"int Opettator.". august 9tb. 1851
VICTORIA STREET
THE opening of Victoria Street effects an immense improvement in the Metropolis, not only by adding an important and much-wanted thoroughfare, but by carrying the pickaxe into the midst of the vile district between Westminster and Pimlico.. . .
The pickaxe of purification is followed in this Westminster district more faithfully than it has been before by the trowel of reconstructive improvement. The displaced poor are to be provided with new homes ; and instead of being driven to a distance, if we understand rightly, they are to be provided with homes on the spot. Whether it is intended or not, it is important that this should be done. The experiment of the Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes has illus- trated the manner in which economy of space may be so employed as to give the labouring poor immensely improved abodes, without driving them to a distance from the scene of their occupation. . . .
The building of houses on the Scotch plan, with "flats " or separate dwellings on each floor, will be a boon not only to the poor but to persons of the clerk order of-society. We know that such persons are excessively in want of suitable abodes within a reasonable distance of business. . . . Indeed the convenience would soon be apparent to all but the wealthiest classes ; since the plan affords opportunities for other economies, besides that of space—such as provision for common lighting or warming.
Previous page
