LONDON STREETS.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE - SPE(TAT011.1 Sra,—In continuation of your article on "London Streets and the County Council" (Spectator, November 24th), may I point out the uselessness of the proposed widen- ing of the middle of Piccadilly, while Knightsbridge at one end, and the " narrows " between St. James's Street and Albemarle Street, remain as they are What is wanted is to enable private carriages and cabs to avoid Piccadilly, and this can only be done by opening up the sacrosanct region of Mayfair. Any one wishing to go northwards from Piccadilly may go through Hyde Park if in a private carriage, but if not may try Hamilton Place or Park Lane, when he will, with care, discover the west end of Curzon Street. Into Curzon Street open Half Moon Street, Clarges Street, and Bolton Street from the south, butte the east there is no exit save the passage for foot-passengers only, between Lansdowne and Devonshire Houses. But suppose the County Council were to buy from each of the noble owners a slip of garden north and south of the passage, and make a good wide carriage-road with rounded corners into Berkeley Street, what a relief it would give to Piccadilly ! As it is, Berkeley Street is hardly appreciated by the ordinary driver, but it gives a short cut to Bruton Street, and so through Conduit Street to Regent Street and Oxford Circus, and now that Davies Street has been opened up into Oxford Street it is the best road due north from Pall Mall. The average cabdriver is content to stick to a main thorough- fare, and more often than not follow an omnibus all the way. Tell a cabman, for instance, to drive from Cavendish Square to the Law Courts, and he will go by Oxford Circus, Oxford Street, and Holborn, to Little Queen Street (where he is certain to be delayed), and so into Lincoln's Inn Fields; instead of going, as he ought, by Margaret Street, Wells Street, Castle Street, and Newman Street into Oxford Street, and then by St. Giles's Church and Broad Street to Drury Lane, and thence by Great Queen Street to Lincoln's Inn Fields. Or again, if one wants to go to one of the northern railway stations, " cabby " will take Seymour Street and then Mortimer Street and the fatal Goodge Street, where he is sure to be blocked by "Little Mud-salad Market," the pet of St. Pancras; instead of turning up Portland Place or Harley Street to New Cavendish Street, and so due east to Tottenham Court Road without a check.—I am, Sir, &a., C. H.
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