LONDON’S OVERGROWTH

Southland Times, Issue 20897, 5 October 1929, Page 8

LONDON’S OVERGROWTH

“THE GREAT WEN.” Plato laid down that the ideal city would have a population of 5040 citizens; William Cobbett was never tired of condemning the size of London—the Great Wen, as he called it —in the days when its population was little more than two millions. It is hard to imagine what either would say if they could see the statistics recently issued by the London County Council. The population of Greater London is now estimated at 7,840,000, considerably more than the whole of the Commonwealth, and only about 30,000 short of the population of Belgium. Scotland, with a population of 4,893,000, has not many more inhabitants than Inner London, with its four and a-half millions. The tremendous congestion in many parts of the capital is exemplified by Paddington, which has a population of 142,000 within an area of 2.12 square miles! Such over-development brings with it its own retribution. Traffic, to take but one of the problems arising out of it, is becoming increasingly unmanageable. Last year over 50,000 people were killed or injured in the London streets. Traffic blocks have become so bad that in some parts of the city it is quicker to walk any distance up to a mile and more than to use a car. And so great is the week-end congestion on all roads leading out of London that it is rapidly becoming impossible to motor out into the country for the day. Perhaps Plato and Cobbett will yet have the last laugh.