The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-04 00:00:00

GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY
TE R MIN US.
On Friday evening, Mr. Charles Pearson received
the Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Archi-
tects at a soiree for the purpose of exhibiting the
model, and explaining his plan for combining exten-
sive street improvements in the City and Finsbury
with a central terminus for the northern railroads in
Farringdon-street.
Mr. Donaldson, Mr. Barry, Mr. Fowler, Mr.
Knowles, Mr. I'Anson, Mr. Jennings, Mr. Bell,
and above 150 of the fellows and associates of the
Institute, were present. Th 3 model of the street
improvements, with the plans and sections of the
railway, were critically examined by the members,
and Mr. Pearson explained the principles of his pro-
ject; but as the principal topics of his discourse have
been placed before the public in former reports, it is
unnecessary to repeat them.
In answer to a question from Mr. I'Anson,
Mr. PEARSON said wholesale and not retail mar-
kets were in his contemplation in the scheme
proposed, although in all carcase markets oppor-
tunities were afforded for large consumers, hotel pro-
prietors, and others, besides butchers, to make their
purchases. The habits of trade and the conveni-
ence of the public rendered retail markets unneces-
sary, and they were passing away. Stocks Market,
on the site of the present Mansion-house—Honey-
lane Market, Fleet Market, all of . them retail
markets in the City, bad been abolished as use-
less ; and every street, except the leading streets in
the very focus of business, had now their butchers',
poulterers', and fishmongers' shops, as substitutes for
retail markets. Wholesale markets for the sale of
meat and poultry, and other perishable articles for
the provisioning this gigantic metropolis, ought to
be as near the centre as possible, provided they could
be supplied by means of cheap and expeditious rail-
way carriage. He had had this matter under his
serious consideration, and in the very room in which
be was then speaking the master and members of
the Butchers' Company, together with many of the
largest London meat salesmen, had examined the
model, and, having heard his explanations, had ex-
pressed their approbation of the plan and their readiness
to adopt the market, being convinced that the re
moval would be attended with equal advantages to
the grazier, the salesman, and the consumer of the
meat, resulting from the quick, certain, and economi-
cal carriage and delivery of the goods_ If Smithfield
cattle market, among the changings of this changing
world, were destined to be numbered among the
things that have been, and the bullocks were no longer
'o be brought to the butchers, the next best thing
would be to take the butchers to the bullocks. The
proposed railroad with cheap and frequenr trains run-
ning from the wholesale meat market in Farringdon
street to the cattle market on either of the great lines
north of the Thames, would do much to rem eve the
ill consequences that would otherwise result from the
removal of Smithfield-market. To Mr. I'Ansen's
question, as to the cost of the project, he should not
give so direct an answer. The corporation had re-
tained the services of Mr. James Walker, to report
upon the practicability and cost of the project in the
engineering department; and Mr. Higgins and the
City's architect, gentlemen no less eminent as surveyors
and valuers of property, had undertaken the responsi-
ble duty of estimating the value of the ground and
houses to be purchased, and the per contra money pro-
duce of the surplus ground to be disposed of, when
raised in value by the coutemplated improvements, to,
at least, the standard of the circumadjacent property.
Although he (Mr. Pearson) had grounds for confidently
believing he was in a situation to give a fair approxima-
tivo estimate of the entire cost of the undertaking, he
must be excused for waiting the result of the anticipated
report, without giving a more specific reply to Mr.
I'Anson's question.
Mr. FOWLER wished to be informed as to the proposed
mode of constructing the subway in which the rails were
to be laid. Had any provisions been made for light and
ventilation?
Mr. PEARSON produced another model showing the
construction of the sub and super ways upon a large
scale. He said that this was prepared some years ago at
his own instance, but under the immediate superinten-
dence of an eminent engineer and architect, who fur-
nished working drawings, from which an extensive
railway contractor had made an estimate and tender to
execute the works. The longitudinal openings shown
in this plan would be ample for all the pur-
poses of light and ventilation. At the time this
model was made an opinion pervaded the scientific
world that for short lines, at least, the atmospheric
principle would be found convenient and effec-
tive. The lamented death of Samuda, its talented pro-
jector, before all its means and appliances had been
perfected, had cast it upon the waters. It might not be
seen again in an available shape for many days ; but
while it was found practically working on the Dalkey
and Kingstown Railroad, which was as long or longer
than the proposed line, he should never despair of see-
ing it, or some other modification of the atmospheric
principle, successfully applied to short lines. The prac-
ticability and pre-eminent usefulness of his plan was not,
however, dependent upon an application of the atmos-
pheric motive power, and it need not wait the success-
ful solution of that engineering problem. Since the
meeting of engineers on the previous evening he
had received from the head of one of the largest
firms engaged in iron roofings, a design for constrcting
the railroad and the super and subway, with an estimate
and tender for effecting the whole work at little more
than one-half the estimate for the work rendered to him
some years since. By this plan the longitudinal aper-
tures shown in the footways would be covered on an
elevated iron framework by translucent glass half an inch
thick; and he had consulted his friend Dr. Reid, who
assured him there would not be the slightest difficulty,
if locomotives were used in maintaining, by mechanical
means, at a small cost, a perfect system of ventilation
tor the subway, and the removal of the unpleasant gas( s
which the engine might evolve.
Mr. JENNINGS remarked that no practical difficulty
would be experienced in ventilating the subway. The
tunnels of ordinary railroads were only one fourth the
tize of the proposed subway, and they wt re ventilated,
when of considerable length, by means of shafts at long
distanees from each other. Here it would be perfectly
easy to ventilate the subway by connecting it at intervals
with flues in the walls at the sides of the street.
Mr. FowLun observed that he had derived some satis-
faction from the inspection of the last model produced,
which showed one mode of constructing the railroad;
but the plan as a whole would require much more con-
sideration than could then be given to it. He concurred
to some extent in the remarks made by Mr. I'Anson
as to the difficulty of removing business from old-esta-
blished to nowly-construe ed markets. He bad had
great experience in such subjects, in the reconstruction
of both Covent-garden and Hungerford markets. The
former maintained its great superiority as a market for
fruit and vegetables, whereas the latter had been a com-
plete failure, notwithstanding the expenditure of enor-
mous sums of money to give it a fair chance against its
successful rival at Billingsgate.
Mr. PEARSON said there were peculiar circumstances
in that case, which would not be found in the proposed
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ample space, and a multitude of wide streets all round,
for the quick and easy ingress and egress of twice the
number of butchers that now frequented the existing
meat markets.
Mr. FOWLER replied he did not think that in this par-
ticular case much apprehension need be entertained is
respect of the removal of the market so short a distance
as was proposed, as,
Newgate Market being shut up,
the salesmen would transfer their business to the now
establishment.
Mr. HALT, a barrister, observed that his experience of
the tone and temper of Parliamentary Committees led
him to conclude that no system of street improvements
would receive their sanction unless founded upon a com-
prehensive view of the whole matter. The public would
give no countenance to petty peddling measures of local
improvement in the
present day. The magnitude and
magnificence of the plan before them would be its pass-
port to acceptance and success, if upon full exa-
mination it should appear that the returns would
justify the original outlay, which must necessa-
sarily be very large. Without professing any very
great acquaintance with the details of such subjects,
common sense and some knowledge of the wretched
locality with which this plan proposed to deal, led him,
however, to the conclusion that no partial attempt to im-
prove it would be successful, and that the only mode of
rendering the plan remunerative, as far as the recon-
struction of the streets was concerned, would be to make
a general clearance of the houses, if houses they were to
be called, which were spread over the length and
breadth of the entire valley.
Mr. PEARSON said his plan was founded upon the very
principles Mr. Hedy has just enunciated ; he further
stated thatthe gradients of both railway and street had
been adjusted so as to assist, instead of impeding the
intercepting sewers proposed by the Metropolitan Com-
mission; and if a general plan of arterial, drainage were
to be carried into execution, north of the Thames,
the ground to be' excavated for 'the purposes
of the intersecting the metropolis from the
highest ground in the northern suburb to the very level
of the Thames' might be rendered subservient to
,
that great ;et+ ct, and the main sewer in substitu-
tion of Fleet Ditch, which it proposed to carry by the
side of the railroads and ought to be so constructed as to
fall into one or other of .the grand interct pting s. were.
Mr. Pearson having,. further at considerable length de-
veloped theFadVanteges of his plan, said, the main street
under which it was intended' to carry the railroad, be-
sides sweeping away the pestilential abomination it
was intended to displacsesessould itself become a powerful
agent of sanitary improvement. It Mr. Bunke
had heard of a street ono hundred feet in witht
carrying the fresh air from the high lands nf
Hampstead, Highgate, and Finchley, in a direct
line to the centre of the city of London, so
would surely have classed it among the most powerful
and valuable organs of metropolitan respiration. The
street, it should be remembered, though perhaps the
widest, longest, and straightest in the kingdom, would
in all probability be both wider and straighter than was
represented in the map. It had been drawn wi h a
detour round the western wall of Celdhath-fields Pri-
son, while a straight line would have carried it right
through that establishment. He had been in-
duced to take this course because his experience had
led him to believe that if you really wanted to
buy anything, the best way to get it was to show you
could do without it. Having regard to the enhanced
value which tho proposed Improvement would impart to
all ground in that vicinity, he had no hesitation ie
saying it Would answer the purpose of parties ulador"