The Chalfont Viaduct (also known as the Misbourne Viaduct) is the first of two five-arch brick
railway viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...
s on the
Chiltern Main Line
The Chiltern Main Line is a railway line which links London () and Birmingham ( Moor Street and Snow Hill), the United Kingdom's two largest cities, by a route via High Wycombe, Bicester, Banbury, Leamington Spa and Solihull.
It is one of tw ...
in
south-east England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It consists of the counties of Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, ...
. It is located between and stations. The
M25 motorway
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The 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 lon ...
passes beneath it between junctions 16 and 17 at
Gerrards Cross
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 St ...
near
Chalfont St Peter
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 a ...
, 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
The A413 is a major road in England that runs between Gerrards Cross (west of London) to Towcester (northwest of Milton Keynes). It passes through or near various towns and villages including (in northbound order) Amersham, Great Missenden, ...
.
The bridge is noted as a local landmark because for many years it bore a
graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
slogan, "" painted in large white letters on the south-facing parapet.
Construction
![River Misbourne, M25 Motorway culvert - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/River_Misbourne%2C_M25_Motorway_culvert_-_geograph.org.uk_-_803224.jpg)
The Chalfont Viaduct is built of blue and black
engineering brick
Engineering bricks are a type of brick used where strength, low water porosity or acid (flue gas) resistance are needed. Engineering bricks can be used for damp-proof courses.
Clay engineering bricks are defined in ''§ 6.4.51'' of ''British Sta ...
with additional decorative brickwork. The bridge is approximately high, although it varies in height due to changing ground level, and it has five semi-elliptical arches, each wide. It was constructed between 1902 and 1906 by the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
(GWR) to carry trains on the
Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway
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 (in north west London) and Ashendon Junction (west of Aylesbury). It was ...
between London and across the
River Misbourne
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 ...
. It was designed by
James Charles Inglis
Sir James Charles Inglis (9 September 1851 – 19 December 1911) was a British civil engineer.
Early life
Inglis was born in Aberdeen on 9 September 1851.
Career
He began his engineering career in Glasgow, before moving to London in 1871, ...
, chief civil engineer of the GWR, and assistant engineer Robert Cherry Sikes.
In the mid-1980s the construction of the M25 motorway required the Misbourne to be diverted via underground concrete
culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...
s. 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.
Graffiti
![Chalfont Viaduct - Give Helch a Break](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Chalfont_Viaduct_-_Give_Helch_a_Break.jpg)
For many years the Chalfont Viaduct bore a
graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
slogan, "" painted in large white letters on the south-facing
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
, visible to M25 drivers heading in a clockwise direction. The north side of the bridge bears the painted legend "".
Originally, the graffiti on the south parapet simply read "". It is thought that "Peas" was the
tag of a London
graffiti artist
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
which can be seen on other locations. Google Streetview images suggest the words and were added at some point between June and November 2008, its unclear if these were painted by the same person as . The altered slogan may refer to the artist being repeatedly arrested, and it may also be a
play on words
Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...
in reference to
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
's popular 1969 song, "
Give Peace a Chance
"Give Peace a Chance" is an anti-war song written by John Lennon (originally credited to Lennon–McCartney), and recorded with the participation of a small group of friends in a performance with Yoko Ono in a hotel room in Montreal, Quebec, Ca ...
".
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 "", it prompted mass media commentary which lead to the new artist returning a few days later to change the slogan to "".
It has been speculated that the new graffiti may be related to similar slogans being painted on buildings in the London borough of
Harrow, 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
Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...
to reinstate the previous slogan and make the bridge a
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
was produced, and received over 2,000 signatures.
![NHSCharfontViaduct Aug2020](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/NHSCharfontViaduct_Aug2020.png)
In March 2020 during the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
, an unknown artist replaced the graffiti with one reading "".
The north side of the bridge, visible to drivers going in an anticlockwise direction was tagged with graffiti from
Extinction Rebellion
Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...
.
.
See also
*
Gerrards Cross Tunnel
Gerrards Cross Tunnel is a railway tunnel in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, on the Chiltern Main Line. The purpose of the tunnel was to enable a new Tesco supermarket to be built over the railway line. Plans were initially met with anger by lo ...
References
Citations
Sources
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External links
{{Commons category
Postcard of the Misbourne Viaduct c. 1905*
ttps://imageleicestershire.org.uk/view-item?i=11373&WINID=1537489000291 The Misbourne Viaduct under construction c. 1903The Misbourne Viaduct under construction c. 1903
Railway bridges in Buckinghamshire
Bridges completed in 1906
M25 motorway
Arch bridges in the United Kingdom
Gerrards Cross
Great Western Railway
Great Central Railway
Transport in Buckinghamshire
Graffiti in England
1906 establishments in England