1829. ] Metropolitan Improvements. 153 
tion of succeeding corporations for full half a century. We are anxious 
to do full justice to the design and the construction of the bridge itself ; 
to the science which has been displayed in almost every department of 
its building, as well as to the ingenuity with which the piers of the old 
bridge have been removed, .and the arches supported, at the north and 
south ends of the old bridge, to facilitate the navigation during the pro- 
gress of the works of the new bridge; but we cannot pass over a 
neglect which threatens to impede the utility of the new construction, 
and to destroy so much of that property, which is now rendered so valu- 
able, by forming the lines of approach to the present bridge. Such a 
neglect will give proprietors excuses for enhancing the value of their 
loss, and give many of those who do not come directly within the line of 
approaches just cause of complaint, and, perhaps, reasonable ground of 
action for the damage which their premises and their property must 
naturally sustain. At this moment a number of persons are actively 
employed in obtaining data, on which to found claims of this nature, by 
counting the carriages and passengers which pass up and down Thames 
Street, and such other means as their ingeuuity can invent to sustain 
their complaint of a deterioration in the value of their premises. 
In all undertakings of this kind, it is but fair that every one living 
within reach of the effect of the projected alteration should previously be 
made fully acquainted with the extent of the intended improvement. 
This would have two good effects; it would apprize every one of the 
nature of the loss or improvement their property might sustain, and 
produce, previously to the undertaking, such notices of claims as would 
prevent the woeful inaccuracies of estimated losses, which have generally 
attended the execution of London plans of improvement. It would like- 
wise diminish the actual loss, and many of the inconveniences sustained 
by those whose property and business are affected, by giving them more 
time to provide against contingencies, and to take such steps as would 
lessen the injury which their business might sustain. 
Finding that no accurate account or plan had been given of the in- 
tended approaches, one or two of the inhabitants of the different districts 
affected by the bridge, have published their ideas of the most beneficial 
plans for accomplishing the object in question ; and among these an 
ingenious plan of Mr. George Gwilt has been submitted, and, likewise, 
that of a local architect, Mr. George Allen, has also been submitted to 
the consideration of the city, and subsequently published, with his obser- 
vations, in the form of a pamphlet. 
_ In this pamphlet is described a system of vacillation, not at all cre- 
ditable either to the New Bridge Committee, or their engineers, who it 
is stated have actually laid six plans for these approaches before their 
employers, without either of them having yet been approved, or at least 
adopted. 
Mr. Allen, from living on the spot, may be well supposed, from his 
locality, to have obtained accurate notions of the value of the property 
necessarily affected by the alteration ; and it has been his employment, 
in the valuation of some of the contiguous wharfs, and Thames frontages, 
that led him to a more elaborate consideration of the best plan for the 
approaches to the new bridge. With this view, in 1826, Mr. Allen pre- 
pared a plan of a new street, commencing at the Watch House, near 
Bridge-yard, and proceeding towards the bridge, to the south of the 
existing properties, in Tooley Street, till it entered the Borough, High 
M.M. New Series.—Vour.VII. No. 38. x 
