Chalfont Viaduct | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°34′56″N0°32′04″W / 51.58231°N 0.53458°W |
OS grid reference | TQ 01633 88067 |
Carries | Chiltern Main Line |
Crosses | M25 Motorway |
Locale | Gerrards Cross |
Official name | Chalfont No. 1 Viaduct |
Other name(s) | Misbourne Viaduct |
Named for | The Chalfonts (Chalfont St Giles, Chalfont St Peter, Little Chalfont) |
Owner | Network Rail |
Characteristics | |
Design | Arch |
Material | Blue/black engineering brick |
Total length | 104 metres (114 yd) |
Height | 12.5 metres (41 ft) |
No. of spans | 5, each 15.5 metres (51 ft) wide |
Rail characteristics | |
No. of tracks | 2 |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
History | |
Designer | James Charles Inglis, R.C. Sikes |
Construction start | 1902 |
Construction end | 1906 |
Location | |
The Chalfont Viaduct (also known as the Misbourne Viaduct) is the first of two five-arch brick railway viaducts on the Chiltern Main Line in south-east England. It is located between Gerrards Cross and Denham Golf Club stations. The M25 motorway passes beneath it between junctions 16 and 17 at Gerrards Cross near Chalfont St Peter, from where the bridge gets its name. The bridge is known as Chalfont No. 1 Viaduct; the longer Chalfont No. 2 Viaduct is a short distance to the west and spans the A413. [1]
The bridge is noted as a local landmark because for many years it bore a graffiti slogan, "give peas a chance" painted in large white letters on the south-facing parapet. [2] [3] As of March 2024 [update] , it bears the slogan "helta▪skelta" (added in 2021).
The Chalfont Viaduct is built of blue and black engineering brick with additional decorative brickwork. The bridge is approximately 12.5 metres (41 ft) high, although it varies in height due to changing ground level, and it has five semi-elliptical arches, each 15.5 metres (51 ft) wide. It was constructed between 1902 and 1906 by the Great Western Railway (GWR) to carry trains on the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway between London and High Wycombe across the River Misbourne. [4] [5] It was designed by James Charles Inglis, chief civil engineer of the GWR, and assistant engineer Robert Cherry Sikes. [6]
In the mid-1980s the construction of the M25 motorway required the Misbourne to be diverted via underground concrete culverts. The route of the motorway was aligned to pass through the arches of the Chalfont Viaduct, leaving the viaduct largely unaltered apart from the raised ground level and the addition of concrete supports and crash barriers. The viaduct is the only brick-built bridge on this section of the M25. [5]
Between 2008 and 2018, the Chalfont Viaduct bore a graffiti slogan, "give peas a chance" painted in large white letters on the south-facing parapet, visible to M25 drivers heading in a clockwise direction. The north side of the bridge bears the painted legend "peas06". [2]
Originally, the graffiti on the south parapet simply read "peas". It is thought that "Peas" was the tag of a London graffiti artist which can be seen on other locations. Google Streetview images suggest the words "give" and "a chance" were added at some point between June and November 2008; it is unclear whether these were painted by the same person as peas. The altered slogan may refer to the artist being repeatedly arrested, and it may also be a play on words in reference to John Lennon's popular 1969 song, "Give Peace a Chance". [7] [4] [8]
The graffiti became a popular local landmark and was regarded affectionately by motorists and residents in nearby settlements as a reassuring location marker. In 2018, when the graffiti was partially removed and altered by an unknown artist to read "helch, a chance taken", [9] it prompted mass media commentary which lead to the new artist returning a few days later to change the slogan to "give helch a break!!!". [10] [11] It has been speculated that the new graffiti may be related to similar slogans being painted on buildings in the London borough of Harrow, [12] and several other bridges along the M25 and M1 motorways all following the similar, heavily serif-ed style/typeface. The reception towards this modification was largely negative, to the point that a petition to Network Rail to reinstate the previous slogan and make the bridge a listed building was produced, and received over 2,000 signatures. [13]
In March 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, an unknown artist replaced the graffiti with one reading "thank you NHS ". [14]
At some point between July and November 2021, the graffiti was replaced again with "helta▪skelta".
The north side of the bridge, visible to drivers going in an anticlockwise direction was tagged with graffiti from Extinction Rebellion. [15] [ better source needed ].
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The 117-mile (188-kilometre) motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the longest ring road in Europe upon opening. The Dartford Crossing completes the orbital route but is not classed as motorway; it is classed as a trunk road and designated as the A282. In some cases, including notable legal contexts such as the Communications Act 2003, the M25 is used as a de facto alternative boundary for Greater London.
The Dartford–Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurrock in Essex in the north.
Amersham is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, 27 miles (43 km) northwest of central London, 15 miles (24 km) south-east of Aylesbury and 9 miles (14 km) north-east of High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt.
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston Bypass, which later became part of the M6.
The A413 is a major road in England that runs between Denham to Towcester. It passes through or near various towns and villages including Gerrards Cross, Chalfont St Peter, Chalfont St Giles, Amersham, Little Missenden, Great Missenden, Wendover, Aylesbury, Winslow, and Buckingham. Most of the road is in Buckinghamshire, with a part at the north end in Northamptonshire.
The M40 motorway links London, Oxford, and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately 89 miles (143 km).
Chalfont St Peter is a large village and civil parish in southeastern Buckinghamshire, England. It is in a group of villages called The Chalfonts which also includes Chalfont St Giles and Little Chalfont. The villages lie between High Wycombe and Rickmansworth. Chalfont St Peter is one of the largest villages, with nearly 13,000 residents. The urban population for Chalfont St Peter and Gerrards Cross is 19,622, the two villages being considered a single area by the Office for National Statistics.
Gerrards Cross is a town and civil parish in south Buckinghamshire, England, separated from the London Borough of Hillingdon at Harefield by Denham, south of Chalfont St Peter and north bordering villages of Fulmer, Hedgerley, Iver Heath and Stoke Poges. It spans foothills of the Chiltern Hills and land on the right bank of the River Misbourne. It is 19.3 miles (31.1 km) west-north-west of Charing Cross, central London. Bulstrode Park Camp was an Iron Age fortified encampment.
Gerrards Cross railway station is a railway station in the town of Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire, England. It is on the Chiltern Main Line between Denham Golf Club and Seer Green and Jordans.
The River Misbourne rises in a field on the outskirts of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, passing through Little Missenden, Old Amersham, Chalfont St Giles, Chalfont St Peter and under the Chiltern railway line and the M25 motorway to its confluence with the River Colne just north of where the Colne is crossed by Western Avenue, the A40 road. It falls by around 94 m (310 ft) in the course of its 27 km (17 mi) length.
The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London (Marylebone) and Birmingham on a 112-mile (180 km) route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull in England.
Chesham and Amersham is a parliamentary constituency in Buckinghamshire, South East England, represented in the House of Commons by Sarah Green, a Liberal Democrat elected at a 2021 by-election.
Gatehampton Railway Bridge, otherwise referred to as Gatehampton Viaduct, is a railway bridge carrying the Great Western Main Line over the River Thames in Lower Basildon, Berkshire, England. It takes the line between the stations at Goring and Streatley and Pangbourne, and crosses the Thames on the reach between Whitchurch Lock and Goring Lock.
Welland Viaduct, Harringworth Viaduct or Seaton Viaduct, crosses the valley of the River Welland between Harringworth in Northamptonshire and Seaton in Rutland, England.
The North Devon Railway connected Barnstaple to the growing railway network in 1854 and as Ilfracombe developed as a watering place, it was obvious a railway connection to the town was needed. The hilly terrain was very difficult, but an Ilfracombe Railway was authorised in 1864 but failed when a major shareholder was unable to respond to a subscription call. After several false starts the Barnstaple and Ilfracombe Railway, soon taken over by the London and South Western Railway, opened in 1870.
The Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway was a railway built and operated jointly by the Great Western Railway (GWR) and Great Central Railway (GCR) between Northolt and Ashendon Junction. It was laid out as a trunk route with gentle curves and gradients and spacious track layouts. The two companies each needed approach railways at both ends of the line to connect their respective systems; these were built as part of a single project.
Sir James Charles Inglis was a British civil engineer.
A smart motorway, also known in Scotland as an intelligent transport system, is a section of motorway in the United Kingdom that employs active traffic management (ATM) techniques to increase capacity through the use of MIDAS technology including variable speed limits and occasionally hard shoulder running and ramp metering at busy times. They were developed at the turn of the 21st century as a cost-effective alternative to traditional carriageway widening, with intended benefits ranging from more reliable journey times to lower vehicle emissions. However, despite the risk of a collision occurring between two moving vehicles being found to be decreased, there has been an acknowledged rise in the incidence of collisions involving vehicles where at least one was stationary in the first few years following the widespread removal of the hard shoulder on the country's busiest sections of motorway. Smart motorways garnered intense criticism from politicians, police representatives and motoring organisations, particularly from 2020 onwards, after a surge in near miss incidents and dozens of fatalities were revealed, and as of April 2023, no new smart motorways will be built.
In Russia, graffiti is an ambiguous phenomenon, i.e. considered to be desecration by some, and art by others. It is done for a variety of reasons, including expressing oneself through an art form, or protesting against a corporation or ideology.
The Thorney Interchange is a large motorway intersection in the UK, between the M4 and M25. It is one of the busiest motorway interchanges in the country. It lies on the edges of Buckinghamshire, Greater London and Berkshire, and is close to Surrey and Staines-upon-Thames.
Citations
Sources