Highways Agency

M11 London to Cambridge

Route description

The M11, from its origin at Junction 4 in the London Borough of Redbridge to Junction 14 where it meets the A14 north of Cambridge passes through a range of environments cutting through a slice of East Anglia which is of considerable historic and landscape interest, before entering London via a major green corridor.

The character of the route can be split into four main sections:

London and the Roding Valley:

From an urban cityscape at its southern end, the motorway enters the Roding Valley which creates a strip of Urban Rural Fringe of considerable recreational and habitat value between Loughton and Woodford. Further north, the upper river valley consists of more open counrtryside between the M11 to the west and the M25 to the north.

Epping Forest:

Together with Hainault Forest east of Chigwell and Hatfield Forest south of Stansted, Epping Forest, two thirds of which is an SSSI, constitutes an outstandingly important complex of ancient woodland within the wider M11 corridor. The main area of Epping Forest lies west of Loughton, overlooking the motorway.

Boulder Clay Plateaux between Harlow and Saffron Walden:

A typical feature of this rolling landscape of Essex and Hertfordshire is the apparent coalescence of trees and woods on the skyline to create the impression of much surviving old woodland emerging from the intensively farmed modern landscape.

Chalklands and Cam Valley from Saffron Walden to Cambridge:

The historic town of Saffron Walden lies at the interface of the chalk and boulder clay. It is possible to glimpse the church spire and historic core of the town from the motorway. Beyond, the river Cam flows northwards through a succession of attractive villages that lie along the old London Road.

For a visual location of the RMS please refer to the map