64 G. H. KNIBBS. 



of human beings in a city, shall be of the highest efficiency, it is 

 necessary that the lines of intercommunication between the build- 

 ings, forming as it were the real theatres of that activity, and 

 also between them and the lesser centres of outlying territory, 

 shall be the shortest possible, and therefore the most convenient. 

 This is nothing more nor less than the affirmation that all systems 

 of roads and streets should provide the greatest possible number 

 of 'short cuts' from place to place, and thus economise as far as 

 can be, human effort in the transaction of business, and in all 

 other features of city life. The other element of importance is 

 the appropriate localisation of the various types of industrial and 

 other activity, so that the necessity for intercommunication itself, 

 shall be reduced to a minimum. These two elements, viz., the 

 street arrangement, and the determination of the purposes for 

 which the blocks so formed shall be available, are the most funda- 

 mental in the development of a city-design. It is at once evident 

 that both are greatly influenced by the topography of the site; a 

 general disposition of streets and buildings which might be most 

 suitable for one site, might be wholly unsuitable for another with 

 different topographical features : any discussion of principles 

 therefore can lead only to general results : these must, in any 

 application, be taken as a general guide, to be modified as occasion 

 demands. It is of course impossible to produce in detail an ideal 

 design applicable to every site. 



3. Radial street-system. — If one glances at any territorial map 

 shewing towns and the roads leading therefrom to other similar 

 aggregations of settlement, it becomes at once evident, that the 

 lines of communication are on the whole radial, that is they tend 

 to occupy the direct lines joining any one centre with those 

 surrounding it : if diverted therefrom, it can be only because of 

 topographical difficulties, or through the arbitrary interferences 

 of the boundaries of real estate, or else from mere caprice. Any 

 four centres forming, say a quadrilateral figure, would be united, 

 not merely by the lines constituting the boundaries of the quadri- 

 lateral, but also by the lines forming its diagonals; at least unless 



