London Road Railway Viaduct

BRIGHTON

TQ3005NE PRESTON ROAD, Preston 577-1/20/690 London Road Railway Viaduct 19/04/74

II*

Railway bridge. 1845-6. By John Rastrick. Red and brown brick in English bond, with dressings of yellow brick and stone, and some rebuilding in blue brick. The structure consists of an elliptical arch fifty feet wide over Preston Road, and 26 round arches thirty feet wide, and it extends in a curve for 4 hundred yards from London Road station in the east almost to New England Road in the south-west. All the piers are battered, and pierced by an oblong opening round-arched at top and bottom; they have an entablature with stone architrave and cornice and brick frieze, and an archivolt of yellow brick, dentil cornice of stone and brick, surmounted by a balustrade of brick panels with balusters between. The piers immediately flanking Preston Road are broader than the rest and faced on the south side with a pilaster-like projection with a recessed panel. The second pier west of Preston Road was destroyed by bombing in 1943, and repaired. This viaduct is the largest engineering work on the London and Brighton railway branch to Lewes, and is a major viaduct in south-eastern England. (Carder T: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton: Lewes: 1990-).

Listing NGR: TQ3089105557