VARIOUS ROUTES 3 



Between 1739 and 1749 Westminster Bridge was 

 building, and the roads in South London, including 

 the Westminster Bridge Road and the Kennington 

 Road, were being made. In 1755 the road (about ten 

 miles) across the heaths and downs from Sutton to 

 Reigate, was authorised, and in 1770 the Act was 

 passed for widening and repairing the lanes from 

 Povey Cross to County Oak and Brighthelmstone, by 

 Cuckfield. By this time, it will be seen, Brighton 

 had begun to be the goal of these improvements. 



The New Chapel and Copthorne road, on the East 

 Grinstead route, was constructed under the Act of 

 1770, the route across St. John's Common and Burgess 

 Hill remodelled in 1780, and the road from South 

 Croydon to Smitham Bottom, Merstham, and Reigate 

 was engineered out of the narrow lanes formerly 

 existing on that line in 1807-8, being opened, " at 

 present toll-free," June 4th, 1808. 



In 1813 the Bolney and Hiekstead road, between 

 Hand Cross and Pyeeombe, was opened, and in 1816 

 the slip-road, avoiding Reigate, through Redhill, to 

 Povev Cross. Finally, sixty yards were saved on the 

 Reigate route by the cutting of the tunnel under 

 Reigate Castle, in 1823. In this way the Brighton 

 road, on its several branches, grew to be what it is now. 



The Brighton Road, it has already been said, is 

 measured from the south side of Westminster Bridge, 

 which is the proper starting-point for record-makers 

 and breakers ; but it has as many beginnings as 

 Homer had birthplaces. Modern coaches and motor- 

 ear services set out from the barrack-like hotels of 

 Northumberland Avenue, or other central points, and 

 the old carriers came to and went from the Borough 

 High Street ; but the Corinthian starting-point in the 

 brave old days of the Regency and of George the 

 Fourth was the " White Horse Cellar " — Hatehett's 

 ' White Horse Cellar ' -in Piccadilly. There, any 

 dav throughout the year, the knowing ones were 

 gathered — with those green goslings who wished to be 

 thought knowing — exchanging the latest scandal and 



