The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-16 00:00:00

BATTERSEA-FIELDS.

The fifth report (to the Queen's most excellent Majesty) of
the Commissioners appointed by warrant, bearing date the
23d November, 1842, " to inquire into and consider the most
effectual means of improving the metropolis, and of providing
increased facilities of communication within the same."

In the year 1343, in connexion with the inquiriesinsti-
tuted by this Commission into the practicability of an em-
bankment of the north side of the Thames between Batter-
sea and Vauxhall-bridges, the attention of your Majesty's
Commissioners was very earnestly directed to the expediency
of purchasing and appropriating to the purposes of a public
park a portion of the large and yet unoccupied space known
as Battersea-fields, on the south or Surrey side of the river.
The course, however, which your Majesty's Commissioners
bad prescribed to themselves imposed upon them the duty of
disposing, in the first place, of those measures which had
either in themselves been recommended by Select Com-
mittees of the House of Commons, or had in principle, re-
ceived the sanction of Parliament, or of those which, as in
the case of the embankment already adverted to, involved
the expediency of making the interests of individual pro-
prietors instrumental in promoting objects of great public
importance as regards the convenience, the health, and the
recreation of the inhabitants of the metropolis, and in respect
to which any delay might tend to endanger such chances of
their accomplishment as the conjoint application of private
contributions and public funds might present.
The proposed improvement in Battersea-fields was not
urged as a measnre which fell under any of the conditions.
The principle of securing open spaces for the public is, indeed,
so sound in itself, and so important in its bearings, that your
Majesty's Commissioners could not fail to acknowledge it ;
but, with the mass of evidence before them showing the de-
fective condition, in other most essential particulars of many
portions of the town, your Majesty's Commissioners would
hare felt great difficulty in giving practical encouragement to
the subject of this report, except under the peculiar circum-
stances which now appear to them to render the project de-
serving of the early consideration of your Majesty's Govern-
ment and of Parliament.

The appropriation of Battersea-fields, originally urged
upon this Commission by Mr. Thomas Cubitt (in his evidence
delivered before the COmMissioners in 1843), was subse-
quently pressed upon its attention by the Hon. and Rev.
Robert Eden, as vicar of Battersea. And though the opinions
of these gentlemen were found to differ widely in respect to
the expense of such a project as originally proposed, and as
to the many requisite details, yet they were strongly concur-
rent not only as to the objectionable purposes to which, in its
present state, the locality is made available, but also as to all.
the considerations which bore upon the expediency of con-
verting it into a place of healthful and well -regulated resort,
and of securing for the public a site in which unusual facili-
ties are afforded-for the recreation of all classes.
Your Majesty's Commissioners obtained from these parties,
in evidence, all that could reasonably be expected from them.
The estimates of Mr. Eden were submitted to them without
any pretensions to professional accuracy; and the testimony
of Mr. Cubitt was unaccompanied by plans or general esti-
mates of any kind, it being understood that Mr. Cubitt's re-
commendation of the proposed improvement was offered on
public grounds alone, and not. in his capacity of builder, or of
one in any way disposed to mix himself up in its execution
as matter of pecuniary gain or speculation.
Your Majesty's Commissioners, however, found enough
in this evidence to justify them in making the project of a
park at Battersea the subject of further investigation, and
they accordingly instructed their professional officer,
-Pennethorne, in communication with the gentleman already
named, to examine carefully the locality, to inform himself
of the greatest extent of ground advantageously available for
the purpose, the various tenures to which it was held sub-
ject, and the prices at which any portions of it had been
recently sold ; and to lay before them a plan and estimate,
showing the result of these inquiries, and the mode it which '
the site proposed might be most profitably and beneficially
appropriated.
The result of these proceedings was to bring. under the
consideration of your Majesty's Commissioners, in the first
instance, three plans, viz., that of Mr. Eden, embracing a
site of 313 acres ; a plan of Mr. Pennethorne, comprising 179
acres; and a plan designed to represent the principle of a
terrace only, by the river side, comprising an area of not more
than 96 acres. Each of these plans occupied an equal, or
very nearly equal, frontage to the river.
Upon a careful examination of these, with reference to the
mode of appropriation which each would best admit of, Mr.
Pennethorne was of opinion that the ultimate cost to the
public of the first plan would be about 52,000/. ; of the
second, 30,000/. ; and of the third, 26,000/. The saving in
the last two of these cases being, in fact, effected by a cor-
respondingn ion of this
c sacrificeom issoifo
nthose u
laddva giveiitatgo advantages
the
project
w ,in the oei-_
its chief

recommendation as a public measure.
Your Majesty's Coinrnissionels, however, think it sight to
state that, even if it could have been effected without the
sacrifice of any of these advantages, they should have hesi-
tated in the present state of their proceedings, and under the
circumstances to which they have already adverted, to re-
commend the formation of a park at Battersea, with the pros.
pect of an ultimate loss to the public even of the smallest
of the sums above mentioned. •

It only remained, therefore, for your Majesty's Commis-
sioners to consider whether any measures were in progress,
or could be usefully devised, in connexion with the appro-
priation of the ground at Battersea to the purposes of a park,
which might deserve encouragement from your Majesty's
Government, and which, while it should involve no addition
4o the ultimate cost of acquiring the requisite site, would
nevertheless, have its influence upon the value of such por-
tions as should be subsequently appropriated to building
purposes, and afford, either to the public or to private
speculators, the prospect of an adequate return for their
money.
Your Majesty's Commissioners have adverted, in the se-
cond of their reports, to a project (promoted by a public
company) connected with the proposed embankment between
Battersea and Vauxhall, for constructing a bridge across
the Thames, in continuation of the extension of Sloane-
street to the river side. They requested the attention of
Mr. Bird, the engineer to the company, and they examined
him to an extent sufficient for alt the purposes of this in-
quiry. From the evidence of Mr. Bird, it appears that the
promoters of this measure have no Bill before Parliament;
that the estimates are based upon the assumption that the
embankment will be first completed; and that the proceed-
ings of the Company are, in fact, dependent very much upon
the proceedings of that improvement.
As the estimates of Mr. Pennethorne, in the first instance,
had been made irrespectively of any such communication
between the Surrey and Middlesex shores of the river, your
Majesty's Commissioners instructed him to revise them, as-
suming such a communication—either as matter of private
and separate speculation, or as part uf the measure imme-
diately under their consideration—to be completed, and the
land-to be brought. into immediate contiguity with the ex •
tensiva and highly valuable portions of the town formed of
late years wcst of Hyde- park-corner. _ _

In pursuance of these instructions, Mr. Pennethorne pre-
pared and laid before this Commission the • plan which ac-
companies this report, comprising in the whole an area of 320
acres; and the result of a revision of his estimates upon the
basis of the erection of a bridge (but exclusively of the cost
of embauking the river) exhibited a probable outlay in pur-
chasing and laying out the ground for the park, of 154,250/.,
and a probable return for this expenditure of 179,2501., inak7
ing a balance in favour of the undertaking of about 25,000/
We think it right to state, however, that an etnbanke ntof
the frontage to the river would appear.to be au essential
fea-
ture of this plan, and that the cost of such embanonent
~
would absorb the large portion of that- balance.
In m
this Comp
In pursuance, also, of instructions receiviersein
employed on the
mission, Mr. Page, who,
embankment recommendaesdci:;iii
thninissioners designs and
laid . before her Majesty's
nsC°of bridge, to form the .com- -
tenejleteers'ea side of the liver, •
estimates ,of three desecripti
one of brick, having seven, arches.
munication between
point already referred
tho_Mid.elesex and Surrey shores, at the
and being. 42 feet in width,
piers
pthercost
brick,
fwhich he estimated at
50,000/. ; one of timber, of having five archeer