HS1: a long-term aesthetic impact?
The recent review process that led to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s confirmation on February 11 that HS2 will now go ahead did much to focus people’s minds on the environmental merits of undertaking what will become
Europe’s largest construction project.
But while much was made of important factors such as the potential loss of biodiversity, destruction of ancient woodlands and the railway’s ability to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions, far less was spoken on what its visual impact might be.
It is inevitable that the 345 miles of high-speed track that will link London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds will leave a significant physical footprint, via the considerable earthworks and structures that will be constructed to bear them.
But with HS2 Ltd yet to complete all of the line’s design stages (or even the complete route as far as Phase 2b is concerned), some of
the best visual clues into how the line might appear could well lie in taking a closer look at how its forerunner has come to affect the landscape through which it runs.
HS1 links London with the Channel Tunnel, and the construction of the 67-mile line - formerly known as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) - through the heart of the Kent countryside was not without its critics.
Costing approximately £ 7 billion and opening in stages between 2003 and 2007, HS1 was the first main line to be built in the UK for more than 100 years.
In order to traverse the ‘Garden of England’ (as Kent is popularly known), more than 150 bridges were needed - including the 0.75-mile
Medway Viaduct that towers over the Medway Valley between Cuxton and Borstal alongside the M2 motorway.
Among the efforts made to mitigate HS1’s visual impact, some 225 hectares of new woodlands was created, and 1.2 million trees and shrubs were planted.
Public consultations were held to discuss
aspects of the project - from the proposed route of the line through to the right type of trees to plant to shield local communities from the vast construction depots that were temporarily erected to support HS1’s army of contractors.
One man who recorded the steady progress of HS1 as its first traces rose from the ground in the late 1990s through to its completion in 2007 is photographer and local resident Brian Stephenson.
The selection of his images presented here provides a snapshot of the dramatic visual transition that has taken place since the unsightly scars of early stages of construction were first created, through to the 186mph line that (according to Stephenson) now peacefully co-exists with its surrounding environment.
“No one here talks about HS1 now. Its presence is totally accepted and goes virtually unnoticed,” he tells RAIL.
“For me, as a photographer, the trees and bushes that were planted have probably grown up too much. But doubtless it pleases others, if they even think about it.
“Locally, the sound of trains on HS1 is drowned out most of the time by the M20 motorway, which still has the original ridged concrete surface from when it was built, and which is quite unacceptable in this day and age.”
He adds: “At Harrietsham, quite a number of new houses have been built with some having their back gardens bordering the edge of HS1. And at Lenham Heath there is a plan to build a so-called ‘garden village’ of 5,000 houses straddling HS1 and the M20, so it seems developers and homeowners are not overly worried by the presence of HS1.”
As for just how peacefully HS1 sits within the landscape, we’ll let you be the judge of that…