Under the Westway
Why is it significant?
Step under the great concrete deck roaring above you and let your eyes adjust to the shade. This is the Westway, the elevated motorway that carries traffic into central London on legs of concrete, and underneath it, instead of the usual gloom, you find market stalls, studios, cafés and football…
Key Facts
| Place | Under the Westway |
|---|---|
| Address | Portobello Road under the Westway, London W10 5TZ, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.51960, -0.20800 |
| Part of Walk | Racecourse, Carnival and the Blue Door: Hidden Notting Hill & Portobello Road, London |
| Generated | Generated |
Step under the great concrete deck roaring above you and let your eyes adjust to the shade. This is the Westway, the elevated motorway that carries traffic into central London on legs of concrete, and underneath it, instead of the usual gloom, you find market stalls, studios, cafés and football pitches.
The Westway opened in July 1970, about two and a half miles of road on stilts, at the time one of the longest continuous elevated roads in Britain. To build it, hundreds of homes were demolished, and the carriageway passed so close to some of the survivors that people could almost touch the lorries from their bedroom windows. On opening day, as a government minister drove along it, residents of Acklam Road hung a banner from their houses demanding to be rehoused and taken out of what they called hell.
Out of that anger came something remarkable. Local campaigners demanded that the scraps of land underneath be handed back to the community, and in 1971 a trust was set up to do exactly that. Today around twenty acres under the motorway are home to markets, a climbing centre, stables, sports pitches, artists' studios and charities. It is one of the most imaginative pieces of urban recycling in London.
The Westway also wrote itself into music. In the late 1970s the punk band The Clash, whose singer Joe Strummer lived in this area, sang about the road and were photographed beneath it, and its concrete became a symbol of a restless, grimy, creative London. During Carnival, the sound systems under and around these pillars make the whole structure throb with bass.
Look up at the underside of the deck and think about it: a road built to rush people past this neighbourhood, now its shelter, its marketplace and its playground. From here, walk north on Portobello Road to Golborne Road and look up... you cannot miss the last stop of the walk.