Lambeth Roadworks This Week: A23 Signals, Waterloo Road Shut

Temporary traffic signals are back on the A23 Brixton Hill from today, Monday 28 September, and TfL says they stay until late 2026 (TfL). Lane restrictions continue in both directions between Holmewood Road and Tierney Road. This is the last big stage of the A23 rebuild, and it is the one that will be felt between Brixton and Streatham until the end of the year.

The other new closure is at the north end of the borough. Waterloo Road is closed in both directions at the junction with Baylis Road for emergency gas works, booked until 17:00 on Friday 9 October. TfL’s advice is to use an alternative route and expect delays on the diversion (TfL road disruptions).

The rest of this page is the live picture on Lambeth roadworks: what is shut on the main roads today, what the council register lists, the rail closures that hit Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road, and what ends in the next fortnight.

Holmewood Road stays closed at its junction with Brixton Hill until 23 October for the same A23 scheme. Morrish Road was logged to reopen on 27 September (Lambeth streetworks register).

The council’s register has not moved again. It is still headed week commencing 07 September 2026, three weeks behind. Anything booked or dug since then is missing from it, so the TfL feed below is the more current of the two.

What is live on the main roads today

TfL’s road disruption feed covers the red routes through the borough and is the only source that updates daily. These are the entries touching Lambeth and its edges, read on the morning of 28 September.

The last two are in Wandsworth, on routes Clapham drivers use rather than in the borough itself. Balham High Road is about a mile south of Clapham Common.

Two changes since our last check on 18 September. The Balham High Road signals were then booked to come out on 24 September; TfL now has them to 4 October. And five jobs have dropped off the feed altogether, which is the reliable sign they have finished: Denmark Hill at Ferndene Road, Camberwell New Road at Comber Grove, the Waterloo Bridge northbound closure, Vauxhall Bridge Road at Rampayne Street and Alderbrook Road at Balham Hill.

What it means for you: Waterloo Road is the one to plan around this week. It is a full closure in both directions, booked for another eleven days, and TfL warns of delays on the diversion. On the A23, allow extra time on Brixton Hill from today; the signals will not come out this year.

The A23 through Streatham Hill and Brixton Hill, to spring 2027

The largest scheme in the borough is TfL’s rebuild of the A23. It adds protected cycle lanes, new pedestrian crossings and continuous bus lanes, the last of which means removing parking and loading bays along the corridor. Work started in summer 2025 and TfL is due to finish in spring 2027 (TfL).

TfL’s live works page gives the arrangements as:

• Lane restrictions in both directions on the A23, between Holmewood Road on Brixton Hill and Tierney Road on Streatham Hill.
• Temporary traffic signals on Brixton Hill from Monday 28 September until late 2026. They went back in today.
• Parking suspended along the works section throughout, and some loading bays unavailable.
• Changes to how some roads joining the A23 operate. Holmewood Road is closed at the junction until 23 October.
• No overnight closures on the diary. TfL says only that there may be a need for some, and that it will share dates as they are confirmed. The last published ones ran on 26 and 27 August.

TfL says journeys will take longer on the corridor, and tells drivers who do not need to stop in the area to use the A24 or A3, or to travel by rail and Tube.

What it means for you: the easy window on the A23 has closed. From today the signals are back on Brixton Hill, on top of the lane restrictions, and TfL has them there into late 2026. For a Brixton to Streatham drive, allow extra time at the peaks or take the Victoria line.

Why the work is happening, in TfL’s own numbers

TfL’s case for the scheme is a safety record. The A23 “has seen 72 collisions in the three years to October 2024, with 75 people injured”, which is why the authority lists safety improvements on this corridor as a priority (TfL, PN-205).

The same notice explains why gas work and road work keep landing together. Southern Gas Networks has a gas main “in poor condition” inside Brixton Hill. TfL says doing both at once means “the wider area will be disrupted over a shorter period of time”. Neither body has published a full scope or a finish date for the gas element, so we are not going to guess at one.

The last big stage is on Brixton Hill, not Streatham Hill

The scheme is named after Streatham Hill, but the work left to do is at the Brixton end. TfL’s construction programme, published in March 2026, sets out the remaining stages (TfL, Streatham Hill programme):

• Stage 5, summer 2026 to spring 2027. All works between the A205 junction and Holmewood Road on the A23 Brixton Hill: the final section of protected cycle lanes, sustainable drainage, traffic islands and pavement improvements.
• Stage 6, spring 2027. Carriageway resurfacing, with overnight closures for roughly two weeks. TfL has not set the dates.

For Stage 5, TfL lists the effects as temporary three-way traffic lights on Brixton Hill, temporary side road closures, bus stop suspensions and relocations, parking suspensions, and temporary crossings with pedestrian diversions. The Holmewood Road and Morrish Road closures on the council register were the first of those side road closures to appear.

Bus passengers should expect the longest peak-hour delays on routes 2, 50, 60, 147, 249, 250, 255, 319, 432 and 468, which is TfL’s own list for this corridor.

What the council register lists

Lambeth publishes a weekly streetworks register. It is not weekly. The edition online on 28 September is still headed Major works, week commencing 07 September 2026, the same one we read on 18 September. Before that it sat on the 10 August edition for five weeks.

Two consequences are worth stating plainly.

Entries can vanish, and we do not carry them forward. Randall Road and Randall Row in Vauxhall were on the 10 August register as Thames Water works to 30 September. Neither appears on the 7 September edition. The Norwood Road pit lane, previously logged to November 2027, has gone the same way. The register does not say whether those jobs finished early or were dropped from the list.

The end dates below are as logged three weeks ago. Seven jobs were logged to finish on 26 or 27 September. They are no longer in the table, but the register has not been updated to confirm any of them actually finished.

These are the entries from the 7 September register that still have time to run.

Three things are worth naming.

Somerleyton Road still has the longest booking in the borough. A pit lane installation opposite 109 to 123 went on the register on 10 August with an end date of 10 August 2028. That is two years, longer than the whole A23 scheme. The same street also carries Thames Water mains replacement to 16 November 2026, so residents there have both at once.

Brixton Windrush has the longest-running cluster. Four of the twelve entries still running are in it: Somerleyton Road twice, Loughborough Park and Moorland Road, all but the pit lane logged into mid-November.

Vauxhall has four at once. Albert Embankment and Salamanca Street for council paving work to 2 October, Tyers Terrace to 7 October and Tyers Street to 17 October, all of them full road closures.

Rail closures that hit Clapham in the next fortnight

The Windrush line, the Overground route through Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road, has three closures booked (TfL line status):

• Sunday 4 October: no service between Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction or Battersea Park. Replacement bus M runs between Canada Water and Clapham Junction via Peckham, Denmark Hill, Clapham High Street and Wandsworth Road.
• Monday 5, Tuesday 6 and Thursday 8 October, after 23:15: no service between Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction or Battersea Park. No replacement bus; TfL says use local buses and the Tube.
• Sunday 11 October: no service between Wandsworth Road and Clapham Junction.

TfL’s status feed showed no planned closures on the Victoria or Northern lines between 28 September and 12 October when we checked.

What ends in the next fortnight

• Tuesday 29 September: the Albert Embankment northbound bus lane reopens at New Spring Gardens Walk at 22:59.
• Friday 2 October: Albert Embankment and Salamanca Street are logged to reopen after the council’s paving work.
• Saturday 3 October: Renfrew Road is logged to reopen.
• Sunday 4 October: the Balham High Road signals at Ravenstone Street come out at 21:00.
• Monday 5 October: the Battersea Park Road lane restriction at Pump House Lane ends.
• Wednesday 7 October: Tyers Terrace is logged to reopen.
• Friday 9 October: Waterloo Road reopens at Baylis Road at 17:00, and the Rosendale Road cycle lane closure is logged to end.

Dates are as logged. Works overrun, and the council register is three weeks behind, so nothing short-notice or emergency since 7 September appears in the council table at all.

Key routes through Lambeth

The borough is crossed by a small number of arterial roads, and almost every problem is on one of them.

• A23 (Brixton Road, Brixton Hill, Streatham Hill, Streatham High Road). The spine, running north to south from Kennington through Brixton and Streatham towards Croydon. It carries the A23 rebuild described above, and the bus corridor that goes with it.
• A3 (Kennington Park Road, Clapham Road, Clapham High Street). The other north-south route, from Elephant and Castle through Oval, Stockwell and Clapham towards Wandsworth.
• A24 (Clapham Common South Side, Balham Hill). Splits off the A3 at Clapham Common and runs south to Balham and Tooting.
• A3036 (Wandsworth Road, Albert Embankment). The riverside route from Vauxhall Cross west towards Wandsworth.
• A202 (Camberwell New Road, Vauxhall Bridge Road approaches). East to west across the top of the borough, joining Vauxhall to Camberwell.
• A205 South Circular (Christchurch Road, Streatham Place, Tulse Hill). Cuts across the south of the borough between Streatham and West Dulwich.

TfL’s own advice for drivers who do not need to stop in the area is blunt: use the A24 or A3 instead of the A23, or make the journey by rail and Tube.

What it means for you: an A23 closure has no good parallel. The A3 is a mile west and the A205 runs the wrong way, so the diversion for a Brixton to Streatham journey is either the back streets or the Victoria line. The same is true in reverse: A3 problems at Clapham push traffic onto the A24 and the common’s edges, which is where both Balham jobs sit this month.

Parking permits: £135.96 to £682.63

Lambeth prices resident permits by emissions across 13 bands, A to M, using CO2 in grams per kilometre for vehicles registered after 1 March 2001 and engine size for older ones. The prices below took effect on 14 April 2025 and were still the published rates when we checked again on 18 September 2026 (Lambeth).

Two surcharges sit on top of the band price: £275.00 a year if the vehicle is diesel, and £125.00 a year for an additional permit in the same household, motorcycle permits included. Six-month and three-month permits are available at half and a quarter of the annual price.

What it means for you: the spread from band A to band M is £546.67, and the diesel surcharge alone is worth more than a band A permit twice over. If you are choosing between two second-hand cars, the CO2 figure on the V5C is worth checking before the price.

The charging zones

ULEZ covers the whole borough. The Ultra Low Emission Zone “operates across all London boroughs”, 24 hours a day, every day except Christmas Day, at £12.50 a day for a vehicle that does not meet the standard (TfL). There is no part of Lambeth outside it.

The Congestion Charge is £18 a day if you pay on the day or in advance, and £21 if you pay by midnight on the third day after travel. It operates 07:00 to 18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00 to 18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays, and not at all between Christmas Day and the New Year’s Day bank holiday (TfL). The zone’s southern boundary runs across the north of the borough rather than around it, so whether you are inside depends on the street, not the postcode district. Check your address on TfL’s own postcode tool before assuming either way.

The alternative, and why it usually wins

Lambeth is a poor borough to drive in and an unusually good one to leave a car at home in. Every station in it is in zone 2 or zone 3, three Underground stations sit on Clapham High Street and Clapham Common alone, and Brixton reaches Victoria in eight minutes. Journey times, zones and fares are on our tube and train times page.

If you do need to drive, the practical rules are the same every time: allow extra time on the A23 Brixton Hill until the end of the year, check the live sources for your own street before assuming access, and remember that the Thames Water programme books full closures on residential roads for months at a time rather than days.

Frequently asked questions

What is closed on Brixton Hill right now?

Temporary traffic signals, from 28 September until late 2026, on top of lane restrictions in both directions along the A23. Holmewood Road is closed at the junction with Brixton Hill until 23 October for the same TfL bus corridor scheme. Morrish Road was logged to reopen on 27 September.

Are the A23 Streatham Hill traffic signals back?

Yes. They came out on 1 September and went back in on Brixton Hill on Monday 28 September. TfL says they stay until late 2026. Lane restrictions in both directions stay in place the whole time. The scheme is due to finish in spring 2027.

Is the A23 closing overnight again?

Not on any date TfL has published. The page says only that overnight closures may be needed and that dates will be shared when confirmed. The last published ones ran on 26 and 27 August. The next scheduled batch is Stage 6 resurfacing in spring 2027, about two weeks of it, with dates to be confirmed.

Where is the final phase of the A23 work?

On Brixton Hill, north of the A205 junction, not Streatham Hill. TfL said in June that it would start the final phase there from September 2026, and its construction programme runs that stage to spring 2027.

Where do I check current roadworks in Lambeth?

The council publishes a weekly streetworks register, still headed week commencing 7 September on 28 September, so it runs about three weeks behind. For anything more recent use one.network or, for the main roads, TfL’s own road disruption data.

How much is a Lambeth resident parking permit?

Between £135.96 and £682.63 a year depending on your vehicle’s CO2 band, plus £275 if it is diesel and £125 for a second permit in the same household.

Is Lambeth in the ULEZ?

Yes, entirely. The ULEZ covers every London borough, so there is no address in Lambeth outside it. The charge is £12.50 a day for non-compliant vehicles, all day, every day except Christmas Day.

Which roads in Lambeth are closed for Thames Water?

Still logged to run past 28 September on the week commencing 7 September register: Somerleyton Road, Loughborough Park, Moorland Road, Tyers Street, Tyers Terrace and Renfrew Road. All are full road closures.

Why is Waterloo Road closed?

For emergency gas works at the junction with Baylis Road. TfL has the road closed in both directions until 17:00 on Friday 9 October and advises an alternative route.

Related

• Clapham tube and train times: the zones, journey times and fares that make leaving the car worthwhile.
• Clapham planning news: the schemes that will generate the next round of works.
• Things to do in Clapham, Brixton and Streatham: most of it is reachable without driving.

Sources

• TfL road disruptions, TfL’s live feed for the red route network, read on 28 September 2026, for the Waterloo Road closure at Baylis Road (TIMS-235229), the Streatham Hill restrictions to 19 November, the Albert Embankment bus lane, the three Nine Elms Lane entries, the Balham High Road and Battersea Park Road entries, and the five jobs that have dropped off since 18 September.
• Lambeth weekly streetworks updates for every road, work type, traffic impact and date in the council table, from the register headed “Major works - Week Commencing 07 September 2026”.
• TfL line status for the Windrush line, read on 28 September 2026, for the closures on 4, 5, 6, 8 and 11 October, and the same feed for the Victoria and Northern lines.
• TfL A23 Streatham Hill works for the lane restrictions between Holmewood Road and Tierney Road, the temporary signals on Brixton Hill from 28 September until late 2026, the overnight closure position, the bus routes and the A24 and A3 rerouting advice.
• TfL press notice PN-205, 17 June 2026 for the final phase starting from September 2026 north of the A205 junction on Brixton Hill, the 72 collisions and 75 people injured in the three years to October 2024, and the Southern Gas Networks gas main.
• TfL A23 Streatham Hill scheme page for the scheme extent, what is being built and the spring 2027 finish.
• TfL Streatham Hill programme, published March 2026, for stages 5 and 6.
• Lambeth resident parking charges for the 13 bands, the annual prices and the diesel and second-permit surcharges.
• TfL ULEZ and TfL Congestion Charge for the charges, hours and coverage.

Checked 28 September 2026. Roadworks move. The council dates above are the ones logged when the register was published for week commencing 7 September, and emergency works are added without notice. Check one.network or the live register for your own street before you rely on any of it.