The Balham Loop

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"Balham! Gateway to the South"
1926 Southern Railway poster

Possibly the oddest motorway proposal of the Ringway plans, the purpose of the Balham Loop is rather inscrutable. It appears, for all intents and purposes, to be an utterly redundant arc of motorway running too close to the South Cross Route to be of any real use. It was killed off at an incredibly early stage, and little is known beyond its route. It's likely that detailed plans were never drawn up.

Links to Ringway 2 and South Cross Route
A24
M23
SCRPDR

The route

This short section of motorway was planned to head south from a point just west of Clapham Junction, peeling off from the link motorway between the South Cross Route and Ringway 2 which was to follow the railway between Putney and Clapham Junction. The Balham Loop would follow the railway line through Balham itself, curving east to Tooting Bec Common where a three-way interchange would form the northern terminus of the M23.

From here it would continue east, terminating at Tulse Hill on the equally enigmatic South Cross Route to Parkway D Radial. One junction would be provided to connect the motorway to the surface street network, at the A24 Balham High Street.

The alignment of its western half suggest that its primary purpose was to connect the M23 to the West Cross Route, and looking at it as part of a wider network, it's hard to imagine that the east side would see much traffic at all. Overall it would seem simpler to just continue the M23 right up the western side to Clapham Junction rather than have a peculiar loop like this. Possibly there was some grander strategic purpose for this route that has not yet been uncovered.

Part of a GLC map showing the Balham Loop and M23, crossed out in black ink

History

Proposals for the Balham Loop seem to have been published in 1966 as part of the plans for Ringway 1, and may have been created and safeguarded significantly earlier by the GLC's predecessor, the London County Council. This dates the proposal to 1964, if not earlier. However, it and the northernmost section of M23 that was to connect to it had both vanished when proposals for Ringway 2's Southern Section between Norbury and Eltham were published in July 1969.

It seems to have been dropped in early 1967:

The newspaper report was actually headed "London's Motorway Network Takes Shape: Elevated Road through Wandle Valley" and was mainly concerned with the newly announced line of Ringway 2 between Wandsworth and Streatham Vale. The Balham Loop was evidently cancelled when this section of motorway came into the programme.

The GLC claimed that the Balham Loop was scrapped when the Ministry of Transport decided the M23 could be terminated further south.

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