Officially the seventh most frightening thing on the UK road network, this road feature has become a tourist attraction in itself. Also known as a "ring junction", it is known across the globe for being such an unusual feature. And its home town's road network would be much more boring without it!

Yet, prior to 1972, if you asked someone about the Magic Roundabout, they would have referred to the children's programme featuring Zebedee and Dougal.

But that year, a new type of Magic Roundabout was born in Swindon, and was to make the town infamous the world over. It came about as following a similar trial in Colchester a couple of years earlier, and was seen as the perfect way to reduce the nightmare levels of traffic passing through the County Island.

 

Low fares, great value... it's magic!

The revised County Island junction itself would be revolutionary due to its cunning layout. It uses an innovative system that was developed after consultation with the British Road Research Laboratory (RRL) - traffic would be permitted to go both ways around the roundabout.

The Colchester example comprised of four roundabouts dotted around a square-shaped island in the centre of the gyratory. However, traffic opting to use the junction in the "wrong" direction were only permitted to make right turns into the first exit that would be encountered. However, there was a terrible accident rate and the trial was soon stopped, with the original roundabout reconstructed.

However, RRL researcher Frank Beardmore refused to give up. In 1972, he devised a new design of ring junction. Traffic flow around the larger, inner traffic island would be permitted to travel around the entire structure in an anti-clockwise direction, whereas traffic goes around the outer loop in the usual clockwise manner. And traffic gives way as usual at each of the five mini-roundabouts.

Although it sounds complicated, if taken carefully, it is actually fairly simple to navigate. Effectively, its just like driving along a normal road with a series of mini-roundabouts along it, except this road is actually in a circle. And it gives drivers a choice in which way they take the junction, taking the shortest (and thus quickest) route from one their start point to the chosen exit, and reduces the amount of traffic on the junction at any one time.

In fact, since the Swindon Magic Roundabout format was introduced in 1972, traffic flows have been better at that junction than beforehand. Since then, there have been 94 accidents (14 serious), mostly involving cyclists. That rate has been reduced as a cycle lane has been installed around the edge of the roundabout, complete with crossings.

And the people of Swindon loved it so much, they nicknamed it the Magic Roundabout, after that very same television programme. And by the mid 1990s, the council opted to change the junction's official name to reflect people power. And it's even been on television itself, immortalised by Nick Knowles in 2006 on the BBC show DIY SOS!

The third Magic Roundabout to be introduced was in 1973 at the Plough Roundabout in Hemel Hempstead (see layout diagram above). The local council there concluded three years previously that measures were needed to improve the junction as it was starting to become very congested, due to the increase in traffic following the town's sharp population increase. So they decided to build the new style junction on a twelve month trial.

Initially, as was the case in Swindon, a police officer was placed at each smaller island to help drivers avoid getting confused. Severe congestion was reported on its opening day, most likely due to locals having a go at negotiating the junction, however that quickly eased. It proved such a success that the trial was made permanent.

Also, when the council proposed to replace Plough Roundabout with traffic lights during 1996, a petition was formed to save it, led by the local press. That idea was dropped due to the overwhelming support for the campaign. The only changes now planned are some slight tweaks to allow buses to negotiate the junction easier.

 

Where to find them

A small number of Magic Roundabouts have been built across the Midlands and in south of England.

Name	Location	Roads
The Magic Roundabout	Swindon	A4259, B4289
The Magic Roundabout	High Wycombe	A40, A404
The Plough Roundabout	Hemel Hempstead	A414, A4146
Ankerdrive ("The Egg")	Tamworth	A51, A453, A513, B5000
Denham Roundabout	Denham, Bickinghamshire	M40 (J1), A40, A412, A4020
Greenstead Roundabout	Colchester	A133, A134
Hatton Cross	Hatton Cross, London	Heathrow Airport Perimeter Road

 

Former sites

Magic Roundabouts were also found in the following location:

Name	Location	Roads	Removed
Sadler's Hall Farm	Benfleet, Essex	A13, A130, B1464	2011

Image of The Plough Roundabout taken by Obukit and used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.