The A21 is one of the ten principal roads having two digits in the south-east of England.
Now the A223 enters from the north from Orpington, and A21 is the Sevenoaks Road, a name it retains until Knockholt at Hewitts Roundabout where it is joined by the Orpington Bypass - A224 - from the north; where the road enters Kent near its junction with the M25 motorway.
This road is two-lane dual carriageway, and has junction with the M25 and the A25 near Chevening and with the cross-county A26 south of Tonbridge.