The South Circular Road was in the 1960s, and remains still, little more than an arbitrary route through the southern half of the city following roads that are mainly just single carriageway. The road planners considered the existing routing unsuitable for a direct upgrade so a new replacement motorway was planned for a route further to the south where the road could be constructed with less destruction of local communities. Starting in the London Borough of Greenwich at the southern end of the new tunnel in Thamesmead, the planned route for the new southern section of Ringway 2 would have first interchanged with the A2016 then headed south, first through Plumstead towards Plumstead Common and then, via open land, to Shooters Hill Road (A207). Controversially, the route was then planned to cross the ancient woodland of Oxleas Wood and the adjacent Shepheardleas Wood to connect to the ""Rochester Way Relief Road"" (A2) at a junction at Falconwood. Heading south from the A2, Ringway 2 would have crossed golf courses and sports grounds west of Avery Hill to reach the A20 at Mottingham where its next junction would have been constructed. Next, heading west out of the London Borough of Greenwich, the motorway would have briefly crossed the northern tip of the London Borough of Bromley, via another group of playing fields before entering the London Borough of Lewisham to connect to the A2212 near Grove Park station. Here the route encounters the first substantial urban development cutting an alignment through the London County Council's Downham Estate – land already in public ownership, thereby avoiding the need for expensive land purchases and compensation payments. Here the motorway would have run parallel with Shroffold Road and Durham Hill to cross Downham Fields then run parallel with Downham Way to meet Bromley Road (A21) where the next junction would have been located. West of Bromley Road, Ringway 2 would have followed a westerly alignment, crossing the River Ravensbourne, and running across more sports fields and the northern corner of Beckenham Place Park to a junction with Beckenham Hill Road (A2015) near Stumpshill Wood where it would have left the London Borough of Lewisham and re-entered the London Borough of Bromley. From Beckenham Hill Road, Ringway 2 would have continued through more open land towards Lower Sydenham station where the motorway would have turned south to run along the side of the railway line past New Beckenham station to the point where the railway crosses the River Beck and then the main railway line from Victoria station.