The Brent Viaduct is a railway bridge carrying the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

over the valley of the

River Brent The River Brent is a river in west and northwest London, England, and a tributary of the River Thames. in length, it rises in the London Borough of Barnet, Borough of Barnet and flows in a generally south-west direction before joining the Tid ...

just south of Stonebridge Park station in north-west

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England. Originally built in 1838 for the

London and Birmingham Railway The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom, in operation from 1833 to 1846, when it became part of the London and North Western Railway (L&NWR). The railway line which the company opened in 1838, betw ...

, it is now a Grade II

listed structure In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Design

The viaduct is one of the first major civil engineering works on the

after leaving

Euston station Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major London station group, central London railway terminus and Euston tube station, connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sout ...

, its London terminus. The

is in a wide, shallow valley though has since been

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 (fluid conveyance), pipe, reinforced concrete or other materia ...

ed. The viaduct is entirely in brick. It has one main, semi-elliptical arch in the centre, supported by decorated buttresses. This arch crosses the road and is flanked by three narrower supporting arches on each side which span footpaths.Biddle, p. 85.Biddle (2016), p. 195.

History

The viaduct was built by

Robert Stephenson Robert Stephenson , (honoris causa, Hon. causa) (16 October 1803 – 12 October 1859) was an English civil engineer and designer of locomotives. The only son of George Stephenson, the "Father of Railways", he built on the achievements of hi ...

, who was chief engineer of the

(LBR), the world's first long-distance trunk railway. It is still in use today and now carries the

. It crosses North Circular Road, though the route of the

North Circular The North Circular Road (officially the A406 and sometimes known as simply the North Circular) is a ring road around Central London. It runs from Chiswick in the west to North Woolwich in the east via suburban north London, connecting vari ...

(the A406) now bypasses the road to the south and is spanned by a more modern bridge. The Brent Viaduct has been widened several times on its east side, though in a sympathetic style, to accommodate more tracks but the west side is largely unaltered. The viaduct was described by

John Cooke Bourne John Cooke Bourne (1 September 1814 – February 1896) was a British artist, engraver and photographer,John Hannavy (2013) ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography.''. p. 196. best known for his lithographs showing the construction of th ...

in his account of the building of the LBR. It has been a Grade II

since 1981. Listed status provides legal protection from unauthorised demolition or modification.

References

Bibliography

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Footnotes

{{Reflist Bridges completed in 1838 London and Birmingham Railway Grade II listed bridges in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Brent Railway viaducts in London