South Circular Road, London

South Circular Road
The route of the South Circular Road in Greater London. The gap to the west is where the A3 shares the route.
Brownhill Road in Catford
Route information
Length:	20.5 mi (33.0 km)
Major junctions
From:	Woolwich
	Woolwich Ferry Rochester Way Relief Road Eltham Bypass at Catford Gyratory Brixton Hill at Clapham Common A3 road A316 road M4 motorway North Circular Road
To:	South Ealing
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

The South Circular Road (formally the A205 and often simply called the South Circular) in south London, England, is a major road that runs from the Woolwich Ferry in the east to the Chiswick Flyover in the west via Catford, Dulwich, Clapham Common, Wandsworth and Kew Bridge. Together with the North Circular Road and Woolwich Ferry, it makes a complete ring-road around Central London. The South Circular is largely a sequence of urban streets joined together, requiring several at-grade turns, and is frequently congested.

Originally planned as a new-build route across South London, construction of the first section of the South Circular near Eltham began in 1921 to a high-quality specification. The remainder of the road was supposed to be of a similar standard but it was repeatedly delayed, and the current route was allocated in the late 1930s to existing urban streets instead. Despite several proposals to either upgrade the road or replace it with a parallel motorway, there has been little change in the century since the route was first planned and most of the road is still urban streets. The South Circular has received sustained criticism for congestion and pollution and is one of the least popular roads in Britain.

The South Circular is 20.5 miles (33.0 km) long. The majority of the road is single carriageway, one lane each way, aside from a small section of dual carriageway near the Woolwich Ferry. It is a primary road for its entire length.