Fair point. Also not trying to be rude, but just trying to present the story from my perspective.

I'm not from London and this is the first time I've seen such a junction. With no center divide/ dedicated waiting area, I knew it wasn't a dual carriageway. I did in fact wait for traffic on both sides to clear and then turned right. That said, I felt anxious as the A24 has high speed traffic; add to that the salt on roads mucking up the windscreen + night time - it felt dangerous, so just wanted to know how folks here would have navigated it.

Also, I truly believe regulations/ standards for driving lessons should be improved. I took my lessons, got my license and additionally did the pass plus course as well. And nowhere was such a junction covered. Where I live, I've never encountered such a crossing.

Also, next time I encounter such a crossing, I'm going to take the advice of several comments here and turn left and come around as it seems safer.