The M25 at 40: Raves, Batman and give peas a chance

With raves, Batman and mysterious graffiti celebrating vegetables, the M25 has seen more than its share of unusual activity since its final stretch opened near St Albans, Hertfordshire, 40 years ago.

Since Margaret Thatcher officially declared the motorway fully open on 29 October 1986, the orbital road has inspired hit songs, protests and coach tours.

Here are five of the strangest stories from the motorway that circles London.

The M25 opened just as the authorities were beginning to crack down on London's exploding rave scene.

The new orbital motorway allowed raves to spread into fields and warehouses outside of the capital.

Suddenly, the scene was within reach of people living along the M25, including brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll from Kent, who went on to form the electronic music duo Orbital.

The group was named after the motorway that had become vital for the growing rave scene.

But the M25 inspired a very different kind of music from Driving Home for Christmas singer Chris Rea.

According to National Highways, the singer wrote The Road to Hell after spending more than an hour stuck in traffic on the road in 1989.

Big Ben, Stonehenge, York Minster and the M25; for some tourists, the orbital motorway has become a bit of a destination.

According to history website On This Day, which quoted an AA spokesman, hundreds signed up for guided coach tours of the new motorway not long after it opened in 1986.

In 2011, Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company launched a sightseeing trip around the M25.

The company later reported strong demand for the tours, which managing director Roger French said had attracted "national and international recognition".

But the novelty did not last, in December 2012 the company announced it had stopped running the trips.

If you drove on the M25 between junctions 16 and 17, you may have seen the words "Give Peas a Chance" painted in large white letters across the Chalfont Viaduct.

According to Oxford Archaeology, Peas was the name of a London graffiti artist who left his tag on the Edwardian railway bridge near Denham, Buckinghamshire.

It was believed by the group that somebody later copied his style to add the words "Give" and "a chance", as a reference to the artist's arrests.

The phrase remained on the bridge from 2008 until 2018, when an artist named Helch replaced it with the words "Helch, a chance taken".

Many motorists voiced disappointment at the loss of the original graffiti, leading to the phrase being changed again to "Give Helch a break".

Helch held his first exhibition at BSMT Gallery, which specialises in street art, in December 2025. In August 2026, the gallery announced that the London-based artist had died.

In 2020 Helch's tag was replaced by text thanking the NHS, but since 2021 it has read "Helth Skelth", in a similar font to the Helch tag suggesting it could be the same artist.

About 300 lorries brought parts of the M25 to a crawl in 1999, driving at 30mph in protest against diesel and road tax costs.

It is just one example of how the orbital road has repeatedly become a stage for protests during its 40-year history.

Since then, the motorway has been blocked by Insulate Britain and targeted by Just Stop Oil, whose supporters climbed gantries above the road.

In 2008, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner dressed as Batman brought traffic near Heathrow to a crawl during a seven-hour protest.

But protest has followed the M25 throughout its history, beginning before the motorway was even complete.

In 1978 Rachel Geary, aged nine, stood on Downing Street wearing a gas mask and holding a banner as part of a campaign to stop the proposed M25 route as campaigners believed it put children at risk of lead poisoning.

Driving is perhaps the least interesting way somebody can choose to travel around the M25.

The Telegraph's travel correspondent Simon Calder hitch-hiked the entire circumference of the motorway on the day it was formally opened by Margaret Thatcher.

He is not the only person to have made an unusual journey around the route. Writer Iain Sinclair traced the M25 on foot for his book London Orbital, visiting small villages, landscapes transformed by development and converted asylums.

But the most daring journey was completed by stunt performer Eddie Kidd, who circled the M25 strapped to the wing of a biplane.

In 2019 Hertfordshire Police stopped another unusual traveller: A man riding what appeared to be an electric bike encased in "balsa wood and duct tape".

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