Highbury Avenue | |||||||||||||
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| Wenige Expressway Formerly Highway 126 | |||||||||||||
 A map of Highbury Avenue Highbury Avenue Former Highway 126 | |||||||||||||
| Route information | |||||||||||||
| Maintained by City of London, Elgin County, Middlesex County | |||||||||||||
| Length | 45.6 km (28.3 mi) | ||||||||||||
| History | Created 19th century Extended/expanded December 9, 1963[1] | ||||||||||||
| Major junctions | |||||||||||||
| South end | South Edgeware Road in St. Thomas | ||||||||||||
 Highway 401Bradley Avenue Commissioner's Road Hamilton Road Dundas Street (former Highway 2) | |||||||||||||
| North end |  Highway 7 near Elginfield | ||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||
| Country | Canada | ||||||||||||
| Province | Ontario | ||||||||||||
| Counties | Elgin, Middlesex | ||||||||||||
| Major cities | St. Thomas, London | ||||||||||||
| Highway system | |||||||||||||
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Highbury Avenue is an arterial road and municipal expressway located in the Canadian province of Ontario. In addition to serving as a primary north–south thoroughfare in eastern London – through which part of it is a limited-access freeway – the road also provides access to Highway 401 and continues south to St. Thomas. The southern terminus of Highbury Avenue is an intersection with South Edgeware Road, just north of Highway 3 and the eastern end of the St. Thomas Expressway. From there, it travels 45.6 kilometres (28.3 mi) north to Highway 7, east of Elginfield. Outside of London and St. Thomas, the road also passes through the communities of Ballymote and Bryanston. It is designated as Elgin County Road 30 within Central Elgin, and as Middlesex County Road 23 within Middlesex Centre, the two rural municipalities through which the route passes.
North of the Thames River, the road was laid out as part of the survey of London Township. It came to be known as the Asylum Side Road until being renamed Highbury Avenue in 1928. It was extended south of the river to Highway 401 as a four-lane freeway in 1963, which the City of London named the Wenige Expressway in 1965. Between 1963 and 1991, the section from Wilton Grove Road to Hamilton Road was provincially maintained and designated as Highway 126. In the 1990s, Highbury Avenue was continued south to St. Thomas along Hubrey Side Road and Radio Road.