On 31 March 1926 the Sidcup By-Pass opened, just in time to relieve the high streets of Sidcup and Foots Cray of the Easter holiday traffic.
The road was one of several large arterial roads planned by the Ministry of Transport to provide work for many of London’s unemployed. Construction had started in May 1923 and cost a total of £150,000. The two-and-a-half-mile-long stretch linked up with the recently opened Eltham by-pass.
The new road gave motorists from London to Folkestone a way to avoid the notorious Sidcup bottleneck. Traffic congestion in the narrow high streets of Sidcup and Foots Cray had become an increasing problem, particularly at holiday times. It also made life for pedestrians rather perilous.
Reporting on the opening of the by-pass, the Sidcup Times of 8 April 1926 commented that ‘many people found holiday amusement in sitting on the high banks with picnics watching the passing traffic and those who walked along the new by-pass road for the first time must have been struck with the beautiful scenery which it opens up’.
When the Sidcup By-Pass Improvement Scheme of 1987 turned the road into a two-lane dual carriageway, its major junctions represented old and new landmarks: Frognal Corner was named after the ancient Frognal House, while Crittalls Corner was named after the nearby steel-framed window factory.
