RING OUT THE OLD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1929, Page 28

RING OUT THE OLD

EEBTJILDING LONDON

CHANGES TAKING PLACE

The disappearance of Victorian London is proceeding apace. Not only have well-known landmarks like Regent street and the Strand undergone, in the last few years, a chango almost as remarkable as that of which Ariel sang, but the famous mansions of the last century have either already given way to modem mansion flats like Devonshire House in Piccadilly and Grosvenor House in Park lane, or are about to be converted into giant hotels like Dorchester House, next door to the lat ter, or, like Spencer House in St. James's place, and Harrington House in Westminster, havo been modernised and transformed into clubs, telephone exchanges, and what not, states the "Christian Science Monitor" in an editorial. SKY LINE CHANGING. The Mansion House, it is true, has escaped demolition for the time being, for the proposal, recently mooted, to remove it to. a less congested area within the confines of the city has been rejected by the Lord Mayor' and the City Corporation; but, opposite it, the Bank of England is rising to undream-ed-of heights and dwarfing its old grimy and forbidding exterior, while, as if fearful to be left- behind by its "Old Lady," Threadneedle street is daily shedding its hoardings and revealing new wonders of masonry, sparing nothing, it appears, in its appetite for renewal, not even the old city churches. And in all this change, London's sky line, architects point out to those who have the inclination to admire such things, is also changing so rapidly that before the Londoner has time to accustom himself to the altitudes, still newer ones spring into view, obliterating spires, cupolas, and beloved chimney stacks. ■ •

An extremely important step toward the transformation of present-day London has been taken by the civic authorities and the' directors of the Southern Railway Company, who have just come to an agreement to remove Charing Cross Station from its present central position in the Strand to the south bank of the Thames. This latest scheme, which has taken three years to evolve, and which is calculated to take twelvo to complete, provides, in addition to an elevated railway station, for the construction of a new bridge for.road traffic, which will replace both the present unsightly railway bridge and Waterloo Bridge. But, apart from the disappearance of these two old bridges, the new Chafing Cross Station will be instrumental in removing a considerable section of the overcrowded slum area on the southern part of the Thames, and in the erection, in i,ts place, of an up-to-date hotel, an embankment promenade and gardens. It will, above all, greatly relieve the crossriver traffic, one of the-most troublesome problems of London streets by permitting the construction of a wide bridge across, and the widening of the streets on the two sides of the Thames. AN IMPORTANT FEATURE. But what gives this latest change so different a character from tho probably no less drastic changes of Victorian London is the anxiety manifested in official circles not to subordinate artistic values to utilitarian motives. Thus One of the clauses of the Charing Cross* agreement stipulates that the now station and other works on the now site in so far as they face the rivcv, "shall be generally in.keeping with the architectural sehemo for tho approach to Channg Cross Bridge, and shall not interfere Wl th the architectural amenities thereof." Tins, surely, is an important feature, not only of tho proposed new railway station, but of the wholo charSn^'wi-^ 0 rel)ujldh)e of "w^rn London, which goes far to redeem the perhaps quite justly deplored though equally inevitable disappearance of certain admirable architectural landmarks of past ages.