As the new year begins, let's walk the A2026.
It used to be in Ewell, Surrey.
But it's now in Dartford, Kent.
To be fair it's not an especially exciting mile, but it is what the gods of road numbering have provided for us this new year.
The A2026 started life as the Crayford bypass, a flat estuarine alternative to the Roman road up West Hill. It was opened on 22 June 1923 by the wife of Wilford Ashley, Parliamentary Secretary to Ministry of Transport, and originally designated the A206. In 1993 it was finally time for Dartford to get a bypass, a speedy northern shortcut to the end of the QE2 Bridge, and that became the A206 instead leaving the chopped-off end to become the A2026. It slots into the wedge between the River Cray and the River Darent without quite meeting either, and its southern end is just outside Dartford station.
We're on Dartford's inner ring road, the twisted loop they added to make it easier to go shopping in the high street, not far from all the bus stops. The silver fortress on the street corner is Prospect Place, a retail mall entirely focused around its car park so all that's on show here is a row of blocked windows round the back of TK Maxx. None of the road signs at this junction mention the A2026, only the eventual A206, but don't worry we'll have more numerical luck at the other end.
Dartford's chosen method of dealing with cyclists is to split the pavement so mind which side you walk on the hemmed-in path ahead. Watch out too for the 'buses which look a bit like trams' on Fastrack routes A and B, at least until they head off into realms of new flats and spurn the older houses up the A2026. Board here to track down Ruby Tuesday Drive, Sympathy Vale and Tumbling Dice Mews. Meanwhile the bridge across the road here carries Southeastern trains, being just beyond the far end of Dartford's platforms, and deposits us at a new-ish roundabout linked to a multitude of eras.
Straight ahead is Hythe Road, an 18th century dead end that once led to wharves, mills and gas works. The swarthy men who ferried goods to vessels waiting offshore are commemorated in the name of The Hufflers Arms, a dour grey pub with dubious bow windows and cheap pump lager. Turn right for stacks of modern apartments slotted onto the former site of the Wellcome Chemical Works, a significant pharmaceutical site where key treatments for leprosy, diabetes and migraine were once manufactured. We are instead turning left past a horribly characterless block of flats with a corner shop underneath packed with energy drinks and Pringles.
This is Victoria Road, a soulless link road with a railway embankment on one side and a mass of commercial units on the other. One prong leads to the Victoria Industrial Estate and another to the Dartford Trading Estate, the ideal destination if you need timber joists, a hire car or a bike fixed. The only point of interest is a pillar box painted pink with yellow spots in tribute to Mr Blobby, the design now wearing off. Improbably I blogged about it last summer during an attempt to track down all the royal cyphers, which is how I know the offending artist was called Danny Whiskin and his punishment was 100 hours of community service and a fine of £2600.
No trading estate is complete without a greasy spoon and thus the A2026 hosts Kell's Cafe, a lowly-looking shack with a string of plastic lemons above the door. According to its sign it was established in 1994 and is now "in our 28th Year", a claim which is even more inaccurate as of midnight. Last of the urban grot is a fenced plot housing a water pumping station and a National Grid substation, this on the footprint of Dartford's former tramways depot. Town services launched in 1906 and ceased abruptly in August 1917 when a fire destroyed the depot and the full fleet of thirteen vehicles inside. Stop me if this gets too interesting.
The road now bends away from the railway and climbs a very gentle gradient with bungalows on one side and older terraces on the other. This is not the affluent side of Dartford, even relatively speaking. What's really at a premium here are parking spaces, even when the houses get a bit larger, with several cars assigned to the verge and most front gardens crammed with two vehicles in lieu of plants. It's thus no surprise when the first shop ahead is a 2-bay unit where new tyres are fitted, its forecourt abuzz with petrolheads and bonnet-fiddlers. Throw in a kebab shop, an off-licence and a barbershop and it's all a bit blokey on Burnham Road.
Sportspeople can instead push open a quirky blue gate and drop into the Invicta Bowls Club, at least when the pavilion reopens in April. For some idea of the clientele, its green is overlooked by adverts for Jay & Kay Coach Tours, NW Kent Oddfellows and Co-op Funeralcare. Various industrial units then intrude, enticed by the near-motorway location, plus a proper old-school clump of huts watched over by once-true metal signs that warn of Alsatian Patrolling. Meanwhile the houses on the other side of the road have become increasingly ugly - I'd say arse end of the 1930s - and then thank goodness we're at the final roundabout.
It's a big roundabout funnelling all kinds of vans and heavy lorries towards the M25, thus not really designed to be crossed on foot. I still did though to get a good look at three roadsigns which explicitly mention the A2026 because these are the holy grail for the year-based A-road blogger. The Crayford Marshes begin immediately to the north and stretch two miles to the Thames, should you ever be in need of a really bleak walk. Meanwhile that field to the left is actually in Bexley, so if you carry on a few metres beyond the pylons you'll suddenly find yourself in London, not Kent. The A2026 terminates just outside.
The road of the year is thus bleak, grey and peripheral, so let's hope that's not a sign for the twelve months to come.
Former year-road bloggage:A2018 (Dartford), A2021 (Eastbourne), A2022 (S London), A2023 (Hove), A2025 (Lancing) My map of this century's A Roads so far:here And then a gap until:A2029 (Lewes)
