A MODERN METROPOLIS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3464, 7 April 1930, Page 7

A MODERN METROPOLIS.

SKYSCRAPERS IX “OLD MADRID ’’

To come to Madrid again alter a period of a few years is to return to a city of surprises, writes George Kenwick, special correspondent of the Daily Chronicle (London). The chief of these is to find that Spain’s capital is rapidly cultivating a New York sky-line, that it has acquired the skyscraper outlook. That dreamy “old Madrid” of song and story is fast disappearing, and before very long the city will be a hustling, modern merropolis with a distinct American appearance ami manner. Few people outside tins country are aware that Madrid has already achieved a formidable lead in skyscrapers, a lead which it is likely to retain for a considerable time. 'This is. indeed, Europe’& skyscraper city. Mere, for example, we have Europe's highest commercial building, the Continent’s chief “cloud scratcher,” as the Germans term these towering edifices. It is just 292 feet high, and when one sees it for the first time one’s first thought is that it is curious that it should not be in London or Paris or Berlin, but bore by the trickling Manza mires. This vast and handsome building is one ol' the most striking indications of the new spirit in Spain, of the energy which Spaniards are now putting into the day's work. The traditional land of “manana ’ (to-moiiTow) is becoming very much the land of “do if now.” The building is the head office of the National Telephone Company of Spain, a concern which was iormed in ,1924. Regun In October. 192(5, the skyscraper was ready for occupation early in 1929. The cost of what is certainly one of the most up-to-date commercial buildings in the whole world was nearly £750,000, and while it was going up and iip, the company was busy reforming the whole telephone service ol the country. Then, early this year, as it were, Spain awoke to find herself in possession ol the world s best telephone system. Up to only live years ago, the country had a telephone system ol: perfectly wonderful inefficiency, ami, really, ol only historic interest. The Government had granted private monopolies in various parts ol the country, with the proviso that the concessions should revert to it at tiie end of a short period of years. Thus, the Government fondly 1 bought, a telephone system would lull into its la]) for nothing when that time had] expired. It was when contusion was at its worst that the National Telephone Company of Spain—a group of Spanish bankers working with the International Telephone ami Telegraph Corporation —obtained a concession from the Government to provide the country with a real, live, system. hi live short years it has done s" Now. the telephone service in Spain is bevond- doubt the finest in the whole world. As an example ol the work done it is only necessary to say that every city and every large town has an automatic installation, giving a prompt and efficient, a 100 per cent, ser/.'ce Over 03 per cent of the subscribers arc on automatic exchanges, a proportion about 20 per cent higher than is the case even in'the United States. Rut to return to tbei skyscrapers >->. Madrid. That of the National JtJenhoiie Company bus lifts running up to the 13 th floor, and above that then.- is the equivalent of five more, making Lin all. It is not, however, the only one in the city. American co-oprv.tion is not the oniv influence 1 Mon is cliangmg the race of Madrid. Emm holme ihe N.T.C. *broke the skyscraper record Bn Europe, the Spaniard himself has I ecu busy. , Nearly all the newest buildings here, mid tbev are many, are remarkable lor (heir height and for ibe! modernity ol their style of architecture. That ol the \ssociation of 1h t . Press is Europe s second highest skyscraper; it towers just olio Hour less in height than tue xTs "s edifice. 'Then there is the Ki ni . Arts Club, an extraordinarily elI’oclj ve piece of architecture. It is 1 believe, entitled to rank third in the To look over old and red tiled Madrid IV,im the lop of one of its skyscrapers j s to bo struck, first and foremost, by the fact that the skyscraper has become fashionable, and that in a city which low people abroad credit with extreme modernitv. in all directions, towering ljuil,liters' are in course of construction, ami Hie whole aspect of .Madrid wii soon ho radically changed. Die duel street*, 100. are being widened to carry an ever-increasing How of motor car tistdic. At the h'nsy hours of the day. thero 'i>. I think, not a very great deal Ol dilference between the amount of t,•;,(]■„ in lb,* principal thoroughfares here and in Paris. What is true of Madrid is true ol other Spanish cities. The old time inert ia is rapidly going, and everywhere Mil, .re is abundant evidence that ibe I counlrv is iMfiUinjT u 1 iviiiuiidoiis «hh.l I Mii-eessfill effort to reach high rank nig the business nations <4 F.uropc. This c a fact which British trade and industry should not ignore. II nndonl.lcdlv opens up a big field for the expansion ot one activities in a land v. hero 1 lie i c is a very friondK prejudice in our lav, if.