PUBLIC OUTCRY.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18874, 18 February 1933, Page 9

PUBLIC OUTCRY.

LONDON SUFFERS. A BUILDING INTRUSION. VISTA DESTROYED. What has been called one of the finest architectural sites In Europe and one of the last remaining bits of Nash’s London Is being destroyed In spite of a prolonged public outcry and strong protests in both Houses of Parliament, where the matter was tiehated during the last week of the session. This Is Carlton House Terrace, overlooking St. James Park at the end of the long avenue that leads to Buckingham Palace through the Admiralty Arch at Trafalgar Square, says a writer in the San Francisco Chronicle. No. 4, Carlton House Terrace, has been sold on a 99-year-lease by the Commissioners of Crown Lands to a linn of paint manufacturers, who are putting up a tall bidding of Portland slone in the midst of the tine obi residences there. This has been called the worst piece of vandalism in British history, since it will destroy I be character of one of the most leisurely and well planned parts of London, and the projected building will throw the whole vista from the Park and Pall Mall out of scale. The paint manufacturers, when approached by the Miuislcr of Agriculture and Fisheries, Major Walter l*.llioll, under whoso deparlmenl the sub-department of Crown Lands is placed, refused to entertain his suggestion that the work on their building should he suspended in view of Hie opposition roused in Parliament, and among the public. They insist on “the urgent necessity of completing the building without delay for essential business purposes.” Beginning of End. The new offices will have the Admiralty Arch on one side, and Marl-

borough House, St. James Palace, and Lancaster House leading up to the palace on ,the other. It will he squarely in the middle of the vista from St. James Park, on the great processional road that leads to the Victoria Memorial. On the north, across a strip of garden, are situated the great historic clubs of London, the Athenaeum, the Carlton, the United Services, the Travellers, and the Reform Clubs, and the Idea that their world-famous sanctum Is to be Invaded by “trade” has made them hum like beehives with rage. What is worse, the tearing down of No. 4, Carlton House Terrace, for the construction of an office building is only iho beginning of the end. Now the inviolate character of the place has been destroyed, the rest of it must be expected to go, bit by bit, as the leases fall In and the present occupiers of the adjacent houses move to parts uncontaminated by trade—that bugbear of the British aristocracy. Major Elliot told the House of Commons that lie had without avail used all the Influence in his power to stop the work pending Parliamentary consideration of the whole question. Therefore the subject will have to ho left until the House reassembles in February. There Is a general belief that, whatever happens in tho present case, tli c Government will guard against a repetition of it by placing the Commissioners of Crown Lands under a Cabinet Minister. The appearance of London is changing steadily, sometimes in Iho face of public outcry that Is occasionally successful. In recent, times there has been agitation In save the city churches, whose valuable sites east of Temple Bar are coveted by business interests, the Abbey Sacristy and the planned Charing Cross Bridge, a m-oli-st rosily that was only prevenb'd by enormous efforts oil the part of the public against a determined Town Council. Covont Garden. Tiie biggest transformation in London. however, is planned for 11 1 e next two years, and is concerned with (Invent Garden. The doom of I lie Opera House is sealed, although its lease lias been extended from February io July

In order that the plans for the next opera season may be carried out. It Is expected that the actual work of demolition will not be begun until the autumn. Part of Its site will bo taken up with the new roadway, forty feet wide, running Into the new road now being constructed on the site of the old Tavistock Hotel, whose famous coffee room Dickens and Thackery used to frequent. The famous Piazza of Covcnt Garden was designed by Inigo Jones, and was In the late seventeenth century one of the show places of tire town. For once, artists and business men are agreed on the necessity of rebuilding an historic site, for Covent Garden is Impossibly congested. Fruit porters and other pedestrians have to sandwich their way through to Floral Street and Longacre sideways, and lorries and vans remain stationary beside the fruit and flower markets, unable to move for half an hour at a time. St. Paul’s Church, whose fascade Bernard Shaw took for the setting of the first act of “Pygmalion,” will remain untouched. This ts the church that Inigo Jones called “the handsomest barn in England.” The new Covent Garden is to go up in steel and concrete, with wide avenues anil a new island site for the market, where Dickens, as he confessed, when he had nothing better to do, used to come and stare at ihe pineapples. It is fairly certain that there will he no new Opera House there; the site of the present Opera House is estimated at £250.000, although tho actual ground rent, by an arrangement made in the middle of the last century, is only £l5O a year, so that for the last SO years Covent Garden opera iias been maintained virtually rent free.