Traffic can usually be an issue at the Crown Island along Middleton Boulevard. Professor John Beckett of the University of Nottingham explains how this awkward junction came into being.
Anyone who drives along Nottingham's ring road knows that one of the most likely hold-ups will be at the Crown Island, where two traffic islands create a dog-leg connection between Middleton and Western Boulevards. It is an awkward junction that makes little sense… so why is it there?
The answer lies in some city council economy measures of the 1920s.
At that time, the council planned an outer ring road linking Mansfield Road to the north of the town, with Derby Road in the south-west, allowing for an extension towards Clifton in the future.
Valley Road, the first part of the ring road, was built in 1920–2, but further progress was delayed.
In 1925 the city council acquired Wollaton Hall and the surrounding park, and this gave an impetus to the ring road plan. The Estates Committee approved a plan to cut a new road through the park, which would eventually link to the north with a road coming from Valley Road, and to the south with a new road towards Clifton.
The original idea was for the new road through the park to be a straight highway north from Derby Road, with one roundabout (now the Charnock Avenue turn-off) to cross the canal and meet Wollaton Road.
The crossing would have been more or less opposite the southern end of the proposed new boulevard coming from the Aspley direction, now Western Boulevard.
Unfortunately costs were a significant factor. The plan agreed by the city council in July 1925 underwent significant alterations before it was implemented the following year.
The General Works and Highways Committee was concerned about the state of the Wollaton Road bridge over the canal. Built at the time the canal opened in the 1790s, it was only 20ft wide and had no pavements. The increase in traffic meant that it was "very unsatisfactory", and in March 1927 the committee recommended a new bridge, 91ft wide, which would "make an effective junction with Middleton Boulevard".
The cost was estimated at £22,000. Although the council expected to recoup £11,000 from the Ministry of Transport, they were still worried about the overall expenditure the project would involve.
After debate, councillors decided that rather than build two bridges, one to replace the existing canal bridge, and another for Middleton Boulevard to reach Wollaton Road across the Nottingham canal, they would find a compromise. This involved altering the route of Middleton Boulevard.
The planned straight line between Derby Road and Wollaton Road was changed so that north of the Charnock Avenue roundabout, Middleton Boulevard was bent westwards to meet Wollaton Road approximately 60 yards to the west of the existing canal bridge. This ensured that traffic coming along Middleton Boulevard could use the same bridge as traffic on Wollaton Road.
With these changes of plan, work on the new road was delayed, but during the course of 1927 and 1928 both Middleton Boulevard and the new bridge were under construction.
The bridge opened on June 20, 1928. It was described in a newspaper report of the opening as providing "a suitable crossing of Wollaton Road from the proposed new arterial road of which Middleton Boulevard forms the first instalment". Middleton Boulevard opened in 1929, without ceremony.
In August 1929, the city council gave the green light to the development of Western Boulevard, officially opened by the Minister of Transport on November 21, 1932. The final section of the planned road, Clifton Boulevard, opened only in late 1938, and until then the route south from Derby Road was along Sandy Lane and Abbey Lane to Dunkirk.
Given the traffic flows of the 1920s, and the continuing role of the canal, the decisions about the link between Middleton and Western Boulevards made some sense. But in the longer term they were a disaster.
The canal was abandoned in the 1930s, drained and filled in the 1950s and 1960s, while post-war private car ownership meant many more vehicles began to travel along the ring road.
The result is what we see today, an awkward junction which causes endless frustration and delay for motorists.
If only the city council had known in the 1920s what life would be like in the early 21st Century!