The Express.
London, England, 1863-10-14 00:00:00

IItITANWIA.

mos Emma, THE DAYS OP LOUIS XV.—THE GREAT
GHOST EfIECT.-81abbbr by Um Odlne. Nly. Randall. and
Mon. Pleas.—ZlLY WA/ENO& Mn. S. Labe and Mn. W.
CraadonL—Aad THE LONE ROUSE

MGR WATER £1 LONDON EMAIL
MO Day Waralsg. Tos. Oa. .... Miasma Oh. 0?.
toaleabow —Manila(. Oh. 10s.....13areeast. Oh Ma.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14.

Tao "Holborn Valley Question " is ono the im-
portance of which every resident in London will
appreciate, and which every visitor to the great
city, if only for a single day, must recognise at a
glance. The date of the duration of this nuisance is,
of course, coeval with the coustruction of Holborn-
street, but it has become aggravated year by year
as the through traffic east and west has increased.
Half • century ago it was probably not very much
felt, when those portions of the west which are
now covered with fine streets of palatial houses
were green fields, and when the hackney coaches in
which people travelled through Holborn were so
accustomed to break down everywhere, that an
occasional extra accident there did not attract much
attention. But the question has actually been in
discussion in parliament and in the corporation for
a quarter of a century—a reasonable period for its
settlement one would think, when one of the debat-
ing bodies had unlimited power and the other
unlimited resources, to effect any change that might
be considered necessary. We see what unlimited
power can do in revising the crooked streets of
Paris, and what unrestricted pecuniary resources
can achieve in the rapidity with which ac enter-
prising railway company metamorphoses a whole
district of Loudon. See, for example, how the
Charing•cross Company push their works in the
west. A great slice of the Strand, containing
houses of infinitely higher commercial value than
any in Holborn, has been remorselessly pulled
down, an entirely new bridge has been thrown across
the Thames, whilst a row of palatial residences now
rise almost at the rate of a story • day, in the
Strand, opposite the Golden-cross, at Charing-
cross. Again, let us turn eastward, and we shall
find that one side of Blackfriara-road has been lite-
rally razed to the ground through nearly half of its
entire length. Questions of vested interests
have not there stopped the way of the
London, Chatham, and Dover Company.
Having swept away with a wave of their magic
wand scores of houses in the most important main
street on the Surrey side of the water, they are
now pushing their operations right across the river,
already throw their shells into Doctors'-commons,
and will ultimately run the plough across Ludgate-
hill. Vested interests have gone down after a
year's struggle before a railway company armed
with an act of parliament, in the richest, busiest,
and most valuable part of London, but vested
interests stop the way, and have done so for a
quarter of a century, in Holborn, and thus the pro-
ject of improvement has remained hung up, and at
this moment the only symptoms of vitality
it exhibits consist of the angry letters of
rival architects to the newspapers, each
claiming to be the first who suggested • viaduct
over Holborn-valley, sail a viaduct would not occur
to the mind of any ordinary person as the most
obvious remedy for the evils which are now so
loudly complained of.
Every one knows what the main evil to be reme-
died is. The great street begins to " dip" some-
where near St. Andrew's Church, and continues
to fall at rates varying from 1 foot in 23 to lin 17
until it comes to the foot of Farringdon-street, where
is the bed of the " Valley." Thence it rises with
equal abruptness until it reaches its maximum
height at Snow-hill, at which point cab, carriage,
waggon, and omnibus drivers travelling east, having
reached table land, begin to breathe more easily, and
to entertain some faint hopes of finishing their jour-
ney in safety. To remedy the evil several schemes
have been from time to time proposed, and at this
moment a committee of the corporation has the
knotty question in hand. Historical accounts
have from tune to time been published of these suc-
cessive projects, but somehow the first one in
known existence has always been unaccountably
omitted. It must be recollected that the great dif-
ficulty to be mumntered in dealing with Holborn
Valley is the difficulty of protecting existing in-
terests in so great an artery of trade ; and the
second, of squaring the expense with the probable
means of meeting it. Another difficulty is the dan-
ger of tampering with, or diverting the general
stream of traffic—always a very serious point for
consideration—and from all these points of
view we think that a plan of comparatively
small dimensions, and which takes precedence of
all the schemes now prominently before the public
in point of time, is well worthy of being considered
along with its later and more ostentatious competi-
tors. Taking it for granted that the first and most
important object was to produce a level causeway
for the traffic east and west, Mr. Thomas Taylor
prepared, in 1855, a plan which would have left
Holborn, with its vast commerce, intact, would
have relieved that commerce of touch of its present
plethora, would have provided means for wag-
gone, kc., to travel east and west on the
level, and would have cost very little money.
Mr. Taylor proposed to turn out of Holborn alto-
gether at Hatton-garden, and to make a detour by
means of a new street, to be cut through property
of very small comparative value, running at the
back of Holborn, crossing Victoria-street by means
of • short viaduct, and coming out at Giltepur-
street, close to the wall of the Compter. By this
plan the main artery of Holborn would be left as it
is at present, a level road would be achieved east
and west, the work could be completed in a very
short time, and the whole cost would be under a