Eastern Counties Railway London Viaduct

Eastern Counties Railway London Viaduct

This section of the Former Eastern Counties Railway Viaduct runs approximately 360 metres along the north side of the main railway approach to Liverpool Street, between Cambridge Heath Road and Globe Road. Built between 1838 and 1840 under the direction of engineer John Braithwaite, the viaduct is constructed in yellow stock brick with sandstone dressings and represents one of the earliest and longest surviving first-generation railway structures in Greater London.

The viaduct is composed of a series of arched openings interspersed with pylon-formed buttresses. From west to east, the structure begins with a blind arch set between two buttresses, featuring four courses of headers and a projecting sandstone plat band at track level, above which sits a brick parapet, reconstructed or removed in certain sections. This is followed by a run of three arches with another pylon-shaped buttress, each arch marked by five bands of brick headers above the openings. The openings have been infilled with modern frontages of no historic interest. The arches have been deepened to the rear due to widening of the viaduct in the late 19th century.

Further east is a run of eight arches, beyond which stands another pair of pylon-formed buttresses enclosing a blind arch. A skew bridge with a masonry surround of channelled voussoirs spans Malcolm Street to Braintree Street, featuring an impost band of sandstone and angled courses of brickwork to its underside. This bridge has been widened to the south. To its east is another pair of pylon-formed buttresses flanking a blind arch, followed by a row of three blind arches fronted by a granite sett-paved roadway.

The skew bridge over Hadleigh Street (now closed) has been replaced circa 1880 with a substantial iron bridge carried on cast iron Tuscan columns and blue brick abutments. This later bridge remains of interest for its five slanting rows of columns. East of Hadleigh Street is a single blind arch with a pylon-formed buttress, followed by a further row of five now-filled arches with seven courses of headers above each opening. These are partly concealed by private property. Towards the eastern end, the brick parapet is discontinued.

The bridge at the south end of Sceptre Road, now closed off and in private ownership, is flanked by blind arches and comprises a shallow segmental arch with sandstone voussoirs over a sandstone impost band. The row of arches continues eastward to Globe Road but is hidden behind houses in Portman Place. The bridge over Cambridge Heath Road at the western end is a later 19th-century replacement not included in the listing.

This viaduct carried the Eastern Counties Railway, established by Act of 1836, which initially connected Romford with Mile End in June 1839 and was extended westwards to Shoreditch in June 1840 (renamed Bishopsgate in 1845). John Braithwaite, a noted mechanical engineer, was responsible for both design and construction. The line was originally built for a non-standard 5-foot-wide gauge, which was changed to standard gauge in 1844. Following the creation of the Great Eastern Railway in 1862, substantial widening work was carried out in this area in 1891 to accommodate Liverpool Street Station and its approaches. The arcade along Malcolm Street was originally called Railway Place. This section of viaduct is architecturally the most handsome of the surviving structure, with finely tooled masonry bridge openings and balanced rows of arches showing Neo-classical influence.