SHAVINGS

Evening Star, Issue 21284, 13 December 1932, Page 2

SHAVINGS

HOUSE BUILDING PROSPECTS. A Christchurch builder stated the other day that there was a distinct improvement in house building prospects at the present time, and that ninety-three dwellings were under construction in the city and suburbs. » ♦ • * LONDON CHURCH DEMOLITION. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council have affirmed a scheme for the union of the benefices of St. Mary the Virgin, Charing Cross Road, and St. Anne, Soho. Under the scheme the former church will bo demolished and its site, which has been valued at £65,000, will bo disposed of. * * • • AN URGENT PROBLEM. The provision of open space in London for the growing population is one of the most urgent of present-day problems. For an increase of 1,000,000 in population, about 7,000 acres, or nearly eleven square miles, of suitable land is needed for games and recreation, in addition to a reasonable provision in parks and rural reserves. The prospect of being able to secure this necessary provision diminishes rapidly year by year, as the distance from the centre of suitable land is continually increasing. SLUMS IN ENGLAND AND WALES. In the British House of Commons it was- stated, on behalf of the Minister of Health, that resolutions had been received from local authorities declaring 841 acres in England and Wales to be clearance areas under the Housing Act, 1930. The clearance of these would involve the demolition of approximately 16,165 houses, and the displacement of about 78,150 persons. # * * • A SURPRISING DISCOVERY. The fact that the pinnacles at the four corners of the tower of Norwich Cathedral are not symmetrically placed is a surprising discovery by an English architect who lives at Diss. The surveyor to the cathedral, who subsequently made an examination, states that the pinnacles are pentagonal on plan, and that their orientation is irregular—a fact which has _ not, apparently, been previously noticed since the erection of the tower in the fifteenth century. « • « • SCOTTISH HOUSING. Sir Godfrey Collins, the new Secretary for Scotland, recently pointed out in the British House of Commons that no recent estimate had been received from local authorities of the shortage of houses in Scotland, but the general statements furnished by them in 1930 estimated that 67,464 houses were needed to replace unfit houses, to abate overcrowding, and for other reasons. In estimating the shortage at the present date, account must be taken of the 10,654 houses completed in 1931, the 11,412 completed in the first nine months of 1932, and the 18,180 under construction at September 30 last. On September 26 last, the number of insured workmen in the building trades who were unemployed was 22,449. « « • • DANGER FROM VIBRATION. The Dean of Westminster sounded an ominous note at the dinner of the British Institution of Mechanical Engineers, when he drew attention to the danger to the Abbey occasioned by vibration, attributable to the great increase of road traffic. The heavy traffic along Grosvenor road had enormously increased, as the result, he supposed, of the opening of the new Lambeth Bridge, and they could not now have a service in the Henry VII. Chapel without feeling vibration that had not been apparent a few months ago. A, block of stone had fallen from the 1 chapel roof recently, as reported in the newspapers, and he might tell them that they had been unable to discover why this mass had fallen. He was also apprehensive of the erection near the Abbey of great blocks of buildings such ns had recently been erected along Grosvenor road.