608 Metropolitan Improvements : [Drc. 
costs the enormous sum of 26,330/., taking an average of the last seven 
years, and this expense is incurred for removing pavement which does 
not require repair, but which is only rendered necessary to get at the 
pipes and sewers beneath it. 
It seems to have been the demolition of the London Bridge water- 
works, in 1822, and the works resulting therefrom, that first suggested 
the idea of the sub-ways. At this period the streets of the city were 
rapidly torn up, to remove the pipes of the old company, and lay down 
new ones for the New River water; so that the entire city appeared to 
be preparing for a siege, and nothing but submission to the evil was 
allowed to the universal lamentation of the people. 
« At this moment,” says Mr. Williams, “ when Cornhill was laid 
open, and the dirt piled six feet high on both sides of the streets, the 
subject revived in the mind of, and the remedy presented itself to, the 
author and compiler of this volume, who, in October 1822, took out a 
patent, “ For a Method to Prevent the Frequent Removal of the Pave- 
ment and Carriage Paths, for Laying Down and Taking Up Pipes, and 
for other Purposes, in Streets, Roads, and Public Ways.” 
What necessity, or, indeed, right, there could be for a patent for the 
mere construction of passages under ground we are at a loss to guess ; 
and, we think, there might have been found more effectual, as well as 
more proper means for remunerating Mr. Williams, had his plan been 
carried into execution, than those which the exclusive and generally 
monopolizing rights of a patent could bestow ; and the object proposed 
was, certainly, one of such general utility, that we can scarcely imagine 
there would have been an individual who would have excited John 
Bull’s proverbial privilege of “ grumbling,” at any Rate which its adop- 
tion might have imposed. 
In the construction of these sub-ways, Mr. Williams proposed to open 
the ground to the required depth, say of ten feet; to lay a course of 
bricks, stones, or iron, nearly level, or rather curved, on the ground, 
five feet wide, with drains to go into the sewers ; to raise a wall on each 
side, five feet high, and arch it over, so as to leave the heighth, in the 
centre of it, seven and a half feet clear ; openings of nine inches were to 
be left in each upright wall, at the distance of every twenty feet, three 
feet from the base ; from these openings, tunnels were to be carried to 
the sides of the streets, and at the ends of the tunnels, gratings, or doors, 
were to be placed, to be opened from the inside ; while similar openings 
in the top of the arch, at the distance of every hundred feet, were to 
serve for the admission of light and air. Doorways, five feet high, by 
three feet wide, were to be placed in each side wall, where these open- 
ings were made. 
The entrances to these sub-ways were proposed to be at the sides, by 
doors and passages, wherever required from the houses and buildings in 
the streets and roads, in the same manner as into cellars that are under 
the streets and the main pipes, for every purpose, might be placed 
therein, on iron cradles, or otherwise ; and the service pipes, for the 
supply of the public, through the tunnels, or openings, in the side walls. 
These passages might also be formed double, one for water, and one for 
as. 
« From these Sus-ways, and Passages,’ Mr. Williams observes, 
* access may be had into the sewers and drains, or springs, and wells of 
water ; and for almost every purpose for which the pavement, and car- 
riage paths in the streets, roads, and public ways, have hitherto been 
