• LONDON STREETS.
THE incessant obstructions in the great thoroughfares of the Metropolis' aused by taking up the pavements, and the filthy state of the roads and footway's, have become serious grievances. Within this mon* only, the streams of traffic flowing along the three leading channels of communication between one end of the town and the other—namely, from the Regent's Park, Oxford Street, and Piccadilly, to the Bank—have been each turned out of the regular course, pot merely for a day or two, but for weeks together. During the laying down of wood-pavement in Cheapside, that main artery of the City was stopped: silence held its sway over the shops of that noisy thoroughfare for a considerable while - and the ware- houses of .Watling and Cateaton Streets shook with the rattle of waggons and omnibuses. , At the very same time, though for a longer space—so long as seven weeks, we are told—the New Road was impassable for vehicles front .King's Cross to St. Pancras Church ; the advertising-b.terd of the W.:Kid-Paving Company, THE incessant obstructions in the great thoroughfares of the Metropolis' aused by taking up the pavements, and the filthy state of the roads and footway's, have become serious grievances. Within this mon* only, the streams of traffic flowing along the three leading channels of communication between one end of the town and the other—namely, from the Regent's Park, Oxford Street, and Piccadilly, to the Bank—have been each turned out of the regular course, pot merely for a day or two, but for weeks together. During the laying down of wood-pavement in Cheapside, that main artery of the City was stopped: silence held its sway over the shops of that noisy thoroughfare for a considerable while - and the ware- houses of .Watling and Cateaton Streets shook with the rattle of waggons and omnibuses. , At the very same time, though for a longer space—so long as seven weeks, we are told—the New Road was impassable for vehicles front .King's Cross to St. Pancras Church ; the advertising-b.terd of the W.:Kid-Paving Company, being here, as in Cheipilde, the barrier to approabb.-But the actual obstruction extended as far as Tottenham Court Road ;. this oc-
casion having been appropriately chosen for making a new sewer in Seymour Street : so that on the Northside;carriages had to make a long detour at the Smallpox Hospital, by Camden Town; MOrnington Crescent, and the Hampstead Road; while on the South Bile,- the locked gates on the Duke of Bedford's estate obliged carts, cabs, and omnibuses, to go round by Gray's Inn Lane, the Foundling Hospital, and Bedford or Russell Squire, to get into the New Road again. The gardens of the houses in the road were. literally blocked up by the wood-pavement ; and in one part a deep trettreb, six feet wide, in the foot pavement, 'remained open.for'aome time, while two gas-companies settled their squabble 'about the pipes. Nor was the inconvenience all ; the tradesmeti of the neighbourhood suffered heavy loss : one shopkeeper estimated the diminution of his receipts at 8/. daily.
Two of these obstructions are now removed ; but the third yet re- mains. The complaints of blockaded Cheapside and Somers Town have found no yoke in the daily press ; but the Strand, a newspaper neighbourhood, has had eloquent utterance given to its wrongs by the Morning Chronicle : the Strand is perpetually blockaded in all parts.
As to dirt, the state of the streets, even now before snow has fallen, is disgraceful to a decent people ; and when we know that there are hosts of able-bodied men who would be thankful to earn a shilling's day with the broom, in preference to starving in com- pelled idleness or breaking stones in a workhouse-yard,—or, should this be too Costly, that there is a sweeping-machine to be had that does its work cheap, quick, and well,—it is scandalous that a duty so conducive to health and comfort as cleanliness should be peg- lected. Perhaps the scavenger's " vested rights" stand in . the way. By the by, are these gentlemen at liberty to choose-, their own time for cleansing the streets ? We have observed that their services are• seldom employed but when the streets flow, .witliliquid mud ; then they sweep and ladle away with 'great activity,—as the dresses of the passengers testify : in the " greasy " state of the roads, their brooms are rarely active. The worshipful company of scavengers have not been visible for a long time past : but we may be sure to see them at Christmas, if not before—they never forget "Boxing-day."
The annoyances we have recited are charged upon the wood- pavement by a City correspondent of the Morning Chronicle ; we believe incorrectly. - If properly managed, the wood-paved 'streets should be cleaner as well as quieter than the others, and less fre- quently disturbed :to relay the road. • The practice of making crowded thoroughfares the places for experiments, and of blocking up the whole street for the purpose, is vexatious; because unneces- sary. Why not pave one-half the road at a time? ...This was .done• in Holborn, when two adjoining parishes were at loggerheads. :-.why not agree to do what they managed so well when they; differed? When the road must of necessity be broken up, wooden:biOjeks are as quickly replaced as stone—more so if Mortimer's .patept be used ; for it requires no substratum of concrete, the blocks forming a self-supporting arch, of which the curb-stones are the abutments. The piece laid down .opposite St. -Martin's Church, on this plan, has stood the wear of, a twelvemonth without any sign of yielding. As for cleanliness, that is one of its greatest recommendations; and by keeping the wood perfectly clean, its slipperiness is in a great degree obviated; the "greasiness" of viscid mud being the most inconvenient.
Mr. LEITCH RITCHIE suggested some time ago,that a thin coating of pitch should be laid over the wood and sprinkled with grit; a practice adopted in St. Petersburg, which, he says, effectually pre- vented slipperiness, by giving to its surface the bite of a macadam- ized road. This suggestion has never been rightly acted on : sand has been thrown over the pavement in the Strand, hut, net upoila pitched surface; and sand is not grit. Pitch, too, has been used to cement the blocks in Piccadilly ; but the surface was net pitched, nor was grit applied. But grit in the Strand and pitch in Piccadilly do not make up Mr. RITCEIE'S Petersburg recipe. : The sand by itself only makes mud : wood pavement cannot be kept too clean, whether its surface be only the cross-grain of the fibres, or composed of gritty particles adhering to pitch. This state of things must continue so long as the Metropolis is left at the mercy Of a number of separate irresponsible bodies, who have full power to .tax the public, and are at liberty to do or to leave undone just what they please. There are several sets of " Commissioners of Sewers, each acting independently of...the other, and accountable only to themselves: hence, while the public are made acquainted with their underground 'operations( by the chasms in thoroughfares, their more congenial doings at tavern dinners, where venison and white-bait recruit_ their strength for opening another sewer, are known only when one of the brethren tells tales out of school. What with Paving Boards and the rival Gas and Water Companies, to say nothing of the "Trustees" or "Agents" of the various "Estates," the bowels of the highways and the pockets of the rate-payers are invaded in a most uncon-
scionable manner. .. . .
The remedy for this complication of street-grievanees is not easy to propound—so many " vested rights " stand in the way : the inhabitants should assemble in their parishes and districts, but in concert, and agree in some plan, to be urged ,on the attention of Government. The "Metropolis Improvement Society." is a fitting nucleus for such a gathering. Something should be done.
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