In 2005, motorists named it Britain's second-worst roundabout. Six years later, they crowned it the nation's best. Hemel Hempstead's Magic Roundabout has undergone one of the most remarkable reputational transformations in British road engineering history.
From Plough Inn to Experimental Junction
The site now occupied by the Magic Roundabout began as little more than a simple road junction between Station Road, Wood Lane, Lawn Lane, and Marlowes, with the Plough Inn public house standing nearby. The Ministry of Transport first proposed a £5,000 temporary roundabout scheme in 1953, and by 1956 a conventional roundabout had opened following the pub's demolition.
The junction's revolutionary transformation came in 1973. Work began early that year on an experimental scheme featuring six mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle, connected by two-way roads. Unlike conventional roundabouts, traffic could flow both clockwise and anticlockwise. When the new configuration opened in June 1973, it attracted national press and television coverage, though local newspaper The Gazette reported it "caused some of the biggest traffic jams ever seen in Hemel Hempstead."
Despite these teething troubles, the experiment succeeded. Within a year, the configuration became permanent.
The 2005 Nadir: Britain's Second-Worst Roundabout
By 2005, the roundabout's reputation had soured considerably. In a Saga Motor Insurance poll of 3,000 British motorists, Hemel Hempstead's Magic Roundabout was voted the second-worst roundabout in the United Kingdom, beaten only by Swindon's similarly designed junction. For a structure intended to improve traffic flow, the designation marked a significant public relations failure.
The Swindon roundabout, built in 1972 with five mini-roundabouts, had opened just one year earlier than Hemel's six-roundabout design. Both shared the "Magic Roundabout" nickname, inspired by the children's television programme, and both baffled drivers unfamiliar with their unconventional layouts.
Local Pride and the Save Our Roundabout Campaign
Yet beneath the national mockery lay genuine local attachment. When traffic experts proposed replacing the Magic Roundabout with conventional traffic lights during the 1990s, the community mobilised. The Gazette newspaper masterminded a "Save Our Roundabout" campaign, distributing stickers and gathering mass petitions. The campaign succeeded in preserving the junction.
This grassroots defence revealed a truth often missed by outside critics: many local drivers had mastered the roundabout's quirks and appreciated its efficiency. The ability to choose direction when approaching, make U-turns at any mini-roundabout, and navigate six junctions within a compact space offered flexibility unavailable at conventional intersections.
2011: Crowned Britain's Best Roundabout
The turnaround became official in May 2011 when the Magic Roundabout won "Roundabout Idol 2011," a competition organised by car leasing service CentralContracts.com. Motorists voted it the best roundabout in Britain, just six years after it had been named among the worst.
Competition judges praised the junction's uniqueness. "Hemel's roundabout is certainly a one off," they noted, "and if you love roundabouts there are six different ones you can enjoy in a very small area. It's the most unique in the UK."
This dramatic reversal—from experimental traffic nightmare, to national laughing stock, to champion roundabout—remains one of the most striking examples of infrastructure rehabilitation in British transport history.
A Design That Divides and Delights
The roundabout continues to divide opinion among first-time visitors while earning loyalty from regular users. Its six mini-roundabouts connecting the A414, A4146, Lawn Lane, and Selden Hill give drivers unusual flexibility, including the ability to travel in either direction around the central ring. For those unfamiliar with the layout, the initial encounter can be daunting. For Hemel Hempstead residents, it remains a peculiar source of civic pride.