4 A War Memorial for Belfast. 



while the fact that they have themselves cut the stones or carved 

 the Avood will arouse interest in them regarding the objects of the 

 Institute itself, and so will help to make them understand that 

 they themselves are part of the reason why it was built. 



A CITY SURVEY AND TOWN PLAN. 



Let us pi'esume that it is agreed to draw u]i a plan for the 

 betterment of our city, and that a strong and representative 

 committee has been brought into existence in order to carry out 

 a preliminary survey and to suggest a constructive policy. I 

 propose to sketch, in A'ery brief outline, the work which would 

 lie before such a committee. 



(D— Past. 



It is rarely possible, and seldom desirable, to discard what 

 we have inherited from the past. Any plan worth considering 

 at all will necessarily be built up from conditions as have been 

 and as they are, and will take into account the history and the 

 facts, both material and spiritual, which gave rise to those 

 conditions. 



It is, for instance, important, as well as merely interesting, 

 even in 1918, to study the maps of the city Avhen it was in its 

 infancy. In 1685 (Fig. 3) Belfast was a little walled town, 

 with its Bridge, its Castle and its Church. The map shows two 

 notable features : — (l) a little river flows down the main street, 

 with a roadway on either side of it, and (2) every dwelling-house 

 in every street has its garden. So, three centuries ago, Belfast 

 was a little " Garden City." For its size, and within its limita- 

 tions, it was rather well designed, and this good original plan has 

 served us down to the present day, — and will indeed not be 

 wholly lost as long as the city stands. For consider : when 

 the town grow, and required facilities for increased traffic, 

 the little " Belfast River " was built over, and so gave us our 

 wide High Street, which still preserves the old breadth of the 



