Farthing Way

View on 2006 June 3 during construction of the bridge which takes Farthing Way beneath Smitham railway station. More details.

The stretch of new road which enables the A23 to avoid Coulsdon town centre has been named Farthing Way. The name seems particularly apt in that it suggests that the financial benefit the road has brought to the area is about one farthing! Certainly as far as the morning rush hour is concerned it has merely shifted the queues slightly.

Even the planners did not expect it to make much difference to traffic: instead of calling it a "bypass" or "relief road" which might have suggested faster movement, they called it the "Coulsdon Town Centre Improvement Scheme".

And as an improvement scheme, it has not exactly been hailed a success. The Deja New antique shop in a prominent location on the corner of Brighton Road and Lion Green Road closed, was speedily deleted and has stood as a building site for the last few months. But in other respects the effects seem to be neutral and that important measure of urban decay, the charity shop percentage (CSP) is probably still better than Purley.