London’s greatest design icons: from Regent’s Park to Brick Lane via the M25 | Cities | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/sep/04/london-greatest-design-icons-regents-park-brick-lane-m25?CMP=twt_gu
The M25
Britain came late to motorways. It was only in 1959, long after Germany’s autobahns and the United States’ parkway-building programmes had taken shape, that Britain finally started developing its own version. The M25 orbital, London’s distinctive contribution to motorway building, came even later. It may owe something to Washington DC’s Beltway, or the Boulevard Périphérique in Paris, but it is the largest of its kind in Europe and serves to define the shape and the identity of the city.