Secrets of The Motorway - M23 

If you asked me to find a subject more boring and tedious than a strip of soulless mundane concrete, I would be hard pressed. Yet this is weirdly compulsive and totally fascinating. Its like finding a whole new world of magic and wonder beneath the sheen of drying paint.

Having worked on the motorway/highway network in the UK for many years, both as a truck driver and also as a VRS (crash barrier) installer and repairer, I enjoy your videos for many reasons. Working as a subcontractor to the Highways Agency, I an familiar with many of the 'hidden' entry/exit slips, having used them myself. I worked out of the Weatherhill depot for quite a number of years, repairing accident damaged VRS on the M23 and other sections of road maintained by the Highways Agency in the area. A random fact about the Hooley interchange, at the north end of the M23. It is known as 'The Dead Zone' by all the local highways workers, I guess because the road becomes a 'dead end'. It was used as a compound to store materials, aggregates etc at the time I worked in the area. With access to both the M25 and the M23, it is a perfect place for crews and vehicles to wait until the traffic management crews have installed any lane closures, prior to work commencing on either motorway, likewise as a turn around point for the same reasons. Another random fact about the north section of the M23, is that the maintenance of this section is split between the Leatherhead and Weatherhill highways depots, with their border being half way between the Hooley interchange and junction 9 at Gatwick, because that makes perfect sense right? 🤔🤔 This is speculation, but it is possible that the Gatwick spur of the M23 was given a motorway designation, purely for maintenance reasons, as that fell under our duty to maintain. Randomly, some sections of slip roads and/or junctions fall under the jurisdiction of the Highways Agency to maintain while others can be in part the liability of local authority. There is always the possibility that they decided it would better serve the airport as a motorway, with the forethought that it might stop random people stopping on the carriageway to figure out where they put their passports, prior to arriving at the check in?? 😂😂 Only joking, that would suggest a higher level of thought process going into road planning!

Bit of trivia - the section of M23 from Gatwick to Pease Pottage is the only Motorway in Sussex.

Non-driver here but also very interested in road networks, including our motorways! Great series, can't wait to see which ones you tackle next!

Very amusing! You’d think that this would be a 10 minutes or so of your life wasted, but I am becoming addicted to these videos and your humour John! Thank you!

Nice of you to give a shout out to that Jay Foreman guy.

Cue chuckle every time I watch. Good luck with 100k.

Nice bit of Adhoc Urbex John 😁 looked a lovely day out too 😎👍

I used to love a rummage around G.W. Bridges scrap yard at pease pottage, there were some ancient relics in the far corner of the yard back in the 90's.

Thank you John, the M23 means home to me (Brighton) so I think it’s smashing.

Great Video John!

The bunker looks to me to be a Telex exchange. They were built deep and solid as, should we ever have been subject to a nuclear attack, Telex would have been the primary method of communication. Many also doubled as command centres. My father started out as a Telex engineer in the 1950s for the GPO (General Post Office, forerunner of British Telecom), he was based in such an exchange in Sheldon, Birmingham, which is why I recognise the construction and layout.

Nice secret bunker find, and well woven into the overall story!

Just north of jct 7 there’s a Starbucks adjacent to one of the oldest railway routes in the UK, the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway opened in 1805.

The banger racing at Smallfield is amazing!

That section at the very top of the M23 where it would’ve joined the Ringways has always intrigued me, seems such a waste of road given the horrific traffic congestion at times in South London would probably be a godsend nowadays!

It's amazing how buildings get left to decay. It's such a waste.

Another awesome video in this series! I've personally never been on or anywhere near the M23, but the way it is designed is interesting. Oh, and the other two four-level stacks are at M25 J15/M4 J4b and M5 J15/M4 J20. I've only ever been past the M5/M4 iteration of this junction type.

There is a similar stub on the 3 lane M53 at Hooton on the Wirral where it diverges onto the former M531 (now M53 extension) originally Vauxhall Ellesmere Port access. The stub was directed towards the proposed M56 extension towards Queensferry and North Wales (the never improved A550). Now the M53 has been extended east through tight curves as a two lane motorway to meet the M56 east of Chester and continue around the east side of Chester to run into the A55 North Wales Expressway.

Your pronunciation of Merstham was spot on John! Another great video of my local motorway, thanks!!! 😄

Arguably the most unpromising subject matter of all time and yet I find a miniature and whimsical gem of a program. Great work guys. Drones have done such amazing things for the documentary sector. I find myself compelled to subscribe!👏🙏👍

Great series these, driven so many times on this and other motorways completely oblivious to what is the other side of the trees!

Glad to see your subs numbers going up. Love the channel. Greetings from Pennsylvania!

Love the pause at the beginning to let two cars pass without missing a beat. Looked very professional and oddly gave me a chuckle.

3:17: M4/M5 Interchange north of Bristol… M4/M25 Interchange near Hamondsworth.. M1/M25 Interchange is a partial crossover with the south slipways missing. 😎 There are some wired and wonderful junctions along the M4 South Wales many restricted junctions with odd layouts.. one is M4 J44 near Birchgrove which features an internal slip road on the inside of the roundabout heading East on the M4 towards Port Talbot 😁

Lovely to learn about my local M Way! FYI before Bob Geldof became famous he worked in construction and worked on the M23/M25 junction.

A mere 16 miles of master filmmaking. Top work as always!

Smallfield race track has been there longer than the 1980's i raced mini stocks there, before i could legally drive, and passed my test in 1977, nice to see the M23 done though, as in one shot i could see all 3 houses ive owned since 1987, ok, not the EXACT house, but the area

Hey My Name is John, thanks for brightening my Sunday as usual. In the words of Tommy Cooper, "have a drink on me!"

I really love these videos. They cheer me up every Sunday evening. Keep them coming

In between junction 10 and 10a is a footbridge that is part of the Worth Way, a former railway line that's now a footpath connecting Crawley to East Grinstead. On google maps you can see the route that the line used to take from Three Bridges Station. There is also a road just after junction 9 (Antlands Lane) that has been split into an east and a west section by the motorway.

As always..... Interesting, funny, engaging and of course captivating from the being to the end

Yo i just want to say thank you for all of your hard work and research; really your content is massively underrated! Also: thanks for the Blair Witch Project vibes in this episode! 😅

So glad I found your channel.

Enjoyed that, you're really full of information 👍Greetings from Germany 🇩🇪

Hi John. Came across yr channel about 6 wks ago. Loved the ones I've seen so far. Like the way you mention everything, enjoyed the Blockbuster theme tune at the end of the vlog before. Very interesting artifacts and well sought history. Fantastic

The motorway spur heading west at Gatwick was intended to be an "outer" M25 ring motorway running west through Surrey with the other end being what is now the A329M at Bracknell. They started building each end, but was abandoned when it proved impossible to get hold of the land in Surrey which happened to pass through or nearby many Westminster MPs or their friends homes!

The only other symmetrical four-level stack in the UK is Almondsbury (M4/M5) just north of Bristol. Thorney (M4/M25) more or less also counts but it's slightly offset from center. Then there's Baillieston near Glasgow (M8/M73/A8) which is also on four levels but incorporates a roundabout for one set of movements.

Very interesting. Another motorway I've done in its entirety (including service stations), having done the M25 down towards Brighton for a weekend away, and the Gatwick extension plus the north end when picking up a friend from the airport at about 2am.

Massive bunker nerd here and Subbrit member, but that one was a surprise to me. Will have to pop down there and have a look. Drove right past it yesterday, why didn’t you post it then 😉

I drive under that bridge off Jct 7 regularly, and rarely even consider that it no longer has any purpose. The M23 spur at Gatwick Airport does make some sense as it leads (from the airport) only to the main M23. Annoyingly it has a 50 mph limit. Another cracking video! Really very interesting.

The other two 4 stacked interchanges are the M4/M5 and M4/M25

John your channel is like a good cheese or fine wine It won’t be for most plebs taste , But when your tastes have changed And you appreciate good content This is the channel for you Good work 👍

Was really looking forward to this motorway you haven’t disappointed 😀😀😀😀

3:07 Reminds me of Woodbridge, NJ where there NJ Turnpike meets the Garden State Parkway with Woodbridge Ave crossing above both of them. It's only 3-tier but still pretty impressive. In Richmond, Virginia they have similar 3-tier junction for railroad trains.

As others have mentioned, the other 4-stacks are M4/M5 (Almondsbury) and M4/M25 (Thorney). However, I do have a bit of an advantage in that I live less than a mile from one of them :) I suspect that the reason for designating the Gatwick Spur as motorway-class is partly administrative. Motorways are automatically controlled and maintained by National Highways (i.e. the national government), whereas (unless specifically designated as a trunk route) lesser classes (A-roads, B-roads, etc.) are normally controlled and maintained by local authorities. Also, the road between the two roundabouts only goes to the motorway. There's no point in going down it unless you're going to join the motorway. Perhaps it's classified as motorway grade to discourage non-motorway traffic (learners, mopeds, cyclists, pedestrians, etc.) from going down it. I don't think it's that uncommon to give a road motorway designation if the only destination it leads to is a motorway (for example, A308M).

The M25 has another 4 level stack interchange with the M4, which in turn has the other such junction with the M5

It's daft that the only way to access LGW's passenger terminals is from the M23, one used to be able to access the South Terminal from the service road and A23 which runs under it but access is now restricted. It was very handy as an ex Crawley Cabby for dropping off and picking up. It was also the only way to access the railway station.

The design is sometime called a "Maltese Cross". The other two are the Almondsbury Interchange on the M4/M5 and the M25/M4 interchange at Iver.

The Gatwick spur of the M23 has to have motorway status because it only serves the motorway, as such prohibited traffic should not use the spur. The same is true at the M25 J4

The other two four level stacks are M4/M25 and M4/M5. I think the M25/M1 could've been one if the southbound access existed

Fun fact about all 3 stack interchanges is their layouts are all slightly unique

Whoa! Mate. 8:05. What are those straight lines that go from left to right from that small roundabout sort of left centre of the video????. They end at Turners Hill Road. Looks like a unbuilt dual carriageway. Yeah. Chair's awright I suppose.

I love these videos. It's such a fantastic idea for a series. Those drone shots are always amazing. Are you at any risk of getting in trouble for doing that sort of thing? I'm not read up on the laws and the last thing I want is you getting pinched!

Am I messed up in the head that I see a dilapidated cold War bunker and think 'oooh I wanna grand designs that shit!'

I was an eleven-year-old boy sat in the front of a Ford Transit van the day the M23 opened... Back then the road surface was all bright yellow concrete.

Wheres Geoff Marshell when you need him. Least used bunker.

It is worth noting that the A23 south of Pease Pottage has had major works over the years to bring it up to the standards of a full dual carriage way. So much so that it is 3 lanes in each direction until the junction with the A272. After that the designers start to get rather creative with lane counts and junction layouts until the junction with at A27.

I'm afraid I'm unable to share your approval of banger racing though, considering how many now very desirable cars and other vehicles that form of motorsport has destroyed

I really really liked this video

I believe the only other quadruple stack interchanges are the M4/M5 interchange and the M4/M25 interchange aren’t they?

You missed the best M23 fact. Sir Bob Geldof worked on that M23 M25 junction driving heavy earth moving equipment. The money and the time to think were key to the Boomtown Rats, Live Aid and everything that follows.. He often talks about it in interviews and it’s in his autobiography.

My weekend is saved!

Awesome video

Interesting that you should put this video out today, as I was on the M23 yesterday, in both directions between the M25 junction until it became’s the A23 just past Peace Pottage. Only coming off the A23 at the A272, on my way to & from seeing my aunt & uncle on the south coast. I for one, wouldn’t mind it being a little bit longer. Maybe even linking up with the A24 or A27 (the latter of which, the A23 eventually does).

Can’t wait for you do do the M4

The other stacked motorways? Spaghetti Junction must be one I'd guess, no idea about the other. I used to commute from Brighton to London: 40 minutes to drive from Brighton to Coulsdon, just north of where the M23 ends, then an hour and a half to do the final 8 miles into Central London - and that was on a good day!

Great review. Cheers Bob

So those photos of the Merstham bunker were from the 1950s, I assume?

What the hell was I doing with my life before I found this channel?

5:15 - nice layout. 👍 ☮

Would love a video of the M90 as I use it alot

LOL that you got Maidenbower spot on but couldn’t hit Merstham (Merst-Ham) if it was on the side of a barn door…. Also lucky you didn’t wonder to the other side of the motorway around the Pendle Lane area, you’d have either been murdered or married off and never seen again….

The Almondsbury Interchange would have to be one of them (4 stacker)

OK, didn't realise there was a 3 high intersection, I jump back a few videos and there's four!

That tantalisingly abandoned bridge at about 2½mins in looks like it's on Giants' scale with the gurt big 44 tonners on the repurposed slip road next to it look like Matchbox models instead. A function of the height of the drone I s'pose. I wonder how much a fisheye lens on its camera would further complicate the visuals. All power to your elbow and long may your motorway meanderings maintain their oft-queried unnerving ability to capture and keep engaged me and my fellow tea-table travellers' interest. The best thing about this anomaly is how it messes with so many of our minds. Ta very much lad.

No. I don’t think we can say that we had a good week.

Literally the most boring topic ever. But I'm hooked

The first half of this video would be a great introduction to a north film lol

awesome

Why is this so entertaining 😂

Would I be right that the stacked Motorways would be Birmingham and near to Doncaster?? Just playing catch up with the videos, that bunker might come in handy if that mad russian guy decides to play with his Nuclear toys! Excellent video as always I think the chair should become part of the channel....

5:23 Nick Catford! Disused Stations guy.

very interesting again !

Now who lives in a houusssee like this.

I watched the M23 grow over the years as I grew up, I always thought the bit just after its end as you went down the hill from Handcross, it suddenly became a rough crap road, them a mile later it got better again, the Handcross section was a bloody nightmare. Are you going to do one about the pretty pointless M180 just off the M18 (oh maybe do them both) I live up this way now and have used them 1000's of times.

Pretty sure Bob Geldof was a truck driver and was delivering media for the Merstham interchange. Anyone else confirm this?

Auto Shenanigans meets Through The Keyhole with a hint of Most Haunted.... You sir are one of a kind keep up the good work! I would also like to take this opportunity to say Auto Shenanigans or ASS for short does this now mean your subscribers are know as your arses?

I think the other 4 stack is 5 mins away from me in Bristol

and what about Alderstead Fort, next to jt 7?

Do you like my chair,I found it in this field 😆

arent the other 2 4 stacks just on the m25?

8:05 at junction 10a of the m23 theres tracks towards turners hill road, is it an abandoned road

You went a bit Blair Witch, there…

Cheer up 😀

What's the straight line cut into the trees at @7:53 used for?

I'm a 50 year old man from California...and I fu*king love your channel, M8! I have no idea why...never been to the UK...lol

The 3 stacks are these: 1. M25-m23 junction 2. M4-m5 junction 3. M4-m25 junction

John, I’m a retired Surrey firefighter and I thoughtI knew the area around the M23 pretty well, indeed we drove down it in an appliance to familiarize ourselves before it was opened to the public in the 70s. However thanks for producing your excellent videos, I’m fascinated by your digging deep to inform your viewers of just what’s around Britains motorways, in this video especially the Pendell Camp bunker. As a postscript to you on the 28 June 1987 I was responsible for bringing a Trident Aircraft fuselage on a trailer from Heathrow to Surrey Fire Brigade Headquarters Reigate via M25 and M23 turning the whole convey around at Hooley at the northern end of M23 to proceed to Reigate through Merstham on A23. Anthony.

The military building is in fact an anti aircraft operations room but later was used as the southern wartime HQ for the Met Police, their other bunker is at Lippitts Hill in North east London. Merstham was then used by the police to store all the handguns handed in after the Dunblane shooting prior to their destruction. The site was sold in the early 2000s and has since been wrecked.