East Cross Route (ECR) is a dual-carriageway road constructed in east London as part of the uncompleted Ringway 1 as part of the London Ringways plan drawn up the 1960s to create a series of high speed roads circling and radiating out from central London. The road was constructed between 1967 and 1973 and runs from Hackney Wick in north-east London, through the Blackwall Tunnel, to Kidbrooke in south-east London. The ECR was initially designated as part of the A102, but has, subsequently, been partially renumbered so that sections of it are now the A2 and A12.
At its northern end, the ECR (A12) follows part of the route of the former North London Railway between the closed Victoria Park and Old Ford stations. The railway junction at Victoria Park, where the still open section of the North London Line to Stratford station diverged, was reconstructed to permit the construction of the junction with the non-dual carriageway section of the A102 and the A106 and A115 roads, above which the line passes. The branch track to the docks that ran alongside the ECR to Old Ford, which had been used only for freight since the 1940s, was subsequently closed and lifted in the early 1980s.
At Bow Road, the junction with the A11 involves a triple-layer junction, Bow Interchange. The ECR passes through in a cutting below an interchange roundabout whilst the A11 passes above on a flyover. South of this junction, the ECR passes Bromley-by-Bow station and skirts the River Lee Navigation for a short distance as it follows the line of the former St Leonard Street. It then crosses Limehouse Cut and continues along what was Brunswick Road to East India Dock Road (A13). It passes under the A13 in another grade separated junction, becoming the A102, and then enters the Blackwall tunnel.