The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-29 00:00:00

MUSIC.

OPIXLSO OP THE WEBBIND AND CRYSTAL
taLias RAILWAY.

T. WOWS HALL.
The second concert on Saturday evening, for the
" inauguration " of this splendid music-hall, and for the
health of the Kidd/vett Hospital, was better than the first.
The selection, consisting of secular music, was more re.
ekreAie end varied; the hall wesfuller,and the assemblage—
their eyes being less ezduaively occupied than before to
gazing on the brilliant scene around them—had their ears
more open to the music ; so that the performance went off
with more animation than on the previous evening. The
following was the very excellent and effective programme

FIFTEEN LIVES LOST.

An important link in the metropolitan system of
railway communication win finally inspected on Saturday
last by the directors, accompanied by a large party of gentle-
men connected with the railway interest, preparatory to ita
opening to-day for public traffic. Some months ago we pub-
lished an account of the opening from the Crystal Palm to
Wandsworth-common. The portion of the line which was
examined on Saturday is that from theta to Battersea,
where it now terminates—a distance of about 31 miles—the
route being across the Wandsworth-road to the South
Western line, along which it runs parallel and upon the same
embankment for about half a mile, then descending pares
under that lino to Battersea-fields, along by the side of Bat-
tersea-park to the river side, close to the foot of the new
Chelsea or Battersea-park bridge, where the terminus is
situated. The line, though promoted and carried out by an
independent proprietary, will be worked by the London and
Brighton Railway Company under a working agreement, one
stipulatka in the arrangement between the two companies
being that the London and Brighton shall pay for the use of
the line and stations a fixed charge or rental of 8,0001. a
year, or something like 1 per oent. on the outlay, instead of a
toll upon the London and Brighton West-end traffic that
may come over this new line. This is a condition from
which the public is likely to be largely convenienoed. The
new bridge from Chelsea to Battersea-eark, which is also to
be opened to the public this day, brings the Battersea station
of the Weet-end and Crystal Palace line in almost as close
proximity to the aristocratic locality of Belgravia and the
thickly populated district of Chelsea as the London-bridge
terminus new is to the inhabitants of the City
and Finsbury. At present the distance from the
extreme west of London—including Pimlico, Chelsea,
Kensington, and Tylaurnia—to London-bridge, is some-
thing formidable, end, in time, is quite equal to the
B(by express train) from London-bridge to
Brighton. The London and Brighton Company having
bound themselves to pay this 8,0001. • year rental,
it is of course their interest to remunerate themselves
by developing the traffic over the West-end and Crystal
Palace line to and from their own main line; and they
propose a step in that direction the advantage of
which the travelling public will not be slow to recog-
nise, by making all return tickets between London-
bridge or Battersea and any station on the Lon-
don and Brighton line returnable at either terminus.
Another and an immediate convenience which those who
keep holiday on Good Friday will experience is the opening
at the line from Battersea to Sydenham. The terminus at
London-bridge la connected with the old Greenwich line, and
is constructed under the Greenwich Railway Act, one clause
of which prohibits traffic between the hours of eleven and
one on Sundays, Good Fridays, and Christmas-days. The
West-end and Crystal Palace Company's Act is free from
any such restriction, so that than who desire to ruralise on
Friday next at Sydenham, Greenwich, Croydon, or any of
those pleasant places which are communicated with by the
lines of the Brighton and amalgamated companies, will find •
means of gratifying their wish at any time during the day by
taking the West-end and Crystal Palace route. But much
as this new line is calculated to benefit the public, it L hot •
step towards the completion of the railway accommodation
which the metropolis requires. The Great Western, the
London and North Western, the Great Northern, and the
Eastern Counties lines are still quite es inaccessible to a con-
siderable portion of the inhabitants of London as the lines
radiating *oath and south-east from London-bridge were till
now from Chelsea and Paddington. From the south of the
Thames, or East London, to the Paddington terminus
occupies quite as long in the transit as the journey
from London to Oxford, and to travel from the south, south-
west, or extreme north-western districts to Shoreditch, takes
up as much time as it would require for en express to run
between Shoreditch and Cambridge. Probably amongst the
many causes that have militated against the prosperity of the
Great Western and Eastern Counties lines the want of a
more central terminus is not the least. Another step is the
will be the continuance of this West-end line serum
system
Thames, along the Grosvenor Canal to Vic-
toria-street, for which a bill I. now before parliament.
As this project is understood to be unopposed,
and es the only objection that can be started against It to,
that the crossing of the Thames will interfere seriously with
the view of the new Chelsea bridge, one of the most beautiful
structures of the kind we have on the Thames, it will be
very likely to be carried out speedily. The
_possibility of a
branch to this, perhaps by way of the West London, bring-
ing the Great Western Into communication with London
proper and of a connexion by which the Great Northern,
North Western, Eastern, and other lines north of the Thames
may be united for the purposes of terminal facilities, may
then be brought under consideration.

The inspection of Saturday was in every respect ma Hefei,-
tory. Along the whole distance (from the Crystal Palace to
the Thames), about seven miles, the line appears to be well
and solidly constructed, and the easy motion of the earrlages
rolling over it affords an agreeable contrast to the jolting of
some more pretentious railways. The stations are simple,
cheap erections, but they afford all the facilities which are
needed ; and the terminus at Battersea is really • model of
this class of exchitecture, simple and characteristic in its
design, spacious, commodious for all purposes, and inexpen-
sive. In short, stability and usefulness, without extrava-
gance, strike the observer as the leading features of the
works ; and presuming that they have been as cheaply con-
structed as they seem to have been, it will be strange indeed
if this does not turn out to be one of our beat paying
suburban lines.

Amongst the gentlemen who were present at. the examina-
tion on Saturday were Mr. Beale, the chairman of the com-
pany ; Mr. Bidder, the engineer; and Sir S. M. Peto, the
contractor; Sir J. Pezton, Sir Cusack Roney, Mr. Farquhar
(chairman of the Crystal Palace Company), Mr. Schuster
(chairman of the Brighton Railway), Mr. Till (chairman of
the Norfolk Railway), Mr. Lightly Simpson (of the Eastern
Counties and But Angibui Railway), Mr. Leach, and a
number of the dilutors and others connected with the
Brighton and other companies, whose interests will be directly
or indirectly promoted by the new line, oleo accompanied the
directors in the special train in which the line was traversed.
In the evening the director. and the gentlemen invited
din(d together to the number of upwards of 200 in the great
dialog saloon of tho Crystal Palace.

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