GROWING UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 252, 24 October 1932, Page 8

GROWING UP.

LONDON'S BUILDINGS. NO SKYSCRAPERS. HUNDRED-FOOT LIMIT. (By NELLE M. SCANLAN.) LONDON, September 10,

London takes a lot of persuasion to convert it. If it lags behind in some things, it has, however, little cause to regret rash experiments, particularly in the way of buildings. For long, 80ft was the maximum height a London building might rear its head. In a few very special cases, a dispensation from this rule was made. People sometimes wonder

why there is so much accommodation underground, so many basements and sub-basement floors. Here, partly, is the reason. The height is reckoned from the ground up. London and New York. Recently the London County Council conceded that extra 20ft for which architects and others have so long been pressing. But no skyscrapers. _ A grudging 20ft. At present I believe Broadway House, the new home of the Loudon Underground Group in St. James' (with the controversial Epstein figures) is the.tallest, its tower reaching 180 ft. New York's loftiest is 1245 ft. When Swan and Edgar rebuilt then premises on Piccadilly Circus 6ome years ago, the London County Council passed the plans for 120 ft in height, but when it was finished they refused to permit the top floor to be occupied. Fear of fire has been the great cause of this limitation. But with the introduction of steel-framed buildings, and the improvement of fire brigade appliances, there is less cause for apprehension. Other

buildings, anticipating a removal of the embargo in the near future, have erected buildings above the prescribed limit, but they have not been allowed to utilise the upper floors. Now they may be brought into immediate occupation. It will be a great boon to hotels, the relaxation permitting another one or two floors for bedrooms. Effect on Traffic. Piling up great buildings, storey upon storey, and emptying them simultaneously at the close of day, would add tremendously to the already severe congestion of traffic, in evacuating the city at five and six o'clock. Mr. Frank Pick, managing director of the London Underground Traffic Group, commenting on the granting of this extra 20ft, says it has taken so long to get this concession, it will be endless ages before they are per mitted to make it 120 ft. Beyond that, he does not think it would be economically sound. Mr. Frank Pick was a fellow-traveller in Russia with me last year, and it was to him I was indebted for the photographs I used to illustrate my articles. A quiet, almost indolent manner, disguises one of the keenest and most progressive minds in London to day. He never returns home empty handed. Unostentatiously, without fuss, his observant eye sees and not?s any fresh idea or improved system; even a foreign wayside station may supply the germ of an idea that might profitably be developed. A week ago the new Unilever Building at Blackfriars was opened by the Lord Mayor of London. This is the home of Soap—Lever's soap. It is an imposing building, standing on the bank of the Thames at Blackfriars Bridge, where Henry VIII. built the Palace of Bridwell. After he had ceased to occupy the palace, it finally became a house of correction for vagrants and beggars. Soon the Shell-Mex building, which has a larger clock than Big Ben, will be completed. It occupies the site of the old Hotel Cecil on the Strand. There are two miles of corridors in this vast block, which will be the headquarters of the oil organisation which trades under this brand. But there will also be rooms to let. This, too, has an imposing frontage to the Thames. Indeed, the river has been receiving more than usual attention and not only have magnificent business buildings been springing up alongside its banks, but the other day the King opened Lambeth Bridge. Times may be hard, but we do seem to get a little Job of work done in London.