LONDON 



up and grew to villages, and these in turn became towns 

 and cities. As each grew in population it expanded in 

 si/.e until visible limits and boundaries became lost and 

 the municipalities became confluent. With this kind 

 of growth, without central control or plan, it was natural 

 that the convenience of each unit should have been 

 the only care. 



It has well been said by the Advisory Board of 

 Engineers to the Royal Commission on London Traffic, 

 Vol. VII, 1905, that "Streets were planned and laid 

 out with regard only to local needs without apparent 

 thought of making any new or widened street an exten- 

 sion or component part of a street in an adjoining 

 parish or district, and without considering that a street 

 in a city has not only to fulfil its functions as a local 

 highway, but should also act as a thoroughfare, con- 

 necting adjoining districts and that consequently it 

 should be made of such proportions as to bear the 

 double burden of local and through traffic, with ample 

 provision for the increasing demands of the future." 



Until comparatively recent times the municipalities 

 in the vicinity of the original city were administered 

 under no less than two hundred separate importance 

 acts. It was largely in recognition of the slSar^iu- 

 need of properly caring for the traffic on the thority 

 thoroughfares and maintaining the city in a more sani- 

 tary condition that a move toward consolidation was 

 made in 1856. This move was the formation of the 

 Metropolitan Board of Works. At this time the sewage 

 of about three million people was being emptied into 

 the Thames in the center of the city, with the result 

 that insufferable odors were produced. The most im- 

 portant work of the Metropolitan Board of Works was 



61 



