The other section of single carriageways is through the urban environs of Battersea, Clapham and Stockwell towards the northern end, which has to accommodate bus lanes and parking meter bays.

Another particularly dangerous location was in the vicinity of the wooded crest skirting the Devil's Punch Bowl, Hindhead, about 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Guildford.

Lord Montagu of Beaulieu stressed the urgency of building a Kingston bypass in 1911, but public funds were not secured before the onset of World War I and were not available in the aftermath.

For the first 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Richmond Park, the A3 runs within 300 m (980 ft) of the Beverley Brook, crossing it three times.

[n 4] It bypasses Wisley, Ockham, Ripley (and Burpham which is a suburb of Guildford) before cutting through the major town itself as a dual carriageway and changing to a 50 mph (80 km/h) speed limit.

It continues through a tunnel at Hindhead (constructed in 2011 to improve capacity and bypass the Devil's Punch Bowl) before leaving Surrey.

From just north of Horndean, (still heading towards Portsmouth) the A3 separates from the A3(M) (below) and continues as London Road as far as Hilsea, south of which it is Northern Parade[n 5].

It runs along the west side of Portsea Island which forms Portsmouth proper, roughly parallel with the M275, into the nearly waterfront centre of the city where, after passing the Catholic cathedral, it meets with the A2030.

[11][12][13] The new dual carriageway diverges from the original route where the old A3 began climbing sharply as it headed towards the scenic Devil's Punch Bowl.

From there, the remainder of the original road to Punch Bowl Common - a short distance north-east of the Hindhead traffic lights - has been completely ripped up and returned to nature.

From the south, the short and largely built-up southern stretch of old A3 (now bypassed) runs up from the Grayshott exit into Hindhead and remains in use, but has been renumbered from A3 to A333.

In November 2010, the Highways Agency announced it would discuss three options for the roundabout's future, but in December it announced that no change would be commenced before 2015:[15][16] The slip road exiting the A3 leading to the Royal Surrey County Hospital and the Surrey Research Park regularly creates congestion on the main A3 during peak times, when the traffic queue reaches onto the main carriageway.

[17] Various schemes exist to manage urban traffic and economise land use, and include running park and ride services.

In February 2015, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced plans to build over a short section at Tolworth, after visiting a similar site in Boston, Massachusetts; the Mayor said "rebuilding some of our complex and ageing road network underneath our city would not only provide additional capacity for traffic, but it would also unlock surface space and reduce the impact of noise and pollution."

The route is signposted and marked using painted blue cycle logos, carrying cyclists through Kennington, Stockwell, and Clapham.

[22][23] Shared-use paths and cycle lanes run alongside the A3 at points between the Greater London boundary and Portsmouth.

The route joins the A3 south of West Liss and leaves the dual-carriageway to the north of Petersfield (at Farnham Road).