A1 road (Great Britain)

A1 is the official title of the Great Northern Road in England. It runs up the eastern side of England from London to Edinburgh in Scotland. It is six hundred and sixty kilometres long, making it the longest numbered road in the U.K.. The A1 has six major junctions with motorways, and over twenty major junctions with other A roads.

A1 road
Route information
Part of E15
Length	410 mi (660 km)
Major junctions
South end	in City of London
Major intersections
North end	Edinburgh55.9522°N 3.1886°W / 55.9522; -3.1886
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones
← →

The A1 follows, for much of the way, the course of a Roman road, Ermine Street, and the old coach route to Edinburgh. It is not a motorway, but a lot of it is now built to motorway standards. It is one of two main roads going from London to Northern England, the other being the M1 motorway.

Passing through Nottinghamshire, the road skirts the remains of Sherwood Forest. Scotch Corner, in North Yorkshire, marks the point where the traffic for Glasgow and the west of Scotland divides from that for Edinburgh, as it has for hundreds of years before car traffic. From North Yorkshire to Durham the road follows, for part of the way, another Roman road called Dere Street. This road ran from Eboracum (York) to the Antonine Wall in the lowlands of present-day Scotland.

Some parts of the A1 are motorways, and these parts are numbered A1(M).

A1 Road (Great Britain) Media

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  The A1 near Long Bennington, Lincolnshire

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  The Angel Inn at Wetherby is a coaching inn on the former A1, bypassed since the 1950s.

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  A single carriageway section of the A1 skirting the Scottish coastline just across the border from Northumberland.

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  Motorway badge for the A1 (M) motorway

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  A1(M) looking southwards from junction 2 at Hatfield