14 A War Memorial for Belfast. 



would reserve a block or two for new warehouses, shops or 

 factories. Sometimes we would arrange a parish hall or a 

 cinematograph in place of an insanitary rookery. Occasionally 

 we would find that we had too many foolish little cross- 

 streets : then Ave would take two blocks at a time, pull down 

 the central rows of houses, wall across one or both of the open 

 ends, and leave a play ground or an allotment area in the 

 open quadrangle. Often we could do a good deal by merely 

 opening a space of light and air around an existing church or 

 schoolhouse. Occasionally, we might find that the best available 

 improvement would he simply to abolish one or two houses out 

 of every four, leaving the sites clear for the benefit of the 

 remainder. Figs. 10 and 11 ilhistrate these suggestions : Fig. 10 

 being a small piece of Belfast as it actually stands to-day, and 

 Fig. 1 1 the same section reconstructed, arbitrarily, to illustrate 

 the working out of some of the above tentative suggestions'^ : 

 doubtless it could very easily be still further improved. Any 

 large-scale map of any portion of Belfast will afford equally 

 interesting exercises in the civic imagination : the one here 

 illustrated was chosen entirely at random. 



As this is a matter which many people find it easier to 

 understand from photographs and pictures rather than from 

 plans, I have chosen a few characteristic examples for illustration. 

 Figs. 12 aud 13 show very plainly what we used to be contented 

 with : they are portions of " congested districts " which have 

 latterly been removed. Figs. 14 and 15 show what we are still 

 (officially) contented with : they are new houses and streets quite 

 recently erected by the municipal authorities. It is sufficient 

 comment upon them to point to FiGS. 16 and 17 which show 

 Avhat we shall not be content much longer to do without : they 

 are workers' dwellings erected at Earswick in Yorkshire. Had 

 space and opportunity offered, these illustrative examples of 



* It will come to many of us with a certain surprise that, if all this 

 were successfully C'lrried out, we should have merely restored our town 

 to something like its original condition, as proved b}' the map of 1685 ! 



