Behind me is the last surviving tollgate in London,
on a private road through Dulwich College.
Back at the start of the 19th century,
almost all the roads out of London were turnpikes, toll roads.
And it wasn't just London: across the country, there were hundreds of turnpike trusts,
private companies that had a government-approved monopoly on one particular bit of road.
They kept it in reasonable condition,
at least by the horse-drawn standards of the day,
and in exchange they could charge a toll.
But travelling across country meant you'd be paying tolls to
half a dozen different and possibly-corrupt companies as you went.
Heck, just travelling across London you could hit tollgate after tollgate after tollgate.
Now, the Turnpike Trusts did some good: the money paid for a decent road network.
But they weren't popular: before the turnpikes came along, the roads,
although they were frequently rough and difficult to travel on, were free.
So there were complaints, and occasional riots, but the turnpikes stood.
But then along came the railways.
Suddenly anyone who could afford to pay road tolls
could also afford a faster and more comfortable option.
So both people and freight moved to rail.
The turnpike trusts started to collapse,
local government took over all the roads,
and by the time motorways came along,
it was accepted that government collected tax,
and then used that tax to build new roads.
But what if history had turned out slightly differently?
Where would we be if all the roads were still private,
if every major route had a toll that went not to government,
like the Congestion Charge or modern American turnpikes,
but to a private company running it?
If every time you drove onto London's Westway,
you paid £5 to the Westway Corporation sponsored by McDonalds?
Well, actually, er, we would be in France.
Most of the French autoroutes, the motorways there,
are run by private companies, collecting tolls, just like the old days.
You don't need to visit some bizarre zeppelin-filled alternate reality to find turnpikes --
there are always zeppelins in alternate realities --
all you need to do is cross the Channel.