Looking at the Abbey
The discussion initiated by Lord Halifax on the future of the old Westminster Hospital site raises once more the eternal and usually insoluble problem of the relation between utility and aesthetics. ' If only one side of the question—the immense advan- tage of making the hospital site into an open space, and so providing a new and impressive view of Westminster Abbey—is considered there would seem to be room for only one decision. But for every open space thus preserved room has to be found for some important building elsewhere. The question is where. It is a pity that the proposal to leave the site vacant was not made when the Bill providing for the erection of the new Colonial Office was before Parliament. Mr. E. H. Keeling, who makes this point in The Times, is entitled to make it, for he was particularly active at the time in Parliament in insisting that the design for the new building should be approved by the Fine Art Commission, as it was. If some alter- native site can be found for the Colonial Office,.so that the laudable desires of Lord Halifax and the Dean of Westaiinster may be justified, there will be universal satisfaction. That may not be easy.
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