The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-11

nest of buildings and. today it is lined
| with structures that are credit to the
| greatest city In the world.
If Dr. Johnson had come to life again
| 20 years ago and had taken his fayorite
| walk down Fleet street he would have
| felt quite at home. Most of the build
| ings then were the same as those which
| he saw daily he walked out from his
| house in Cough square. Today there Is
| a new Fleet street The home of news
| paperdom,- which is also part of the main
traffic artery from the city to the West
End. is being widened to suit the new
| traffic conditions and one whole site has
| been or Is being rebuilt
| Similarly, 20 years ago, If King Charles
| | had walked down Whitehall he would
| have noticed no great change from the
scene on which he gazed on the morning
| of his execution. Now the old courtiers'
residences are gone and Whitehall is
street of magnificent government build
| ings
| All this, however, is only the begin
ming of the great changes which are now
| being planned by the traffic branch o.
| the board of trade, special department
| to which has been entrusted the work
| of Hausmannizing London. 1t is working
| hard to change the face of the great town
and above all to make ii more conven-
| lent place to live in and to get about.
| The great trouble with London is that
| 1t never was planned. Like Topsy, it
! Just growed." 1t was built not by al.
autocrat on an intelligent scheme. but
| by thousands of builders, each with an
eye only to his own immediate prof.
| First of ALL of course, there is the Old
| city in which one would expect to find
| crooked, narrow streets and blind al
leys Then there is the ring of boroughs
round it comprising what is commonly
| known as central London then the
1 or 1inp nf I don cid do Nc
! again ring of Independent towns and
boroughs which are physically as much
| part of London as the city itself. for
there is no break in the building. few
weeks ago | motored across London, as
| nearly in direct line possible from
! north to south. and I found no break in
the built-over area for 26 miles. There
| is at least an equal distance of bricks and
mortar from east to west.
Now this great mass of houses grew
up without any plan. Hamlets surround
ing the city became villages, villages be-
came suburbs and gradually the dividing
4 line was built over Village and town
grew into village and town, each laying
out its streets and roads in its own way
and without reference to any other plan.
| Is ii to be wondered at then that there
are no straight, wide roads, suitable for
modern. traffic crossing London in any
| direction?
1
railway service illustrates the situation
better than anything else The Lon Ion
| county council. which governs central
| London and the outer ring has an ex-
cellent street car system and at the outer
ends all the lines join up either with the
lines of private companies or other mu-
nicipal lines serving the outside area. In
many cases arrangements are made by
which the London county council cars rUa
over tile companes lines and vice versa
! so that one can ride, say from Enfield in
| the north to Holborn in the center of Lon
| don. distance of about is miles, with
out changing cars. But az Holborn one
must get out and If one wants to con-
| tinue the journey to South London ore
| must walk or take an omnibus or cab
] to the other side of the Thames, a mile
| away. before one can board another street
car
The reason for this is that the trans
| are not allowed to cross the old city The
medieval city corporation has been
abused for refusing them this privilege.
/ but it could do nothing else for the rea-
son that the streets of the city are too
| narrow and congested to admit of street
| railway traffic, and moreover there IS
not a single street running straight
| through from north to south or from
| east to west
| On the outskirts of London the same
condition is to be found. The main road
! from London to Bath and the west of
! England passes through the town of
| Brentford, which physically is part of
| London, and at the entrance to the
Brentford High street is what is known
4 as the bottle neck a narrow stretch
| of street a couple of hundred Yards long
! in which two vehicles can pass each other
| only with the greatest difficulty and care
to avoid collision. For miles the road is
too narrow for safety under modern traf-
J flo, ut los ic 10,
come for the traffic board has under
taken at cost of over S5000,Oo0 the con-
struction of a wide bypass road from
Kew to Bedford. avoiding Brentford al
together.
Another of the improvements planned
is the construction of wide avenue
across London from Paddington station, !,
to Bethnal Green. Existing thorough
fares win be utilized and little reconstruc-
| ton will be needed. This will be joined
at Paddington by entirely new road
running right away to oxford and at
Bethnal Green by another new road which
Will join the Colchester road to the east
of Romford. These new roads will be
linked by another new semicircle road
sweeping round to the north of London
50 that travellers who wish to avoid Lon
don traffic altogether can do so at the
expense of a few extra miles.
A similar thoroughfare from north te
south has been planned, utilizing existing
streets In the center of London as much
as possible and joining them up wherever
necessary. A new section, however is to
be built from Stoke Newington to join
the Cambridge road at Chestnut and on
the south side new section will start
from Southwark and join the Tonbridge
road at Lewisham.
Many other short sections are planned
70 loin up and straighten out exstir,g .
roads,,
All this. of course. will cost many mil
lions and.r.rat,rally. cannot be ACCOM-
plished quickly The only work actually