CHANGING LONDON.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 March 1920, Page 12

CHANGING LONDON.

NEW BLOCKS OF BUILDINGS. London, Jan. 16. The face of London is being changed daily, and sull more imposing schemes are in hand. "It is understood that the City Corporation may apply to Parliament for an extension of St. Paul's bridge across the Thames from Cannon street to South■wark street, giving an uninterrupted view of St. Paul's from the south side of the river," says the Daily* Mail. "In June, 1914, the design of Mr. Washington Browne, of Edinburgh, was accepted in open competition, the bridge to cost i 1,648,000. The Bridge House Estates Committee entered into negotiation for buying property for the purpose of clearing the bridge head sites, but during the war actual building operations were suspended. "The bridge, in view of the increased cost of building material, is now estimated to cost about £4,000,000." ' TO REVOLUTIONISE CHARING CROSS. The greatest proposed change in London is that at Charing Cross. * "Why was Charing Cross? Because the Strand ran into it." Mr. John Murray, the Surveyor to the Crown Estates, proposes in the Times a scheme to run into Charing' Cross without trouble. "It is accepted," says the Times, "that the South-Eastern Railway station and hotel will be rebuilt on the other side of the Thames, that the railway bridge will be removed, and that a new bridge for street traffic will be constructed. Ihe first governing decision is that between a high and low level bridge. Mr. Murray has chosen the former alternative. We arc disposed to accept thfc view that it would be a grave mistake to bring the new north and south traffic to the level of the Embankment, where it would have to cross a roadway already burdened with tramways and hejivy traffic. If it be taken to the level of the. Strand this difficulty is surmounted, and an opportunity is provided for a magnilcent prospect"But it also requires the provision of a wide space in which the new stream from the south, and the east and west currents, between Trafalgar Square and the Strand, may meet and blend. The widening of the Strand and the removal of Charing Cross Station give space for this, leaving the old Cross and the entrances to the Tube stations undisturbed in an 'island.' The traffic will be further relieved by the construction of a new Imperial Way, curving through property of relatively low value from Leicester Square to the Strand. "The scheme is proposed as a suggestion which states the difficulties and a possibility of meeting tiiem, rather than as a final solution. As such we commend* it to the consideration of Lon- - doners." AN ARCHITECT'S GREAT CHANCE. "Mr. Harvey Corbett, the American architect, who is designing the Bush Terminal Company's buildings on the island site between Aldwych and the Strand, showed me a model of his design," says the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. 'No aVehitect in London in recent times has ever had such an opportunity as that which falls to Mr. Corbett. The site on one side forms the end of Kingsway, so the character of that facade will make or mar that great new thoroughfare. Tlie Strand side forms a shallow curve behind the Church of St. Mary-le-Strand and faces Chamber's masterpiece, Somerset House. Befon such a responsibility the boldest architect (if he is fllso a scholar) might well say a prayer to his muse. FACING KINGSWAY. "Mr. Corbett, as expected, has; faced his problem witli the same directness and the good scholarship which are so striking a feature of the best Americnn architecture. His Strand facade is a fine complement to the delicate little Church of St. Mary-le-Strand. 'The great test is the terminal building to Aldwych. This centre pavilion has a great entrance with two columns of half the total height supporting the round-headed doorways—these columns will be higher than those of the British Museum entrance—and' gigantic pilasters rise on each side supportin< n the The scale is noble but not pediment, heavy." THE NEW STRAND. "After a long deferment' the Strand widening scheme between Wellington Street and Savoy Buildings is to be carried out," says the Daily News. "Mr. Reginald M. Phillips, the estate agent, of Conduit Street, stilted on Saturday that he had let to lessees practically the whole of the site in question (which is divided by Savoy Street), on building agreements involving an expenditure of £1,500,000. "The two areas affected will be entirely rebuilt, the scheme forming one of the most useful improvements carried out in Central London for a number of . Fine buildings, up-to-date in every respect, and which, it is promised, 'will be a credit' to. the metropolis, will cover this site. "Messrs R. E. Jones, the Cardiff and Swansea caterers, will be among the new tenants. A firm owning a .leading daily newspaper have just completed negotiations for the acquisition of the whole of the site between WclHnirton Street and S.ivsv Street "