Rising YouTube star and lawyer braves Britain’s second-worst roundabout in Hemel Hempstead – and lives to tell the tale

A lawyer and rising social media star has braved Britain’s second-worst roundabout in Hemel Hempstead – and lived to tell the tale.

YouTuber and self-professed roundabout nerd Mat Fresco has created a video based on The Plough traffic island in Hemel Hempstead, voted Britain’s second worst in 2005, after The Magic Roundabout in Swindon.

As explained in Mat’s video, ‘I drove the insane 7 circle roundabout’, the infamous traffic island was built in 1973, a year after the Swindon roundabout, and consists of six mini roundabouts surrounding one central one.

At the beginning of the video, Mat, CEO of solicitor agency ‘No Comment’, observes the roundabout is ‘so bad, it doesn’t even have the distinction of being Britain’s worst roundabout’.

“The one in Swindon is actually called the magic roundabout, that’s a brilliant name. This is called The Plough, that’s a rubbish name. Even the name is second best.”

Yet, he quips, the council concluded Britain’s second worst roundabout was the way to put Hemel Hempstead ‘on the map’.

Along with aerial footage, and a brief history of Britain’s roundabouts, Mat documents his journey manoeuvring around the traffic island.

“Without a shadow of a doubt this is Britain’s scariest, most insane, roundabout. It’s a bit nuts, I’ve been writing and researching and thinking about this video for a few weeks so I’ve now built this up to a point where I’m genuinely quite scared,” he confesses.

Thankfully, aside from some lane confusion on approach to a second mini roundabout, Mat successfully completes his mission.

He tells viewers: “It looks a bit mad, it looks a bit intimidating but in reality it’s not a big deal at all. It’s quite easy, it’s strange, it’s odd but actually it’s quite doable, no problems.”

He also shared comments from a bus driver who recalled a time before The Plough when traffic was ‘backed up down five or six roads’. But, since the roundabout came into being the driver told him, the traffic moves ‘freely and well’. He added occasional accidents occurred when visitors ‘don’t know how to use the roundabout and get confused’.

Search ‘Mat Fresco’ on YouTube to subscribe to his channel.