AMBITIOUS PLAN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 4 June 1938, Page 24

AMBITIOUS PLAN

NEW ZEALAND ARCHITECT THAMES SOUTH BANK (From Out* Own Correspondent). (By Air Mail) ' LONDON, May 11. An ambitious £7,000,000 plan to rebuild the south bank of the Thames from London Bridge to 'Lambeth Bridge, and to transform an extensive inland area by rehousing the new traffic routes, has been submitted by a New Zealand architect. Mr H. J. Spence-Sales, of Wellington, and Mr J. Bland, a Canadian. It is being sponsored by the Star, one of the three London evening newspapers, and is expected to receive widespread support. The south bank of the Thames in this district has, for many years, presented a problem to successive London County Councils. Unlike the north bank, it has grown awkwardly, and is still riddled with a number of old buildings and cumbersome roads. After intensive and protracted research, lasting over a year, Mr Spence-Sales and his colleague have completed their proEosals, which were , discussed' by the ondon County Council to-day. They include the provision of an embankment and pleasure, promenade by reclaiming the shallows and mid banks on the south side; sites for ■Government municipal and national buildings, hotels and a riverside Lido; replanned traffic routes and the bdtter planning for commercial development; housing zones for domestic building schemes: a great hospital centre almost surrounded by river and gardens; traffic routes from all the cross-river bridges to a new East-West London highway: a new solution for the Elephant and Castle district where traffic jams ere frequently occurring: and fast through routes: on a new system for north and south traffic across the'river. One of‘the crucial problems of the whole scheme is the Charing Cross rail, and road bridge, needed to maintain traffic from the west end of the city. The improvement suggested by the dominion architects is to construct a bridge to carry five railway lines in the centre, with a roadway and a footway on either side of the railway. ■ Many plans have been put forward, over a period of years for the transformation of the district, books have been written, and the London Countv Council has been approached to take action on several occasions. The scheme proposed by Mr Spence-Sales and Mr Bland is the most far-reaching yet suggested. It is based oh townplanning principles, and includes a new treatment of roads, not previously considered, by separating through from local traffic. It also includes a proposal for a new solution of the Elephant and Castle, a bugbear of local authorities, by which property disturbance would be reduced to a minimum. The scheme has the support of members of Parliament, who have discussed it in the lobby, borough councillors and architects. Mr George Lansbury, M.P., has said of it: "I wish the scheme success. I look upon it as one all those in authority should consider and accept. Mr Spence-Sales was a student at Victoria University College, before coming to London in 1933. He has studied at the London University, and also has been attached to the London County Council. His partnership with Mr Bland Was formed 18 months ago.