The breakdown of laminar flow in the clearance space of a journal is considered, and the point of transition is considered in relation to experiments carried out with ‘bearings’ of large clearance. Experiments involving flow visualization with very large clearance ratios of 0.05 to 0.3 show that the laminar regime gives way to cellular or ring vertices at the critical Reynolds number predicted by G. I. Taylor for concentric cylinders even in the presence of an axial flow and at a rather higher Reynolds number in the case of eccentric cylinders. The effect of the transition on the axial flow between the cylinders is small. The critical speed for transition as deduced by Taylor, is little affected by moderate axial flows and is increased by eccentricity. The effect of critical condition on the axial-flow characteristics of the bearing system appears to be negligible, again for moderate axial flows. Assuming that the results can be extrapolated to clearances applicable to bearing operation, the main conclusion of this paper is that the breakdown of laminar flow, which is a practical possibility in very high-speed bearings, is delayed by eccentric operation.