This wonderful structure on the border of Caterham and Whyteleafe on the A22 opened on May 1st 1939 with no formal opening ceremony. Known as 'Britain's first elevated traffic island' the roads that converge on it are the same level. Surrounded by a concrete 'crash barrier' wall, ramparts mark entrances to pedestrian subways which lead to a hollow central space within the middle. The concrete inner wall has foundations six feet thick.

Six roads lead from the roundabout which has not undergone any significant change since its construction. The A22 by-pass, built at the same time as the roundabout, opened on April 7th 1939.

In September 1939 local residents were concerned that the roundabout and by-pass would be visible to the German air force as a guiding landmark. After the RAF expressed concern the War Office ordered camouflage which included trees from Ashdown Forest.

During the war the subways under the roundabout became air raid shelters for the public. Why the name Wapses Lodge? A building of that name, between Godstone Road and Succombs Hill, was a lodge for a private driveway (now Wapses Lodge roundabout, Caterham. Photo by Ruth Sear.

Woldingham Road) that led to Marden Park. In the 1841 Census the occupier of 'Waps's Lodge' was an ostler who was employed locally. The most probable explanation of the word 'wapses' is a derivation of the old English word 'wop' meaning tearful or weeping. Water once welled from the ground near Wapses Lodge and joined the nearby Bourne, and the area was subject to flooding over the centuries.