction of the M11 Link Road in East London.
The M11 link road was a significant local road scheme, proposed in the 1960s as an important prospective link between Central London and the expanding Docklands. Decades passed with the link road failing to be built, a result of urban road building being unpopular in public opinion.
The plan to connect the A12 in Hackney Wick with the M11 via Leyton and Redbridge, in doing so avoiding urban areas, would gain traction in the 1990s. Need for a road has since been questioned; transport planners of the mid 20th century had conjured the London Ringways plan, which proposed the building of four concentric circular motorways built in the city. The construction of the Ringways was not fully realised, leaving a number of unfinished motorway developments. The Westway, an urban motorway elevated over the streets of Paddington and Notting Hill, opened in 1970 with fierce criticism placed upon it. The busy carriageway was positioned within metres of homes and deemed as ‘completely unacceptable environmentally’ by local MP John Wheeler. Four years later, the Greater London Council announced that Ringway 1, an extension of the Westway development, would not be completed.
By 1976, the building of the M11 link road was once again being explored, leading to the formation of the first Link Road Action Group in resistance. The group sought to cease building and propose alternative developments, one of which was to build underground, leaving the homes in the vicinity of Wanstead and Leyton untouched. Such plans were dispelled due to potential costs. Local people were subjected to soaring levels of pollution, as a growing number of drivers travelled into the city via the urban single-carriageway roads. Traffic congestion within the suburbs worsened, forcing the government to publish ‘Roads for Prosperity’. Published in 1989, the paper outlined major expansive works that needed to be undertaken to improve the state of the highways in East London. The proposals were a direct response to rising levels of car ownership in Britain; it was to be the largest road building programme since that of the Romans. It’s embrace of Thatcher’s ‘great car economy’ was controversial and its unpopularity led to widespread road protests.
The proposed road was contested by local people and the Link Road Action Group; a report conducted by Newham Council in 1995 estimated that the M11 Link would not sufficiently reduce traffic congestion. Instead, an additional 75,000 vehicles were encouraged into the city via an alternative route. The M11 Link destroyed the landscape, consuming over 350 homes, displacing over 1000 people and ridding the community of important green spaces. Compulsory purchase of homes was offered along the route, though several original residents refused to sell or vacate their properties. Those that opted to leave, as with other examples of displacement in London, accepted a nominal fee in compensation for the loss of their home. By 1993, with local people resigned to the impending destruction of their community, an increased number of outside protestors travelled to the area in solidarity. Though directly impacting their lives, residents of the East London suburbs failed to mobilise en masse. This changed towards the end of the year, when residents learnt of the proposed fate of a 250-year-old chestnut tree on George Green, Wanstead. Jean Gosling, the local lollipop lady, was one of the most vocal supporters of the action, having been inspired by the children she served on a daily basis.
The full article can be viewed at weeklytales.com
Images are courtesy of Tim Brown and Gideon Mendel.