Plans for Improving London. 139 



Kensington is now united to the metropolis by rows of 

 splendid terraces overlooking Hyde Park, and has extended to 

 the south, forming a new quarter, which will probably ere long 

 be devoted to the fine arts. On the other side of Hyde Park, 

 the humble Bay swat er, and the culprits* spot of doom, now 

 stand forth a district of palaces and villas, known as Tyburnia. 

 Marylebone fields have been converted into a charming park, 

 where the horticulturist spreads forth his treasures, and the 

 professors of zoology find a home for natural history. The 

 master-hand that originated the park also designed a noble 

 street from Portland Place to Pall Mall, as well as Trafalgar 

 Square, and widening the Strand. The Yictoria Park and 

 Battersea Park are also new creations ; the latter, one of the 

 happiest and most successful works of the able hand now 

 attached to the Woods and Forests' department. 



In the City of London a new street has been formed from 

 Pinsbury to the Mansion House, another from the Mansion 

 House to London Bridge, and a third from London Bridge to 

 St. Paul's; besides sundry widenings, lopping off of corners, 

 setting back houses, and obtaining additional width to streets. 

 These, for the most part, have been well done. A great 

 portion of them were due to the energy of Mr. Lambert Jones, 

 an influential member of the Corporation. He was for a time 

 master of the situation ; but he unfortunately was too careful 

 of the City purse, and instead of forming a bold plan in 

 making- a good fine of thoroughfare from Guildhall to the 

 Post Office, made so tortuous a line, as to occasion the remark, 

 that " Crooked Lane (close by London Bridge) was removed 

 to Grresham Street." London Bridge and Westminster Bridge 

 have both been rebuilt, and the Southwark, Waterloo, Hunger- 

 ford, Lambeth, and Vauxhall bridges are all new erections. 

 A noble street has been formed on the Surrey side, leading 

 from London Bridge to Blackfriars ; there are several fine piles 

 of warehouses erected in this important thoroughfare — one in 

 particular, on the south side, belonging to the Hop Planters' 

 Company, which has a portone worthy of the old Italian archi- 

 tects. With this rapid notice of works de facto, we will take 

 Mr. Haywood's plan, and see what he has in petto for us, 

 premising that his report being an official one, connected with 

 his appointment under the Corporation of London, is princi- 

 pally confined to the City proper. " But, in order," says Mr. 

 Haywood, " to take the broad and comprehensive view which 

 the subject demands, I must refer to the whole metropolis, for 

 I shall be enabled to show that a large portion of its inhabitants 

 have the most direct interest in the City of London, going to 

 and from it daily, spending within its limits the largest portion 

 of their active life, earning therein their livelihood, and form- 

 ing the bulk of the traffic which encumbers its streets. 



