COMMONS © OPEN SPACES 215 
Mrs. Siddons, by Chevaliand, was erected in 1897, as 
she lived in the neighbourhood when Paddington was 
still rural. There is nothing beautiful about the asphalt 
paths between high iron railings surrounding the small 
space of grass and trees. Some of the other greens are 
more of the ordinary public garden type. Islington Green 
has been planted with trees, and outside the railings 
stands a statue of Sir Hugh Myddelton, who died in 
1631, representing him holding a plan of the New River. 
Stepney was once a very large green, and has still 
acres of garden cut up into four sections. Some 
quaint old houses, wood with tiled roofs, and good 
seventeenth - century brick ones, still overlook the 
gardens. The gardens have been made exactly like 
every other, with a slightly serpentine path, a border 
running parallel in irregular curves not following the 
line of the path, and trees dotted about. One really 
fine, thick-stemmed laburnum shows how well that tree 
will do in smoke, and some curious old wooden water- 
pipes dug up in 1890, dating from 1570, are placed at 
intervals in the grass. 
Camberwell has one of the large village greens of 
South London, and has been made into a satisfactory 
garden. All the trams seem to meet there, but in 
spite of the din it is a pleasant garden in which to 
rest. The 2 \ acres are well laid out, and the clipped 
lime-trees round the railings are a protection from the 
street which other places would do well to copy. When 
the trees are in leaf the garden is partially hidden even 
from those on the tops of omnibuses. 
These greens scattered round London help to con¬ 
nect the larger areas, thus forming links in the chain 
of open spaces which encircles London. These natural 
