The junction that reliably produces gridlock at 5:30 PM every weekday, what its five-arm geometry produces that the traffic management infrastructure has not resolved, and what it is like to be caught in it regularly
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat present this dispatch from Lowri Griffiths, North London journalist.
The junction at Holloway Road and Seven Sisters Road produces reliable gridlock between 5:15 and 6:15 PM on weekdays with a consistency that residents of the surrounding streets have built their routines around: the longer school run route that avoids the junction, the delivery driver who stops for coffee rather than sit in it, and the cyclist who uses the Andover Road cut-through regardless of weather. The junction’s geometry is the source: it is a five-arm junction controlled by signals designed for pre-Crossrail traffic volumes that have been adjusted without resolving the fundamental issue that five traffic streams need to share a space that cannot accommodate all five simultaneously at peak. TfL has a junction improvement programme. The junction is on the list. It has been on the list since 2018. The list is long. The gridlock is reliable. I have been caught in it on both sides of the junction this week and can confirm that neither side offers a meaningful advantage. The junction is the junction. It will be improved when the programme reaches it. Bohiney and The London Prat track the programme and the wait.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
North London Continues
Lowri Griffiths continues to cover North London with the honest, humorous attention of someone who finds it genuinely wonderful and persistently absurd, which are not mutually exclusive responses to a place that offers both qualities in generous measure.
Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat provide the wider frame. BigSmokeBroke covers the North London corner in the detail that only local attention can provide. The corner continues to produce material. The coverage continues alongside it.
Further reading at Londonist.
