A1 (South)
We look at major UK driving routes and reveal everything you need to know
AT 410 MILES, the A1 is the UK’s longest numbered road, connecting London and Edinburgh. For much of its length, it follows the old coaching route of the Great North Road between London, York and Edinburgh, except for stretches where it has bypassed villages and towns.
Some sections have been designated motorway and the road between the M25 and A696 (near Newcastle) is part of Euroroute E15 from Inverness, in Scotland, to Algeciras, in southern Spain. Coaching inns were the original service stations, and some survive in towns bypassed by the A1.
Proposals in 1989 to upgrade the whole of the A1 to motorway were dropped in 1995. The southern end of the road starts in the City of London at the junction with the A1211, but we are beginning here at the junction with the M25.