18 JULY 1840, Page 11

ENCLOSURE OF OPEN SPACES : THE FRESH-AIR QUESTION.

THE subject of Public Walks is again attractiter public notice, am:. moreover occupying the attention or practiczil men of' business. Indeed the Fresh-air question requires agitation: not only is it necessary to seek " fresh fields and pastures new," but. it behoves people to take their " stand on the ancient ways." 'Ile lungs of London are in danger! While Whitechapel and Wapping are praying for a park, Piccadilly and*Pall Mall are threatened with the enclosure of one of their pleasure-tields. The Green Park will be green only in name, if the turf is to be cut up into brown gravel-walks, and covered with stunted, smoke-dried shrubberies. At the very time when the stilled Tower Hamlets are gasping for want of breath, a lobe of the Westminster lungs is threatened with being choked. Round the suburbs in every direction, meadows and footpaths are disalyearing; and what with streets, railway- stations, and cemeteries, we shall Soon not have an unenclosed place within a radius of hi to iniICS 11'0111 St. Paul's: Ifampstead I loath has been more than once menaced by the lord of the manor. Unless some very active and stringent measures are taken to se- cure to the people a certain quantity of open space for public recreation in every (LOP1-1(-1' (,1' the town, while :my is to be had, the brick-and-mortar erupth.mn w ill crust over every green spot Wahl!) it walk of the town. Such is the difficulty, in the way of making a park at the East end of I

.0m.on, that the petitioners have not even been able to point out a feasible locality. A amass of' buildings is an obstruction to be senior :d; an open space always invites en- croachment.

Nothing strikes foreigners nen. on visitiug London than the rage for enclesure : we seem to have a horror of open spaces; eveey square yen! of vacant ground is rs ilea in. Children are fond of playing in them, and make a noise; (pen-air meetings are held, and the nicib is disturbing; so we shut out the multitude and plant a shrubbery for the benefit of the nursery-maids. The effect of a " place" in towns on the Continent is fine in a picturesque point of view, independently of its advantages in promoting a free eir- culathin of air. We are glad to find that the space in front of the National Gallery is to be kept open, and to be laid out as a ter- race, the side next Parliament Street being level with the foot- way : this will be a hantli:olue iii provIncAt, and help to reconcile people to the Ntl■Cin I'll! or in the middle. With the exception of the Parks and the IIII1S of Court, there is :lilt all unenclosed area of ground with mentioning in the whole of this immense metropolis Palace Yard, the old rally ieg-spot i,1 lladiealism, is doomed.; and on Lincoln's Inn Fields, the hmgest of the enclosed squares, the lawyers have east a longing eye to build a nest of Law Courts. it is this mania r,r enclosure that has now seized the Woods and Forests, and caused them to lay violent hands en the Green Park. Balsol.Ey said, " !livers were only made to feed mr.igable canals,-" and (nit- London imprzwers seem to think ground was exclusively intended for making streets and ::quares, lite idea is no doubt entertained, that 1»:ldng a plantation of the Greell Park will be a great improvenala ; and the attractIveness of the enclosure of St. James's Park is pointed out : but iii the one case umm enclosed space was opened to the public, and in 111:; other a fee and open place is to be cHili-; ii. (Ill open only to the well-dressed. Me- chanics and labousersIll ilwir workitar-clothes, and persons carry- ing parcels, are not zahnitted into St. °James's PL,rk li.C1);;Illgt011 CardClIS; so that the working-classes w ill be excluded front the Green Park, unless in holyday clothes. Ilyde Park would follow next : already an advanced guard of shrubberies has been planted there. Trecs are a great and essential ornament to a park, and it few more were wanted ; but, as Mr. Lou DON suggested at the time, they should have le.en planted singly, or in clumps of three or four, not in thick ne:sses to obstruct the view. When the Quecn of GEORGE the Second asked Wsheoi.e what it would cost to en-- close the Parks, the witty 'Minister l'eplied. "Only three crowns." Such would not be Lord Memioi IZNIfS. answer to a similar ques- tion from his Royal Mistress : the thing might be accomplished without risking half-a-crown in, this day. The Green Park was at one time talked of a n chigiblo site for building the new Houses of Parliament ; and Hyde Park has been named aS a capital site for a magnificent palace, with Kensington Gardens for the private grounds. The encroachments that have of late been made on the Parks, though but nibbling at the edge, are significant of the ex- clusive tendency, and also of the apparent public apathy. The

residents of Hamilton Place have got a good slice of Hyde Park for a private garden ; and the Regent's Park is fitirly parcelled out among the proprietors of villas ; the public have only a strip of green at one end—a flagrant violation of the professed intention of that enormous outlay of the public money, by which GEORGE the Fourth reaped so much praise and Mr. NAsn the architect so large a profit. The Society for obtaining free access to Public Buildings and Monuments has done much towards accomplishing its excellent object ; a Society for s3curing Open Spaces for Popular Recreation is equally wanted. These centres of agitation extend their influ- ence over the public mind at every meeting: they keep a question of general interest alive, and concentrate the three of popular feeling, directing it against an assailable point. " What is every- body's business is nobody's business ;" but people are not indif- ferent to the enjoyment of fresh air, and a walk on the grass and among trees, after tramping the pavement all day. The iinpa- tience of wrong and the desire to promote the common good, that constitute true " public-spirit," is only dormant, not dead. The feeling that animated the honest colder of Hampton to con- test the public right of way through Bushy Park, is not quite .extinct. The people of Kensington struggled hard for the footpath over Notting Hill, that was blocked up by the Hippodrome; and they gained their point,—though, by the NV;ly, the ground thus maintained appears to be again in Jeopardy, from an enclosure called " Victoria Park," which is likely to benefit the neighbour- hood at the enpense of the public. An old fivourite footpath be- tween Hampstead and Highgate, across what is called Traitor's high ground commanding a fine view of London, and sur- rounded by beautiful meadows—was attempted to be stopped up by a tenant of Lord 111aNscfm.n; and for a long time the right of way was contested by a public-spirited gentleman in the neigh- bourhood : nor is the matter, we believe, yet settled, though the path is still kept open in spite of the obstruction. Wir.mAni HoNE fought hard for Haginish Lane, the old bridle-road from Islington to Holloway ; it is now almost obliterated by buildings. Casual single-handed contention, however, is wholly inadequate to stein the tide of population that threatens to cover every acre of field with quick or dead : an oNanized resistance is needed to protect some few green spots from the advancing deluge while they remain uncovered. if Parliament will not grant a sum to purchase pleasure-grounds for the people, why not have parks

NYall a penny-toll, like bridges? The old Ilalfpenny-batch in the Kent Road used to pay well; why not a Penny Park ? At all events, let the public have the free use of what is their own,