It's a pity you have to do this on a Friday afternoon: you're bound to hit traffic at some point, although your suggested route is probably the least of the evils.

There's a choice of how to get from M11 to A1(M) - the A14 is probably the most direct but it'll have a lot of people on it who have a yen to get from East Anglia to the Midlands.

Depending on what you're doing when you get to Leeds, is a train out of the question?

Edited by Avant on 29/06/2016 at 01:18

Google maps allows you to look at the route for a specific day/time of the week - it remembers the traffic from previous days/weeks.

At the end of May went to York from Kent, used the route of Dartford Crossing M25/A14/A1, fairly good drive, minimal delays for roadworks or congestion, good route to drive.

Using the Dartford Crossing will be shorter and unless congested quicker than the Blackwall Tunnel route, I have an account which reduces the crossing cost to £1.67 per go.

Unfortunately last Friday went to Nottingham - nightmare journey - left Canterbury at 1pm - Dartford Crossing backed up to the A2 so used the Blackwall Tunnel - this was also slow going with roadworks (30mph & Specs) on the A2, then a queue as everyone squeezed into the 2 lanes for the tunnel ... A12 was not too bad but there was a queue on M11 leading up to M25 (and 50mph speed restriction, yet more cameras), the M25 was rollercoaster in places but not too bad, M1 was fine(ish) until J13 when caught up in 1 hour delay after accident at J16, then more roadworks with 50mph & cameras - indeed the opportunity to reach 50 would have been nice, however after junction with A14/M6 traffic levels lightened a little - then still more roadworks albeit with only short delays. Reached my destination at 6.30, late of course, pity it was not railways or I'd been eligible for compensation.

Journey back on Sunday PM was much better, mostly flowed freely. Used M1 / A14 / M11 and stopped off in east London so cannot state journey time. Using the A14 route meant avoided the M1 roadworks around Watford Gap, but the junction M1/M6/A14 is being remodelled so you might encouter delays here. The advantage of the M1 is it has more lanes, M11 beyond Stansted and A1 (mostly) is 2 lanes with just a few wider sections and of course no HGV's go into lanes 3 & 4.

For a novalty use the Woolwich Ferry instead of the Blackwall Tunnel. It's free and affords a great view of London on the boat as crossing the Thames.