On several occasions the Spectator has done its best to
save the VVhitgift Hospital at Croydon from destruc- tion. Therefore, it is with particular pleasure that we note that the Croydon Council decided on Monday that a poll of the borough should he taken on the question whether the ancient building should or should not be demolished. The poll will be held on January 25th, and we sincerely hope that the people of Croydon at their local referendum will recognize the importance, even from the commercial side, of preserving the his- torical and beautiful building which they possess. It is a great mistake to think that seemliness and beauty are without effect even upon things which seem so divorced from the aesthetic as trade and commerce. Experience shows that attention to good designs, and to beautiful, instead of ugly, advertisements greatly helps to get trade. A good building in time may have an effect on people's minds analogous to the effect, sometimes stimulating, sometimes calming, produced by music on armies and crowds. Harmony in its thousand forms is a recuperative agency.
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