Avenue de Chartres

Street guide, Chichester

Avenue de Chartres is a section of Chichester's inner ring road, running along the northern edge of the city centre. It is named after Chartres in France, one of Chichester's twin towns. The road was built in the 1990s as part of a traffic management scheme to divert through-traffic away from the city centre streets. It passes close to Northgate car park and provides access to several residential roads on the northern fringe of the walled city. The road follows roughly the line of the Roman and medieval city walls on the northern side, though the walls themselves are set back and not always visible from the road. Avenue de Chartres connects to Via Ravenna at the northeastern corner and to the Westgate roundabout at the western end. It is a functional piece of road infrastructure rather than a destination in its own right, but it plays an important role in keeping traffic out of the pedestrianised and historic streets within the walls.