The Thames Quay.
The Times, 1824-12-25T00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIIEI Sir,-From the interest wlhidc you take in exposing public abuses and delusions, I shall make no apology for drawing your attention to t project whici combines both characters in a very remarkable degree_I ullude to Colonel's Trench's plan for a quay along the Thames-a plan which I pronGunce, and will prove to be, good fbr nothing, but to put money into the pockets of the projector and his architects, and to empty those of the subscribers, threatening great 1 physical injury, worthless as to all purposes of public pleasure or advantage, as it is hazardous to very im-portant public and personal interests, and in fact a mere bubble. This plan in detail is, to build a series of terraces picrced with arches_in fact, a series of bridees-along the river from Whitehall- place to Londlon-bridge, fromr. 25 to 100 feet wide, not running along i the bank, but in general projecting into the channel of the river; and thus covering over, shutting up, or extinguiishing the whole line of wharfs, landing-places, and warehouses, &c., included between thebextremities of this sweeping plan. I shall give the promiaed results in the Colonel's own words Ist. The improvemcnt of the navigation of the Thames, com- bined with inmportant commercial a4vantages." Now, Sir, who comnplains that the river is not at this moment adequate to all its required purnoses. It conveys coal-ligliters and country craft; ventilates the citv, and carries offtlie streams of the sewers; merchantmen and ships of war are, I suppose, not within | the Colonel's contemplation, .t least while the bridges stand. The trAffic requires a current easily stemrnmed, and banks soft1 shallow, and secure from sudden changes of the tide. But the Colonel actnally proposes to project, in thefirst instance, his 100 feet terrace into the bed of the river,-nay, with the declared oblect of making it is a scourer:" thus not merely destroving the beauty of' the fine reach above Waterloo-bTidge, but creating a vio- lent and dangerous rapid. opposed to the comning up of the small craft for 12 hours of the 24, hiztrding the safety of the bridges at every tide, and turning every accidenral fresh of the river into on inundation on the Surrey side. "2dly. Free and rapid communication between the two extremities of the metropolis, and with the intermediate points upon the whole lhne." Here, I ask,have we not already free and rapid communication by a series of streets close hy,parallel to the river along the wholeline; and that series of streets forming an avenue by much the richest, the handsomest, and involving the largest share of property in ground and houses of any similar cxtent in the empire, or in the world ? If the Colonel should add to his plan the extinction of the Strand, Fleet-street, Cheapside, andl Cornhill his terrace may be useful as a thoroughfare, and not till then; yet if it be not employed as such, where will be its remuneration to the luckless subscribers ? "3dly. Profit," which is to be B per cent, on the whole ontlav.WVill it be believed that the Colonel's ealcoliction for the building of this terrace, or continued bridge, more than two miles long, with all its gates, sluices, ant connecting avenues, footways, and carriage- ways, balustrales, architectural orTnaments, &c., is to be no more than 611,0001. ! ! ! And this ridiculous estirnate for a causeway, on which not a dozen people may walk in a year, is miade, with 'Waterloo-bridge staring him in the face, costing, though not a fifth of the extent, nearly one mnillion and a half; and though leading to a populous district, and necessarily crossed by a consider- able number daily, yet producing the handsome interest of one per cent. " 4thly. Public ornament, and recreation for the citizens." This is scarcelyless absurd than the 611,0001.! From what ooint is this terrace to be seen by the citizens ? From the backs of the houses in the Strand, Fleet-street, &c. ? Whsat is to be seen from it ? Why, by happy reciprocation, the backs of the houses in the Strand, Fleet-street, &c., with (when the day is sufficiently clear) o. landscape of the yards, wharfs, manufactories, and the general rude, black, and ruinous buildings alons the Surrey side. So much for the ornament. Nowv for the recreation. In sumrmer, the citizens take their recreatiorn in the country, or ina the Par's, where they see verdure and the well-dressed vworld. A Dutebc man might prefer broiling himself on a stone terrace in the sulleni sunshine and eternal smoke of a city. An Englisharnn's tastes are of a better descriptidn, and he will not roast beside a canal while he can find a green field. In winter, who would thitik of promenaditig along the channel of a great, hazy, agfe-giving river, covered over with the exhalations of a host of forges, steam.engines, and manu- factories? Who walks on the handsome terrace of Somerset- house? or, is it not notorious that the value of houses in the neighbourhood of the river is regularly decreasing, with the in- erease of the miepliitic vapours froni the crowd of manufactories on both sides of the river ? Thus mntich for the folly of the scheme. Now for the inJustice. The projector has actually the flrmness to declare, that for blocking up, shutting in, &c., the wharfs aned other property, which, even in the first division fromn Whitehall-place to I aterlom-bridze, involves the ruin of propert) armounting to little less thian 20,0001. a ycar, no coiimpensation wiU be given; and on what plea ? Why, that the terrace is to be built in the hed of' the river, and that the bed of the river is the property of the King ! Thus, Sir, rights, acknow- ledged by a title of 500 years, are to be broken up at the will of this Colonel and protector, aeal honest men are to be driven cither to courts of lair or to ruin: for the mneagre promise of consulting their interests by converting their open whar's and landing places into arched dens, where their people could have neither roosn nor li:ght, is little better than an insult, ut it wonld,undcGbtedlv, be an illosion. To say that thc proprietors have been satisfid, is mkn extret-ne mis- conception. How is it possible that they sliouli see this giddi1y anid iznorant intrusion without a dc-tcrrminatiun to expose and resist it ? But the immediate proprietors on the river arc not the only persons interested. Such is thie feverish delicacy of property, that the lav- ing of the first stone of these short cuts will lower the value of every tenement, of everv part of ground, and( of every shopkeeper's business from Charing-cross to Cornhill. I omit a multitudlc of minor objections, anl leave the extinction of this absurd, fallacious,and hazardlouI project to the goodt sense of my fellow-citizrns, and'tle justice and power of the consttntted an. thiorities. I have the honeur to be, Sir, your obedient servant, Civis. THE THA MES QUAY.