The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-11 00:00:00

PROPOSED METROPOLITAN 131
PROVEMENTS.

The following letter contains interesting information
ai.o u s
It pi raotp.roosme posed
hmetropolitanreportthe improve-
mentsm ot
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Dean, architect;
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20, 1846:
quenting Smithfield Market in an inquiry before Parlia-
beenlye nLgoargdesd a ansd aGg
eenntt lteomtehneFg ir
a az
ivei rnsg asnodimbeu3t.cehaerrs ss fnrce e-
meat as to the enlarging of the site of the market; hav-
ing lately been examined by the Commissioners on the
Health of Towns and Popu'ous Districts, in which the
sewerage of the metropolis and the application of the
sewerage to agricultural productions Caine under con-
sideration; having lately been engaged by the Right
Hon. the Speaker of the House of Commons and others
to treat with the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, &e.,
for land to lay into the Victoria Park, involving also the
consideration of the formation of new streets; and gene-
rally having been engaged during the last 50 years in a
variety of instances to lay out land for sites of buildings
and other improvements, both in town and country, aed
knowing generally every part of London and the subur-
ban parishes, I feel competent to give an opinion upon
the matters referred to your consideration as commis-
sioners, and shall have much satisfaction if my labours
shall assist you in the difficult undertaking.
It has long been a source of sincere regret to many
thinking persons that no general plan for the improve-
ment of the metropolis has, in modern times, been at-
tempted ; everything appears to be done by bits and
scraps. Inquiries are perpetually going on—commission
upon commissions is appointed—the commissioners in-
quire and report—and there the matter generally ends.
There is the Board of Trade—then the Commissioners of
Woods, &c.—then the Health of Towns Commissioners
—then yourselves—all inquiring into some particular
object ; and yet the objects of all relate to the same
thing, or nearly so ; to sever their proceedings would be
to destroy their value as a whole. Thus, for instance,
the inquiry as to the most eligible situation in the metro-
polis for railway termini necessarily involves the consi-
deration of street approaches and the sewerage of the
district ; then the cost and then the revenue. All these
are matters which ought to be considered together as a
whole ; not that it may be necessary to carry the whole
into execution immediately, or, indeed, for several years
to come, still there should be a unity of purpose, a one-
ness in the plan ; but that plan, I fear, can never bo ef-
fected until some master-mind takes the lead, and an
amalgamation of the several commissions has been
brought about.
In my humble way, I have ventured to take, as I
imagine, a comprehensive view of the accommodation
required by the commercial, the manufacturing, the agri-
cultural, and the aristocratical interests of this great
country, in this great metropolis ; and though last, not
the least, to the comforts and convenience of our Sove-
reign, her august consort, and their family, both as re-
gards railway stations and termini, and the avenues lead-
ing to them.
It has long been a matter of just reproach to us as a
nation by foreigners, that the entrance into London from
Woolwich, Greenwich, Dover, Brighton, Portsmouth,
Southampton, and the other ports on the southern coast,
is unworthy of such a people. Commercial men and ma-
nufacturers, including the dense population of the metro-
polis, complain that the great thoroughfares are continu-
ally choked with waggons and carts, conveying goods to
and from the existing distant terznini of the several rail-
ways, to and from th warehouses of the merchants, and
to and from the docks. The farmers complain that their
cattle have so far to be driven to market, after arriving
at the railway depot ; and everybody exclaims against
the driving of beasts through the streets at mid-day, and
the cruelties constantly practised on them, thronged as
the streets are with people, eh!) carts, waggons, omni-
buses, and other carriages, almost to suffocation. Eng-
lishmen feel ashamed that between the Royal Palace at
Pimlico and the Royal Palace at Westminster there
should exist so much wretchedness and squalid misery,
reaching almost to the Palace door; and although hun•
dreds of thousand; of pounds are yearly spent in im-
proving and embellishing distant parts of the metropolis,
Pimlico remains the same—the same filthy, pestilential
!elec.! it has ever been in the memory of the oldest
man living. Then, there is 'Westminster Abbey, its
chief entrance in a corner, on one side, shouldered by
houses on the other, bounded by a churchyard paved,
or rather only half paved, with g, avestonee, so uneven
and so dilapidated as to be dangerous at all times, but
especially at night, to persons having business that way;
the church an emblem of days gone by, it is imagined
exits but to keep company with another barbarous pile
on the opposite side of the way, and Westminster bridge,
the most costly, the most ugly, the most unsafe in the
metropolis, upon which thousands have been, and are
yet to be, spent. To widen the way and to lower the
ballustrades little less than would build a splendid iron
bridge in a far more commodious situation, a situation
where, indeed, it would be an ornament to Barry's
noble work, and of immense utility in a local and national
point of view, and would render unnecessary another
bridge contemplated to cross from the Horseferry-road
near.
Then there is that horrible accumulation of mud and
filth between Whitehall-stairs and Blackfriars- bridge.
Surely_the day is Rot far distant when the embankment
will take place, so well devised by the eminent Walker,
and so necessary for the preservation of the health of
those inhabiting near, and so necessary also to relieve
the streets between the Royal Exchange and 'Westmin-
ster Hall from the dense crowds always moving between
these points, especially when Parliament and the
courts are sitting. And now, having gone through
the catalogue of miseries, I come to the pleasing task
of shoeing how most of them can be remedied, if not
obviated altogether, leaving yourselves to decide how
successful or otherwise the attempt has been.
I have selected for the site of the London general ter-
minus of all the railways now made, or that may here •
after be made, coming to London, the space between the
Whitechapel High-street, the new street lately
formed leading from Spitaltields church to the docks and
the Blackwell Railway, tinted yellow. I have chosen
that particular place, firstly, because it is within half a
mile of the Royal Exchange, and within the city, and
because a great part of the site is in an open waste, and
the remainder covered with houses of very moderate
value, except those next to Whitechapel High•street and
the Minoe ies, which may still remain. I have chosen it,
also, because it is the only spot in or near London to
which passengers and traffic can be conveyed from every
railway on both sides of the Thames, without change of
carriage, except the Great Western, which, on account
of the guage, cannot, I fear, participate in the benefit.
Whether it would be a convenience for the company to
make a short line across Old Oak Common, in Acton
parish, to the tunnel under Iloneypot-hill, on the Bir-
mingham line, and there change passengers, cattle, and
goods, into carriages suited for the narrow gunge, would
Ile for the directors to determine.
The tunnel under the Thames may be continued under
the lock, which is between the two London docks, and
thence, ascending at 1 foot in 28' feet forward, arrives
within 10 f et of the surface, at the point of its inter-
section with the newly-formed street leading from Spital-
fields church to the d cks. The other end of the tunnel
being also continued in the direction of the Croydon
Railway, will, at 1 in 30 feet forward, arrive at the sur-
faced
peta htoi
Croydon,
gradientadt,
Greenwichnthl,leesoelu) •o
het.
i-tblzfEroaf
aaior
zdsos
South-Eastern,
eLahri
Railway,
its
,rwB,
railway
and
road.wdde eayfet
ofr,
r)
nr:r;aatea:rji
junction
wshtn
jeoctinta thence ascending
passas
with
ie
tnhd
tihl
underge
014VtaiyieS,
Brick-
layers' layers' Arms in the Kent. road. That line I would con-
tinue to the South-Western Railway station at Nine-
elms, hereinafter more particularly described.
From the liele value that the shares in the Regent's
Canal have been for soine years pae,t, and, as railways
multiply, the traffic on canals will, of course, fall off Leal
purchasing
and
i.,
assuming
rrbetweeng tt
oh
teht
he
tsehint
aeimrt
maotprionNgt
bl
Birmingham
canalrea
that
amti
tepaaafbenfre.:7:s
irailwayd3t.ea:r
doi
lstl
their value become less, I imagine there would be no nif-
pflucrupltoyseisn
onlybeseiennt'e intervene nree
at Camden-town and the caeal.
Pursuing
wt
h thate(rpe rptohobeianolti; notgmesn:
land roa
d crossestli the course sae
new
t the canal nwaol to a
u ld-
foofar thef a groundefeet
wit
with
mence, and continue with deep cuttings
feet) to the point of junction with the Thames Tunnel'
over in
t e
the proposed
crossings grand
of
stterminusreet
sto
b
; thee e
elevated
de
easy slopes each way.
I will here suggest for consideration, whether, if the
new cutting were to begin westward of the Kingsland
Basin, that basin and wharfs might not be retained for
casual purposes in communication with the dock at
Limehouse,
The new cutting, it will be seen, crosses at the back
of the Eastern and Northern and Eastern Counties Rail-
way station in Shoreditch, and that two curved branches
are added, one for ready communication with the pro-
posed terminus at the Minories and with the railways
south of the Thames, and the other with the Birming-
ham line.
The site of the basin in the Regent's Canal which
crosses the City Road, with the wharves and warehouses,
would furnish ample accommodation for the city traffic,
and could not be better situated for that purpose.
And here let me remark, that the whole cutting passing
through the miserably poor parishes of Shoreditch, Beth-
nal-green, and Spitalfields, is the worst drained district
in or near London.
From the point of junction of the railways in the pro-
posed London terminus, a tram-road might be formed to
lead to both the London and St. Katharine's Docks, for
conveying goods to and from those docks to the railways,
which tram-rood might be raised or carried upon a level
to the warehouses, as the parties interested might deem
most convenieet.

I now return to the Croydon, Dover, and Brighton
lines of railway.
A sort of temporary railway commences and has been
formed between New Cross ti n d the Greenwich Railway,
proceeding thence to the Bricklayers' Arms, in the Kent-
._

roars. That branch I propose to make permanent on

brick arches, and be continued from the- Bricklayers'

Arms, to form a junction with the South Western Rail-
way at Nine Elms.
At the junction of the carriage roads leading to all the
bridges near to the Obelisk, in St. George's Fields, I

propose to form a large station, for both passengers,
goods, and cattle, and to continue the Westminster road
in a direct line from the Female Orphan A,ylurn to arid
along the bottom of the ornamental grounds (.f Lambeth
Palace, the residence of his Grace the Archbishop of

Canterbury, thence by a bridge of handsome elevation,
in character with the palace, to cross the Thames at a
convenient distance southward of the Houses of Parlia-

ment and Westminster Abbey, in the direction of Buck-
ingham Palace, there to. meet Grosvenor-place at its
junction with the King's-road; thus adding about five
acres of land to the Palace grounds, with an entrance to
the offices and the stable yard opposite to the Chelsea-
road,

I propose also to add space in front of the west end of
the Abbey, and to form a street in the direction of, and
to fall into, the road last mentioned, which road, for

• present purposes, I will cell the Qaeeri's-road, reel
order to form an outlet from Tuthill -street aed Yerk-
street into the Queen's volt], I have shown a new lire-
of street, to lead from the Government Stationety
Office, by the wall of the proposed addition to the Palace
grounds, to effect that purpose.
These improvements, if adopted, would, I iiraeine,
render unnecessary, as a public road, the Birdcage Walk
which would then probably -be placed under the same
regulations, as to the entre, as regulates the roadieg of
Constitution Hill.
I will not go into any particulars as to the eligibility
of the new lines of streets for building parposes—thite
belongs to another commission. My object in mention-
ing them is to show their immediate connexion as ap-
proaches and outlets to the proposed station and ter-
minus, and the branch railways connected therewith.
For the same reason I will only glance at the space
proposed to be added to the entrance courts of the Housk s
of Parliament, by the removal of the houses next te
Westminster Abbey, and the formation of a wide road
from Paldce yard to the Queen's-road, and the proposed
Palece bridge.
The removal of Westminster-bridge altogether would
be a desirable advent at any rate ; the substitution of a
chain bridge in its stead would answer all the purposes
really required, and would exhibit the elevation of the
new Palace and the proposed palace bridge to great ad-
vantage ; and whenever the parties interested in the
property abutting on the Thames shall come forward
with a subscription commensurate with the advantages
to be derived by them from embanking between West-
minster-bridge and Blackfriars-bridge, they may be
quite sure that Parliament would meet them, on t! e
Dart of the public, in a liberal manner ; and the sooner,
then fire, the thing is taken up and dealt with, the better
for all parties.
ith a new street, formed from the eastern end of
the embankment to the Mansion-house, a world of traffic
would by that means be taken from the existing tho-
roughfares, now so thronged as at times to threaten the
stoppage of all business.
Before quitting this part of the subject, I will claim
your attention for one moment to another road improve-
ment cot sequent upon the using of a portion of the
Regent's Canal for railway purposes that of converting
Sir George Ducket's Canal, which bounds the Victoria
Park on the eastern side, into a public road, carrying
the same across the marsh land to the stations of the
Eastern Counties and Northern and Eastern Railways at
Stratford.
Such a road would greatly relieve the traffic of the
City and White-chapel; and if, from the junction of Sir
G. Ducket's Canal with the Regent's Canal, a line of
street were to be formed to meet the Betlinal-greeto
road, end from the end of that road in Shoreditch an-
other line of road were to be made to meet the City road
a little beyond the turnpike-gate, the drive from the
West-eed to the Victoria Park, and thence to the stile
ions at Stratford, greatly relieve the thronging of the
City, and would add greatly to the public convenience,
and alto very considerably enhance the value of the laud
in and near to the Victoria Park for building purposes;
and, should the proposed site for the London Railway
Terminus be adopted, I have no doubt whatever that
much of the money paid for houses to be taken down to
make the terminus would be laid out in the purchasing
and building of other houses in and near to the Victoria
Park.

The end of the new street, in continuation betweiel
Spitalfielde Church and the present terminus of the East
I ern Counties Railway, is intended to be carried for ward
by the Commissioners of Woods, who will also continue
the Commercial Read in a direct line to meet the new
line of street in Whitechaeel, now made from Spitelfieles
Church to the Docks.
One other most material object connected with the
pr4esed railway tei minus is the removal of the market
from Smithfield, to the site tinted green, lying between
the new street last referrtd to and the Coln tnercial-
road, Cannon-street-road, end the B:atlewell railway ;
the houses are smaller and in a worse state than those on
the site proposed for the London terminus, and therefore
less expensive to clear.
That nearly all the cattle coming from the country
will be sent by railway to market cannot be doubted,
when it is considered, es the feet is, that the cost of
driving-, maintenance on the road, and the want of con-
dition upon arrival, frequently prejudices beasts from ten
to fifteen per cent., and snoop from seven to ten per cent.;
whereas if a convenient situation for a market close to
the terminus can be obtainer, and it is seen at how many
places on the lines surrounding London cattle may be
delivered at or near to the purchasers, it is impossible to
doubt that such a situation would be far preferable to
Smithfield, great as the prejudice may be in its favour
from old associations. But we live in new times, and he
who is not prepared to go along with them is sure to be
left behind ; old prejudices must give way to the new
order of things ; which leads me to further suggest that
the site coloured blue should be purchased and cleared
for occasionally stowing away unsold cattle, and for an
abattoir for the slaughtering of such beasts, sheep, &c.,
as the purchasers may feel it their interest to remove in
dead meat, instead of driving them through the streets
alive.

I hare not forgotten that it may also be desirable to
provide a dead-meat market instead of the present
hutchers' shops in Aldgate and Whitechapel High-
street, and also a hay and straw market, now most in-
conveniently held in the open street. For all these pur-
poses I believe the spaces in question will be found suffi-
cient; and when it is considered how near to the centre
of London the proposed sites are, and the ease with
which they may be approached, I doubt if such another
could anywhere be found.
Nor must it be forgotten that the opening of comma-
nic3tion for carriages with 'Themes street and Great
I'o7;er-street and the %dories, the proposed terminus
aril the docks across Tower-hill would be attended with
the greatest Lnelit h, comm,rcial intercourse, and
would prejudice the interest of no' one.
The site of the prcs“ nt Smithfield market would

form admirably in:o a dead meat market, and the
sheep and pig market would form a general market for
all other articles, in substitution for Newgate market,
now so cramped for room, and the approaches to which
are so narrow and inconvenient as to greatly interfere
with persons passing along Newgate-street to and from
the city.
As regards the sewerage that would be intercepted at
the sides of the proposed railway, I propose that a sewer
of the first class shall be sunk in the middle of the rail-
way space between Kingsland-bridge and the docks, axd
thence carriel to the nearest sewer, at a lower level
leading to the Thames, unless in the meantime an oppor-
tunity shall offer for carrying into effect the pletn (le-
scribed in my evidence before the health of Towns' COlll-
- for the conveyance of the sewage of the greater
part of London into the marshes below Woolwich, for
consolidation and sale, and otherwise to be used to pro.
mote agricultural production.
When the railway mania has somewhat abated, it-is
reasonable to expect that surplus. capital will find vent in
air.? improvement of. the soil ; and in no way could it be
the same towards the
better appli, d than in removing the sewage of towns and
, and
enormously increasing
ann'tngd whether the prod! e
od, which
to require,
is sure always to be in demand at
pricesppberP( u
populationir uloctauteiiseed(viii ssosiofsrirnfrtoensregulated
As regards the sewerage of Pimlico, so much needed,
particularly in the neighbourhood of the palace, the
direction of the proposed Queen's road would materially
facilitate that object ; whether the sewerage be carried
to the Thain,.s direct, or to reservoirs, to meet the ob-
jects of the sewage company, whose Bill is now before
Parliament,
roust depend upon circumstances ; but, at
g.eater imprevement can be made in Pim-
lico than that of thorough drainage.
all
events,

Adverting once more to the proposed cutting through
Bethnal green, Spitalfields,and AA t, ; , 1 ;
it ;
..'...teenapei, is inn—
possible
the neignbourhood of the proposed line, from
possible to conceive the amount of disease and wretch-
ednessnerally among the poor weavers and the inhabitants ge-
the miserable state of their dwellings and want of stifii-
' eient draining. A first class sewer• along the line of the
propose] cutting would remove the existing- evil as re-
gards drainage, and the removal of the poor inhabitants
erected on the improved principles
from the tenements that would be regain d for the rail-
:'Te:hseheLzhourers' Friend Society," on sites
of which there are plenty near,
iwawn.d:tou)tp,li,idte:tdos
of
cyoe
itself,tt,pa,
be worthy of any Christian commu-
nity, independently of the object proposed to be accom-
plished by their removal.
[The above is interesting, as describing a great num-
ber of proposed improvements in various parts of the
metropolis. It is printed in the Appendix to the above-
mentioned report.)

THII EXTENSIVE CROWN IMPROVEMENTS AT
WINDSOR.—In cons: pence of the very extensive altera-
tions contemplated by the Crown in the immediate
vicinity of the Castle, for the purposes of affording in-
creased comfort and privacy to her Majesty, by taking
down the whole side of one street in the town, and di
verting and stopping up other streets, and also footpaths
and other public highways, as well as the removal of
Datchet bridge, a c mamittee
was appointed at the last
meeting of the Town Council of Windsor in December,
for the purpose of watching the proceedings with refer-
ence to those projects, and to report from time to time
to the council. A. very full meeting of the council was
held on Fri'ay, at the Town fall, for the purpose of re-
ceiving the report from the committee. The report
stated in detail the alterations proposed to be made by
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and also
those that would be effected by the proposed railway
extensions, but the committee abstained from giving any
opinion as to the manner in which tho alterations would
affect the interests of the town. The report was re-
ceived, and a committee of the whole council was ap-
pointed for protecting the interests of the inhabitants,
with refh.
erence to the projected improvements of the
g
ROSSINI'S PASTICCIO 'ROBERT BnucE.—We have
received a long account of the second performance, with
an analysis of the music,
in which every piece is traced
to its source; but the annexed, extracts from a well
written not'ce in Gulignani, will suffice:—
dsuccessird
"The long-talk of rifacciamento has been now twice
performed, and whatever hopes might have been ent, r
tamedt
ari ing of
the its
a
occasion—they
when,elf?Xel
:rnly the
scenefir sh
t wieh took representation
place
n that
—notwith-
standing wiiti ha -
st
listened to with the unfortunatelycailui coinagimer4aoftfeßr tohbet;eicßertiudehe,eiatrwintgis,
most placid attention. Whatever be
the merits of the original music when heard in its ap-
propriate opera, even the greatest worshipper of Rossini
cannot but admit that detached airs from La Donna del
Lugo, Zelmiro, Bianca e Fuliero, Armidu, &c., make
*hen united, a mass of splendid incongruities, reson-
bling the glittering patchwork of a harlequin's jacket.
The piece was performed for the second time on Mmday
night ; there was no renewal of the attempts on the
part of the hired applauders to obtrude themselves on
the public, and consequently the piece went off quify,
far too quietly indeed ta allow the least hope of its eve:
becoming popular or attractive."