The A12 is a major road in Eastern England. It runs north-east/south-west between London and the coastal town of Lowestoft in the north-eastern corner of Suffolk, following a similar route to the Great Eastern Main Line until Ipswich. A section of the road between Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth became part of the A47 in 2017. Between the junctions with the M25 and the A14, the A12 forms part of the unsigned Euroroute E30 (prior to 1985, it was the E8). Unlike most A roads, this section of the A12, together with the A14 and the A55, has junction numbers as if it were a motorway. The section of the A12 through Essex has sections of dual two lanes and dual three lanes, with eight changes in width between the M25 to Ipswich. It was named as Britain's worst road because of "potholes and regular closures due to roadworks" in a 2007 survey by Cornhill Insurance. The A12 is covered by the National Highways A12 / A120 route based strategy.
Starting just north of the Blackwall Tunnel, where it connects end on to the A102, it heads north through Bow and Hackney Wick, then north-east through Leyton and Romford, then into Essex, passing Brentwood and Colchester. In Suffolk, it passes Ipswich and Saxmundham, then follows the coast through Lowestoft before entering Norfolk, passing through Gorleston-on-Sea and ending at Great Yarmouth. In February 2017, the route was renumbered between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft to become the A47. In June 2024, most of the A1117 was renumbered as the A12, incorporating the Lowestoft Gull Wing Bridge, where the A12 now terminates at the A47 in North Lowestoft.
History The A12 was formed in 1922 as part of the Great Britain road numbering scheme, and initially the route went from Stratford to Gallows Corner along the present A118 road before continuing to Great Yarmouth. This section in London was rerouted to run on Eastern Avenue by the mid-1940s, and extended to follow the current route from Blackwall Tunnel along the East Cross Route, (previously the A102(M) & A106), the M11 link road in 1999.
The route from London to Essex has long been important, with Old Ford being the location of an ancient Celtic crossing of the River Lea. The route was altered slightly by the Romans who created a paved road from London to Colchester, which was part of Inter V on the Antonine Itinerary, and parts of this were used by a turnpike road, the Great Essex Road. The crossing of the Lea moved to its current location at Bow around 1110 when Matilda, wife of Henry I, ordered a distinctively bow-shaped, three-arched bridge to be built over the river. A map from 1766 shows a route from London to Lowestoft which follows much of the current A12.
The "Ipswich to South Town and Bungay Turnpike Trust" was established in 1785, operating between Ipswich and Great Yarmouth. The trust was wound up in 1872 following the arrival of the East Suffolk Line which was fully operational between the two towns in 1859. Following the demise of the Turnpike trust, responsibility reverted to parish councils until the new county councils took over in 1889.
A new section of the A12, known as the "M11 link road" or "A12 Hackney-M11 Link Road", was built in the early 1990s in the face of the major M11 link road protest and finally opened in October 1999. The section of road had originally been proposed in 1903 in a Royal Commission on London Traffic. A public inquiry had been held in September 1961 and a further three public inquiries, a Parliamentary Bill and a High Court challenge had been required before the work started.
Initiated in 2000, the London to Ipswich Multi-modal study reported its conclusions late in 2002.
In 2008 improvements were made to the junction between the A12 and the M25 to increase slip-road capacity, in particular for clockwise M25 traffic turning north onto the A12, and to ease congestion on the Brook Street Roundabout (serving the M25, A12 and local Brentwood traffic as the A1023).
The bascule bridge in Lowestoft was built in 1972, and was refurbished in spring 2008.
Essex County Council carried out its own inquiry into the road in 2008, with work on a £12.4m scheme for a new junction on the A12 at Cuckoo Farm, Colchester adjacent to the Colchester Community Stadium, subsequently starting in December 2009. It was promoted by Essex County Council who prepared plans in 2001 and was financed from the Community Infrastructure Fund. It opened on 16 December 2010.
The section of A12 between Brentwood and Ipswich is classed as a major trunk road, managed by Highways England. The section between Ipswich and Lowestoft was de-trunked in 2001, with control passing to Suffolk County Council. This section is primarily single carriageway.
In 2011, at Junction 33 (Copdock Interchange) the junction was widened and improved to ease the increasing traffic flow along the road. Works ended in 2012. A widening of the section from Chelmsford to the A120 junction near Colchester is proposed with a start date in 2023/2024 and expected to complete around 2028.
Bypasses Much of the original route has been bypassed around historic town centres such as Brentwood and Witham. In larger settlements such as Chelmsford, Colchester and Ipswich the original route has been bypassed twice.
The Eastern Avenue was built in the 1920s as a bypass for the section between Romford and Ilford, meeting what was the A11 at Leytonstone. It was numbered A106 until the 1930s when it became part of the A12.
The long Brentwood bypass was opened in November 1965.
A bypass for Chelmsford was first included in the roads programme in 1968. Draft orders for the southern bypass were published in 1974, however the public inquiry in 1975 suggested that the government should re-examine the appropriateness of a "central route" and the government delayed the road. In 1979 the government announced that it would proceed with the southern dual two lane route which opened in 1986.
The Wickham Market bypass opened in July 1976, providing a much needed improvement to avoid the narrow, one-lane wide section of road through Wickham Market.
Ipswich's "Southern by-pass" via the Orwell Bridge was opened in 1982. This section, when first numbered, was part of the A45 and later designated as part of the A14.
The Martlesham bypass (previously known as the Kesgrave and Martlesham Bypass) was completed in 1987/1988 as was the Saxmundham bypass.
A white paper, Roads for Prosperity, published in 1989, proposed to widen the Chelmsford Bypass and the section from Hatfield Peverel to Witham to dual 3 lane; it also proposed widening the section from Saxmundham to Lowestoft and from Wickham Market to Farnham to dual 2 lanes. It also included a 'new route from the M25 to Chelmsford' as a dual two lane road following the proposed route of the M12 motorway.
The Department for Transport published Trunk roads, England, into the 1990s in May 1990 which included ten proposed developments for the A12 between the M25 and Lowestoft including the M12 motorway between M25 and the Chelmsford bypass, Chelmsford bypass widening and improvements on the sections from Hatfield Peverel to Marks Tey, Four Sisters to Stratford St. Mary, Martlesham to Wickham Market, Wickham Market to Saxmundham, the bypass around Saxmundham, Saxmundham to south of Wrentham, South of Wrentham to Kessingland and the Lowestoft relief road.
A public inquiry in the "Saxmundham to Wickham Market bypass" was held in 1995 but this road has not been built.
Between 1968 and 2024 Lowestoft has seen various new roads built to bypass and divert the A12 away from the historic residential streets along the coastline. In the 60s/70s Bloodmoor Roundabout / Bloodmoor Road was completed, paving the way for the new route of the A12 from the south. 1990 saw the construction of Peto Way, followed by Millennium Way in 1998 (the "Northern Relief Road") (formerly part of the A1117), however it wouldn't be until 2024 these were incorporated into the A12. In 2006, the 1.5 mile Tom Crisp Way "Southern Relief Road" opened, diverting the A12 away from the cliffs and built up Kirkely. 2015 saw Millennium Way extended to connect to the A47 at Corton and 2024 saw a new third river crossing built, the Gull Wing Bridge, which linked the northern and southern relief roads and completes the A12 bypass in Lowestoft. The entire bypass consists of single carriageway roads with modern cycle and pedestrian facilities and a mostly 40 MPH speed limit.
M12 motorway During the 1940s, there were plans for a motorway between South Woodford and Brentwood, initially dubbed Radial Route 7, which later became the M12 motorway in the 1960s. This would have run from the North Circular Road in London, at the base of the current M11 motorway, joining the A12 north of Brentwood. The North Circular was to be upgraded to motorway-standard as part of Ringway 2 and be designated as the M15 motorway. The M11 was to have provided a motorway standard road into central London past Ringway 1, terminating at the Angel in Islington. The M12 motorway was never built, although the junction of the M11 with the North Circular was designed to accommodate it.
The scheme was revived in the late 1980s, and extended the northern section to the A12 near Chelmsford. Plans for the M12 motorway were withdrawn in March 1994, following a review of the trunk roads programme.
Route
A12 (Numbered junctions) Northbound exits Junction Southbound exits Essex M25, Brentwood A1023 11 (M25 J28 – Brook Street) M25, Brentwood A1023 Brentwood A1023, Mountnessing B1002 12 (Mountnessing Marylands) Brentwood A1023, Mountnessing B1002 No Exit 13 (Trueloves) Ingatestone B1002 Margaretting 14 (Furze Hill) No Exit Chelmsford A414, Margaretting B1002 15 (Webb's Farm) Chelmsford A414, Margaretting B1002 B1007 16 (Stock Road) B1007 A130, Chelmsford A1114 17 (Howe Green) A130, Chelmsford A1114 A414 18 (Sandon) A414 Stansted Airport, Sudbury, Braintree A130 (A131) 19 (Boreham) Sudbury (A131) Chelmsford A138 Hatfield Peverel 20a (Hatfield Peverel South) No Exit No Exit 20b (Hatfield Peverel North) Hatfield Peverel Witham B1389 21 (Lynfield Motors) No Exit Witham B1389 22 (Coleman's) Witham B1389 Kelvedon B1024 23 (Kelvedon South) No Exit No Exit 24 (Kelvedon North) Kelvedon B1024 Braintree, Stansted A120, B1408 25 (Marks Tey) Braintree, Stansted A120, B1408 A1124 26 (Colchester West) A1124 Colchester A133 27 (Colchester Central) No Exit Colchester (North) 28 (Colchester North) Colchester (North) Harwich, Clacton A120, Colchester A1232 29 (Ardleigh Crown) Harwich, Clacton A120, Colchester A1232 Suffolk B1029 30 (Park Lane Birchwood) B1029 East Bergholt 31 East Bergholt Capel St. Mary 32a (Capel St. Mary South) Capel St. Mary C475 London Road 32b (Bentley Longwood) C475 London Road London, Ipswich A14, A1214 33 (A14 J55 – Copdock Mill) End of concurrency with A14 Road signposted as A14 to A14 J58 & As A12 to Lowestoft
London The A12 starts just north of the Blackwall Tunnel at a junction with the A102 and the A13. From here to past Ipswich (including the entire section through London) the road is a dual carriageway. North of the junction, the A12 heads northwards as a 2/3 lane dual carriageway mostly at street level. This stretch of road is known as the Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach. This stretch ends at the triple-layer interchange with the A11 at Bow Road where it becomes the East Cross Route. This is mainly a 3/4 lane dual carriageway built mainly on flyovers and underpasses and was built in the late 1960s, previously called the A102(M). The road turns North Eastwards at the unfinished Hackney Wick Interchange where the carriageways split and the northbound carriageway has a right hand entrance. When the London Ringways plan was being proposed, a motorway (North Cross Route) was to end here and the M11 was meant to extend from its current terminus on the A406 through this junction and to Angel. The A12 heads to Lea.