WILLIS STREET.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 761, 9 March 1910, Page 6

WILLIS STREET.

' ■ ■'. ' ' : *.'■'''■,"■''■■'.' ' )• .'. ■ PEOGEESS of: THE WIDENINC i /SCHEME. The scheme, of widening Willis Siet has now been under way for the !St part, of a. decade. The work has *m given' ah;.ihipetus lately'by the arrgenient come to with Messrs. J. Dnio and Co., which firm has lost no ine in hastening oh .'with the lopping cbl the front of. its extensive premises. Jne half, of the. building' has . already >een fitted with a hew front . elevation.and ■ tho other is "stripped for '■ the'" operipn, which points .to the whole /work afar ■'. completed in a week of two. In ctnec • tion with the setting back of Iters, Duthie and C'o.'s big shop front, t la interesting to ante that the old .wi<h of Willis Street (between the building hes) was 40ft. Gin;, and the setting, back akes this busy thoroughfare ten. feet wicr. .It has been urged that,the City. Oincu . should,; in view, of the .progress tat ia fieihg..made, proceed, more ;quickljwith. the setting iback 1 of those premisesrhieh . still' project to the old building .line. There !are. only two properties i;that. position between the lung's'Chmbers and: Morrah's' Building. These se .the City Council's ..own property : o the. northern side of Chews Lane, this twostory brick shops in one block/which were- acquired front the Jacob Joseph estate during the Hon. T. W. Eislop's regime as/Mayor., One is at'premt.imocciipied, arid the lease/of, the ajoinihg. oho was bought but from Mr; G.aobdall by the council'.some tiihe befofe'Chfistmas..:lt is understood'that the council is at. present considering the : 'of'going oh with that'work at.ace.. ■ ." The only other building, whia would then project—and. project alinct ;■.. grotesquely, as' it has a frontage' of; ess than 801't.— is:the council's own proper)', leased to; Messrs. Jones and Sshdown'tailors. The work of setting back the. font wall of this" building was !the subjet of a resolution in the council at its Ist meet-; ing,' but so' far no definite agretuent has been arrived at between thepaties concerned. It is really a. work thit should have' been arranged' to have teen dons simultaneously with the Duthie contract, : so that something approaching i uniform frontage would have resulted at the same time. When the buildings noted are dealt with, about two-thirds of Wilis Street will have been widened. The,next/step, will then bo to .'arrange witt. Messrs. Duthie and' Co. for the seltinj lwck.ol those suop-fronts between (and including] the premises of' Mr. Kicharil Briwn, bookseller and' stationer, and -Mr.. Headnall,' picture dealer. That will fake the widening up to Mercer Street, which : .will then;, it is calculated, attract a. good jical inort of the traffic i'ronV Willis Stre>t than il does at the present time, ifter.. that comes that lino of old shop properties, between' Cooper's hm building (which is-set-back) and the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel,'which, it appears, will only be dealt with when, hew buildings become necessary/■ a'.prospect, not very far dis-tant,-in some instances. In regard to tho premises occupied by Messrs. Jones and Ashdown,.'negotiations which'are. now in'progress'arc exnected to lead to such an adjustment of interests that, tho work setting back the frontage < can be shortly put.in hand.',