Great North Road (Great Britain) - Route

Route

A traditional starting point of the Great North Road was Smithfield Market in Clerkenwell, London. On an island location in the middle of the street, at the southern end, where St John's Lane branches off to the west, stood Hicks Hall which was the first purpose-built sessions-house for the Middlesex justices of the peace. This building was used as the initial datum point for mileages on the Great North Road, and continued in this role, even after the fabric of the building no longer existed when it was demolished, soon after 1778. The route followed St John Street which runs to the junction of City Road and Pentonville Road (near Upper Street) in the north, close to the Angel tube station. The Red Bull Theatre was located on the street between 1604 and 1666, when it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. James Burnett, Lord Monboddo (1714–1799) lived at 13 St John Street. He held "learned suppers" at his house, with guests including James Boswell, Robert Burns and Samuel Johnson.

With the building of the General Post Office at St Martin's-le-Grand in 1829, coaches started using an alternative route, now used by the modern A1, beginning at the GPO building and following Aldersgate Street and Goswell Road before joining the old route at the Angel. The Angel was an important staging post on the route. The next important stages were Highgate, Barnet, Hatfield, Baldock, Biggleswade and Alconbury, all replete with traditional coaching inns.

At Alconbury, the Great North Road joined the Old North Road, an older route from London which follows the Roman Ermine Street. Here a milestone records mileages to London via both routes: 65 by the Old North Road and 68 by the Great North Road. From Alconbury the Great North Road follows the line of Ermine Street north, through Stilton and Stamford as far as Colsterworth (at the A151 junction). Inns on this section include The George at Stamford and the Bell Inn at Stilton, the original sellers of Stilton cheese.

At Colsterworth the Great North Road diverges west of the Roman road and continues through Grantham, Newark, Retford and Bawtry to Doncaster. North of Doncaster the Great North Road again follows a short section of Ermine Street called Roman Rigg or Roman Ridge. Further north the Great North Road crossed the Roman Dere Street near Boroughbridge from where it went via Dishforth and Topcliffe to Northallerton and then through Darlington and Durham. A road forked off to the left at the bridge in Boroughbridge to follow Dere Street, thence from Scotch Corner to Penrith and on to Glasgow. Part of this route was used for the original A1, with a local road from Scotch Corner via Barton to Darlington making the link back to the old Great North Road.

In the first era of stage coaches York was the terminus of the Great North Road, on the route Doncaster–Selby–York but was later superseded by the route Doncaster–Ferrybridge–Wetherby–Boroughbridge–Northallerton–Darlington, the more direct way to Edinburgh, the ultimate destination. The first recorded stage coach operation running to York was in 1658. This took four days to reach its destination. Faster mail coaches began using the route in 1786, stimulating a quicker service from the other passenger coaches. In the 'Golden Age of Coaching', between 1815–35 coaches could go from London to York in 20 hours and from London to Edinburgh in 45 and a half hours. In the mid nineteenth century coach services could not compete with the new railways. The last coach from London to Newcastle left in 1842 and the last from Newcastle to Edinburgh in July 1847.