20 MARCH 1897, Page 16

THE HOUSING OF THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL.

[TO TER EDITOR OF TER " SPECTATOR.")

SIn,—You say in the Spectator of February 20th that the Bill of the Council is a huge job, intended to make the Council popular by providing a mass of work. What are your grounds for such an imputation P You further say that if the Council absorbs the City no building will be required, and that in the Guildhall and Mansion House the Council will have precisely what it wants. This is a mistake. Given unification to- morrow, the City has nothing which could satisfy the urgent needs of the Council. There is no convenience for offices in the Mansion House, and at the Guildhall the present City offices are not more than sufficient for what must always remain the local business of the City. I am the more anxious to prevent misapprehension on the above points, because there is much in your article with which I agree, and which I have myself urged in opposing the scheme of the Council. Let us hope that the recent decision of the House of Com- mons (a most questionable vote in some points of view) may lead the Council to select a site which shall be central for the London of labour, which shall dignify some one of the more squalid parts of the Metropolis, and which shall not be over- shadowed by Whitehall and Westminster. The way to unification does not lie through a palace in Pall Mall.—I am,