LONDON'S FUTURE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17126, 22 April 1921, Page 8

LONDON'S FUTURE.

Are we approaching the day when - London will cease to be the centre of Government? asks .the "Manchester Guardian." Shall we have, within-a couple of generations, ah official city „ somewhere in.the Home Counties which '' will be to London what Washington is , • to New York, and what Canberra is in- j i! tended to be to Sydney and Melbourne-, | , or Delhi to Calcutta and 'Bombay? 15] There are possibilities in that direction « at least, for the official tide is setting, away from' London. Chequers as a ? permanent country home for Prime * Ministers may become more important v ■ llfan Downing street;.some revolution- l ary person has *bcen' suggesting that Windsor Castle would be - an excellent home for the War Office, sod the suburbanising of Whitehall is going on apace. ' - It may be argued that the present • tendency is not really towards the.official town, and that new departmental buildings are being scattered broadcast over the suburbs,_ but it, is pretty certain that wide separations will be found inconvenient in a very short time, and that the demand for a new centralisation will grow. Obviously that cannot be accompanied by a return to Whitehall. There is also the question of Parliament, for every session makes it''more obvions that 'Westminster is becoming much too small. Westminster might "become, nerhaps. the Hotel de Ville which London has never possessed, and a sew series of Chambers may be built in the centre of the new official city. • " •