We live under Britain's most complex motorway junction...the constant noise and smog is awful - but there are upsides

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

For motoring enthusiasts, the Gravelly Hill Interchange has become an unlikely tourist attraction in recent years, with guided tours held beneath its bridges.
Known more commonly as Spaghetti Junction, its the UK's most complex motorway junction and gets its infamous nickname from its unique, tangled design.
The interchange, which connects Birmingham to the M6, has become a vital route for those travelling out of the city and sees more than 200,000 vehicles including almost 26,000 lorries passing through it every day.
But while for most, their only interaction with the junction will be travelling through it on their commute, the experience is entirely different for those residents who live underneath the notorious labyrinth of bridges.
There is no escaping the noise from the endless stream of traffic and the smog from vehicles constantly fill up the air.
When the Daily Mail visited neighbouring streets on Tuesday, the smoke was so heavy you could almost taste it.
But residents told of how they love living beneath the junction, with one even joking 'there is nothing wrong with a bit of soot in your lungs'.
Terry Hopper, 64, has lived beneath the junction on Lichfield Road for 30 years and owns an engineering site a few doors down.
One of the junction's many busy roads runs above from where he stands in his front garden as he speaks to the Daily Mail.
He said: 'Yes it's noisy but it's a bit like living near an airport, you get used to it.
'But it is quieter at night time, and it's good, you've got the motorway one side and got the canal at the back of our home.
'We've lived here 30 years now so we're used to the noise, we can hardly hear it.
'And we've got double glazing so you can't hear it at all if you've got your windows closed. It's not a problem.
'I think it's absolutely brilliant living just here.
'Anywhere I want to go, I can go. The motorway is right here, I can get the M6 down to London, up north, down to Cornwall.'
He added: 'The pollution can be quite bad at times, all the smog off the motorway.
'But there's nothing wrong with a bit of soot in your lungs.
'It doesn't affect my health or nothing, it doesn't.'
Across the maze-like junction on Minstead Road, father Olly Bradley echoed Mr Hopper's views.
The 58-year-old told the Daily Mail: 'We've been here for more than 30 years and we're used to it.
'It's a good location. You can walk from here to the city centre in under an hour.
'When I moved here at the time with my little boy, my dad who was a dentist was worried about pollution here especially for my son.
'I wasn't particularly worried but it did make me think about it.
'But it's not been an issue. If you start worrying about that you've got to start worrying about all sorts of malarkey and you'll never be able to do anything.
A view of houses on Lichfield Road which sits under the junction. Residents said the 'pollution can be bad' but one joked 'there is nothing wrong with a bit of soot in your lungs'
'Here, you've got easy access to everywhere, like my brother lives in Bearwood and he had to drive all the way round to get here, but for me I can get around easily.
'My mother-in-law lives in Newquay and the motorway is right here so it's just straight down, it's very handy.
'I can still remember when it was being built, I was only a few years old.'
For some however, despite being so closely located to the motorway, they still felt the noise was 'awful'.
One father who was loading his children into the car told: 'It's awful.
'Too much noise and smog. It's constant noise.'
Bash, whose house directly looks over at the pillars beneath the bridge, said: 'We've lived here since 2003.
'I still find it very, very noisy.
'It's not good.'
Joe Quinn, who has lived at his house by the junction for the majority of his life, says the area has gotten worse since the interchange was constructed.
The 63-year-old said: 'I lived here before it was built. It's all changed, it's gotten worse.
'There were houses all across there, they were all demolished.
'It used to be family community, now all the remaining houses are all rented out.
'There's only a few of the original ones here.
'The junction didn't make it any better, put it that way.
'All it is is druggies down here, I take no notice now.
'There's a lot of it about, you don't see it all, they drive up here and do their deals.
'There's a very big change compared to 50 years ago. There used to be two-way traffic.
'The petrol garage there was a pub.'
'I have to go somewhere else for a pint now', he joked.
The junction, which was opened in 1972 after 160 houses, a block of flats and the Erdington Arms pub were demolished to make way, is among the most well-known interchanges in the country.
It was central to the Midland Links project designed to connect the M1, M5, and M6 motorways.
Tour companies began running guided walking tours beneath the junction last year, with tourists paying £13.50 for a 1 hour and 45 minute experience exploring the canals, rivers and parks that lay under the bridges.
Marites Tabiolo, 62, has lived beside the junction for 13 years.
While she struggled to fall asleep when she first moved to the area, she says she is now, like many other residents, 'used to' the noise.
She said: 'It is noisy at times.
'But I've lived here for 13 years. I'm used to it.
'At the beginning I could not sleep because it was noisy, and it gets busy even during the night.
'But it's quite nice, at the back we've got the canal.
'And I just find it safer. It's always quite bright, you have cars going past, and we've got CCTV round here.
'It is rare for something to happen here. I think it is safer because my colleagues who live in the centre say there people burn their bins and stuff like that.
'People have access there, no one really comes up here. There's no access at the back and people don't really come up this way.'
Another man on Minstead Road, Gerry, told the Daily Mail said there was a lot of 'dangerous driving' in the area in the evenings.
He said: 'The noise itself isn't too bad, you get used to it.
'But in the evening you get stupid drivers, people driving at 50mph into the pavement.
'There's a lot of dangerous driving.
'And it's getting rough here and you at night you can hear police sirens driving past.'
While the surrounding street by the junction are predominantly home to garages and businesses, Minstead Road, Copeley Hill, and Lichfield Road have houses which sit beneath the interchange.
Tamika John, 35, said from an off-road from Copeley Hill: 'It's not bad at all really.
'It's not noisy inside my house, I can only hear noises when big trucks beep their horns.
'The pollution can be bad but it's just Birmingham, pollution is everywhere.
'I like being so close to the motorway, it's easy to get to places.
'The motorway goes straight to London, and then north or south as well.
'I've lived here since 2017, I didn't really mind it then either.'