Where am I? UK #14 (At the crossroads)

[RobbieM]

Here we go then. You're at the "Peahen Crossroads" in St Albans, as it is traditionally known. This is a most interesting location historically, as it is where the A5 used to meet the A6. They touched each other, but then instead of crossing each other, they bounced off in different directions. Now it's been bypassed, and A5 and A6 do different things. But you SABRE folk would've loved this bouncy crossroads thing...

Am I right?

[GuyBarry]

Here we go then. You're at the "Peahen Crossroads" in St Albans, as it is traditionally known. This is a most interesting location historically, as it is where the A5 used to meet the A6. They touched each other, but then instead of crossing each other, they bounced off in different directions. Now it's been bypassed, and A5 and A6 do different things. But you SABRE folk would've loved this bouncy crossroads thing...

Am I right?

(28/30) Spot on! I knew you'd get it eventually

Here's a photo, taken from the corner diagonally opposite the Peahen itself. If you cross straight over to the Peahen you stay in zone 5 of the numbering system. But if you cross the junction along the other diagonal you go from zone 4 to zone 6 (or vice versa). We spent a very silly afternoon once doing precisely that!

Incidentally, although the roads have now been renumbered as the A5183 and A1081, they still bounce off each other in this strange fashion. Many years ago I came up with the term "cannon" for this phenomenon (borrowed from billiards and snooker), which is still in use by SABRE folk today! My small claim to fame

[RobbieM]

Well done! I've walked across this crossroads a few times, and never realised its significance. Now next time I go to St Albans to visit my friends, I'll probably do exactly the diagonal thing you've mentioned (on my way back to their house from the WHSmith... )

Righto. My next one coming up shortly...

[The Orange One]

I was here today! After heading up the Abbey Line to St Albans Abbey (the station) and then to St Albans Abbey (the building), both of which I liked very much. I went from zone 4 to the middle of the crossroads, walked in a circle, then to the Peahen itself (zone 5). The signs on the Peahen say under 21s aren't allowed in, but I wasn't going in anyway, so I crossed the road into zone 6 and then to St Albans (City) (the station) to head back home.