This feature first appeared in June 2025 on Londonist: Time Machine, our much-praised history newsletter. To be the first to read new history features like this, sign up for free here.
Today, I’d like to talk about the history of traffic islands.
We have a lot of them in London. They help pedestrians get across busy roads by offering a refuge between lanes of traffic. Here’s one near Trafalgar Square, tested to its limits:
We have so many traffic islands in London that, contrary to all expectations, a few of them might be described as “quite interesting”.
I’d nominate the one opposite the Hilton on Park Lane, for example, where Mungo Jerry made their promotional video to In The Summertime (by some estimates, regarded as the biggest-selling single by a British band thanks to its international success).
