Let's take a walk along one of the City of London's B roads - the B500.
Here's a road sign which proves it exists, and that it starts at Holborn Circus.
This photo was taken on New Fetter Lane which is officially one end of the A4 (the very last few metres if you're travelling in this direction or 130 miles from Avonmouth if you're going in the other). Holborn Circus is a five-way junction, primarily where the A4 meets the A40, but also the meeting point of the B500 and B521. A statue of Prince Albert used to stand bang in the middle but in 2014 they nudged him onto High Holborn to improve traffic circulation. That's the B500 poking off to the northeast, or Charterhouse Street as it's better known.
It's not a historic road, despite its name, having been created in the 1860s at the same time as Holborn Viaduct. That carried east-west traffic across the Fleet Valley for the first time, which meant a separate connection was needed down to Farringdon Road (which now followed the line of the lost river below). Initially it was called New Street, somewhat unoriginally, but swiftly earned the better name Charterhouse Street because that's where it led. It's still very much a road on a slope.
A small City parklet has been squeezed into the sharp corner between Charterhouse Street and Holborn Viaduct. It's not especially exciting, more a patch of lawn surrounded by benches you can't sleep on, and the bins very much need emptying and the fountain's been switched off and drained, but it's well kept and the topiary's smart and it looks like it could cope with two dozen sandwich munchers of a lunchtime. A convenient Pret lurks immediately behind, weekdays only, shuts 3pm.
The first building on the northern side is 1 Ely Place, formerly a branch of Nat West but recently transformed into offices, which means bike stores and showers in the basement where the bank vaults used to be. Ely Place is an amazing street, a private Georgian cul-de-sac built on the site of the Bishop of Ely's medieval palace and still home to his 13th century chapel, but it's not part of the B500 so I can't explore it or tell you more. For similar reasons I won't be telling you about Saffron Hill or Shoe Lane which bear off further down.
Charterhouse Street has its very own Bus Stop M, served by route 17, although it's closed at the moment due to cable repairs on the other side of the road. The opposite bus stop is used by terminating services on route 25 if there isn't enough space on the stand on Holborn Viaduct. As for 17 Charterhouse Street this is the HQ of world-renowned diamond merchants De Beers, a total fortress and very recently refurbished. Very soon we reach Farringdon Street, the valley-bottom road which Charterhouse Street crosses.
Unfortunately the B500 stops here because the remainder of the road has been declassified. That's a shame because the next stretch is fascinating, and also in flux as the Museum of London prepares to move into Smithfield Market, and those refrigerated warehouses have seen better days, and look there's Fabric nightclub, and yes it smells of meat, and here comes historic Charterhouse Square. Alas I'm blogging none of this because the B500 runs for only 150 metres so that's all you get.
No, I won't be introducing Random City B Road as a regular feature.
The main reason for this is that there are only three B roads in the City of London.
B100: Beech Street → Chiswell Street → Finsbury Square → Sun Street (0.6 miles) B400: Chancery Lane (0.3 miles) B500: Charterhouse Street (part) (0.1 miles)
They're an interesting trio but also rather short. I like how they're all multiples of 100. This is mostly (but not entirely) coincidental. Also two of the B roads merely run along the boundary of the City rather than through it, the sole exception being the B100.
Four further B roads start on the City boundary but run entirely outside it.
B134: Alie Street → White Church Lane → Osborne Street → Brick Lane (0.9 miles) B144: Bunhill Row → Bath Street → Shepherdess Walk → Eagle Wharf Road (1.1 miles) B501: St John Street (0.7 miles) B521: Hatton Garden (0.3 miles)
There used to be six more City B roads, all since declassified.
B128: Gresham Street (0.3 miles) B129: Fore Street → Red Cross Street (0.3 miles) B130: Old Broad Street (0.3 miles) B131: Lombard Street (0.2 miles) B132: Lower Thames Street → Upper Thames Street (1.2 miles) B133: Arthur Street → Monument Street (0.2 miles)
A lot of roads in the City were declassified in the 1990s when the Ring of Steel was introduced. The B129 was lost in the redevelopment of the Barbican. The B132 was reclassified as the A3211 when it became a dual carriageway.
A1: Aldersgate Street (396 miles) A3: London Bridge (78 miles) A4: New Fetter Lane (130 miles) A10: Bishopsgate (100 miles) A11: Whitechapel High St (62 miles) A40: High Holborn (263 miles)
A201: Farringdon Street (3.5 miles) A300: Southwark Bridge (1.1 miles) A501: Moorgate (4.5 miles) A1211: London Wall (1.3 miles) A3211: Victoria Embankment (2.4 miles)
A1210: Mansell Street (0.4 miles) A1213: Gracechurch Street (0.3 miles) A4208: Shoe Lane (0.3 miles)
The City is the only district in Great Britain to contain A roads starting with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. It's also the historic centre of the road numbering network. The A3, A10, A11, A40 and A501 used to converge at Bank, with the A1 and A4 starting close by.
#nerdfactOriginally the B500 ran along the north side of Smithfield Market, the B501 along the east side, the B100 along the south side and the A201 along the west side (three different starting digits for roads around a single building is unique).
