Maucii 19, 190S] 



NA TURE 



473 



of scientific publications. The world appears to be 

 ;iccumulating' knowledge faster than it can be assimilated. 

 Even by aid of the comprehensive bibliographies now 

 issued, it is difficult, if not impossible, for the specialist 

 10 become conversant with the current literature of his 

 own field. On the other hand, the standard of excellence 

 in publications is undoubtedly higher now than at any 

 previous epoch, although it may not have kept pace 

 adequately with the increasing productivity of our times. 



SOME LONDON PROBLEMS. 

 London's Traffic. 

 ""PHE deputation a short time ago from Browning Hall 

 to the London County Council, and the numerous 

 references which have been made in Parliament and else- 

 where to the question, make it appear likely that before 

 very long steps will be taken by the Government to 

 establish a Traffic Board for London. In fact, the Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Trade has given us to understand 

 that his department is in favour of it, and that he will 

 endeavour to get the matter settled without delay ; for 

 the new Traffic Department of the Board of Trade cannot 

 be anything but a temporary step. 



Among the mass of valuable information collected by 

 the last Royal Commission not the least interesting was 

 that dealing with the history of this problem, for the 

 London traffic problem is almost as old as the city itself. 

 From the earliest days London has suffered from the con- 

 gestion of its narrow streets, arising from the accumula- 

 tion of traffic and the encroachments of buildings, and 

 just as at the present day so in previous centuries every 

 attempt made to widen individual streets or to provide 

 increased facilities led to such an increase of traffic in 

 that particular avenue as to render the final state of con- 

 gestion worse than before. Nothing is more characteristic 

 of the traffic problem than this phenomenon, that every 

 increase of facilities produces an increase of traffic, and 

 so on. 



Spasmodic attempts had been made by the corporation 

 of London and other bodies to widen streets here and there, 

 and during the earlier part of the seventeenth century 

 several proposals were brought forward, but were shelved 

 owing to the state of politics at the time. 



After the Restoration, however, and just before the 

 Great Fire, an Act was passed for repairing and enlarging 

 the streets with the express object of improving traffic, 

 stating that many streets were too narrow for vehicles. 

 It is interesting to note, however, that increased traffic 

 was anticipated, and the Act also provided for the regula- 

 tion and licensing of hackney carriages ; but immediately 

 after came the plague and the fire, after which a new 

 Act was passed. This was London's great opportunity, 

 and both Sir Christopher Wren and John Evelyn brought 

 forward comprehensive schemes for rebuilding. Had either 

 of these been followed, untold millions would have been 

 subsequently saved to London. It would to-day have been 

 one of the most orderly and carefully laid out cities, with 

 great avenues radiating from the centre. Had this taken 

 place tjne subsequent growth of the suburbs would have 

 naturally followed on the same plan, and the present 

 heterogeneous arrangements of suburban streets would 

 have never grown up. 



In the eighteenth century the conditions were very 

 analogous to those of the nineteenth. If we suppose mail 

 coaches for railways, riding horses for bicycles, hackney 

 carriages for cabs and motors, we see that London was 

 even then provided with a considerable variety of means of 

 transport. 



The first Parliamentary Committee upon metropolitan 

 traffic met in 1830, the matter being brought into 

 prominence bv the imminence of railways being built in 

 the London district. Other committees succeeded, and in 

 1842 a Royal Commission was appointed under the Earl 

 of Lincoln, the Commissioner of Woods and Forests, as 

 chairman ; various improvements were therein suggested, 

 but it was not until 1853 that Parliament gave a definite 

 start to the modern idea of London local government. 



NO. 2003, VOL. yy'l 



In 1845 the need of improved means of locomotion were 

 realised, and no fewer than nineteen Bills were proraoteti' 

 in that year dealing with railways in the metropolitan 

 district, at least one of them containing the suggestions 

 for a metropolitan central station. 



Not until 1854, however, did the first underground line 

 from Paddington to Farringdon Street receive Parlia- 

 mentary sanction. It was opened in 1863, and was 

 followed by the construction of a similar line from Victoria- 

 to Kensington in 1868, but the inner circle was not com- 

 pleted until 1884. 



London's Port. 



The chief difficulty under which London suffers in con- 

 nection with its port, as in connection with so many other 

 matters, arises from its age. It is so much older than 

 its rival ports that steps which are taken by them so as-' 

 to keep them up to date are rendered far more difficult 

 in the case of London. Nothing is easier than to point to. 

 Rotterdam or Liverpool as examples of what might be 

 done, but those who do so too often forget the fact that 

 the Port of London has a history of 500 years, compared 

 with less than a century of serious trading in those other 

 ports. The Port of London question is a good, nay, one 

 of the best, examples of the truth that " circumstances- 

 alter cases." 



The result is that there are an inordinate number of 

 authorities concerned in dealing with the question, and' 

 an inordinate number of vested interests to be considered. 

 Moreover, the conditions of transport have changed very 

 materially. In the Middle Ages London was the entrepSf 

 for the whole of western Europe. The East Indiamen un- 

 loaded there, and their cargoes were distributed by smaller 

 vessels over the whole of western Europe. At the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century, however, trade begar> 

 to go to other ports. The rise of Liverpool, Glasgow, 

 Hamburg, Antwerp, &c., means that the populatiori' 

 surrounding those ports are now no longer supplied from 

 London. Nevertheless, the great increase of population in 

 London itself and all England as a whole, maintains the 

 actual amount of traffic coming into London at its former 

 figure, and London acts as a distributing centre for 

 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 persons. 



The control of the Thames is in the hands of the Thames- 

 Conservancy, the dock companies, the Trinity House, the 

 Corporation of the City of London, and the County 

 Council, while the wharfingers and lightermen also have 

 most important interests. 



In Liverpool, on the other hand, or in Glasgow, the 

 Harbour Trust has practically a monopoly of authority, 

 and this enables a policy to be adopted which is far less- 

 trammelled by outside interference. 



Certain of the docks in London are so old that it is 

 impossible to think of modernising them in any way, but 

 the India Docks could undoubtedly be very much improved, 

 while the Tilbury Docks are said to be capable of dock- 

 ing nearly any ship at present afloat. The problem of 

 docking, however, is one that has to be constantly alter- 

 ing on account of the growth of steamships. Hence docks, 

 if they be large enough to-day, would, in a few years' 

 time, be too small, and any docks which are now con- 

 structed; in order to have something in hand, need to be 

 of the order of 1000 feet in length. It is not, however, 

 in length that the docks are so much lacking in London, 

 but in the depth of the sills, which render it impossible 

 for vessels of more than 30 feet to enter, for the Royai' 

 Albert Dock can take ships up to 536 feet long. 



New York and Boston are arranging for 40-feet channels 

 into their ports and steamers are to-day leaving Baltimore 

 loaded down to 32 feet, whereas, at the present time, a 

 ship drawing only 28 feet may be delayed for five hours 

 in the Thames on any day. 



What is really wanted is a channel at least 30 feet 

 deep at low tide and 1000 feet wide, as far as the Albert 

 Dock gates, and 1000 feet is not at all too wide to allow 

 a yso-feet vessel to be turned. 



Numbers of schemes are constantly being brought out 

 dealing with the port, such as the Thames Barrage Scheme 

 of last vear, in which the whole river was to be docket? 



