GLASS OVER LONDON.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 12, 17 June 1893, Page 12

GLASS OVER LONDON.

A proposal to make London a "lassroofed city is the subject of a long* letter addressed to the Daily News by Mr J. Newton Mappin. Interesting as it is, we have not space (our contemporary says) for the whole of it. The plan, which will not be popular with the umbrella makers, resembles one in Mr Bellamy,s “ Looking Backward.” Mr Mapjain, however, does not treat the subject as part of a scheme for a future Utopia, but as one to be carried to a practical and successful issue. He says : —“ The covering of Cheapside, Poultry, Queen. Victoria,-street, Regent-street, Bondstreet, or Oxford-street with a glass roof may appear a Quixotic suggestion —but other at first''sight less practical schemes have been launched successfully, and the world has not ceased to revolve on its axes in consequence. The gain to the great British public, or to that section -who are in the habit of travelling the main arteries of London, from a point of comfort alone, should be sufficient to warrant a trial. Most people prefer brightness and beauty to dirt and discomfort. Nothing to my mind can have a more miserable and tawdry appearance than a leading London thoroughfare on a wet day, when poor dripping humanity descends to the depts. of despondency, and every object, animate and inanimate, has a washed-out appearance. A change from this condition of things would be delightful to all people concerned —those who would reside under glass, so to speak, and those who would use the thoroughfare for business purposes. The former, would, of course, be called upon to bear the expense of improvement. If I say the outlay they would incur would be returned to them in a few years, owing to the increased flow of business to their doors —and to the lessened expenditure upon paint . and : cleaning —I should be under the mark. Our wood and asphalt streets would be dry, perfectly safe in all weathers, and the lease of , life doubled or trebled. If the rain water were not preserved for domestic use it could be usefully applied in flushing the sewers with clean water instead of liquid mud. The health of the inhabitants would be greatly benefited by breathing a day atmosphere instead of a damp, humid one. ■ Our clothes, boots, hats, and general comfort would not suffer as they do now.”