Higher Buildings The London County Council has acted reasonably in
deciding on Monday to raise the maximum height of trade buildings from eighty to 100 feet. Large business firms and architects have long pleaded for liberty to build higher, such as they enjoy elsewhere in England. The old maximum was defensible, they said, in the past. but modern methods of fireproof steel and concrete construction have made it obsolete. With ground rents and rates at their present level, it is imperatively necessary to get as much floor space as possible on a given site, and this means higher buildings. A few special exceptions to the rule have already been admitted. and there seems no reason why the extra twenty feet of height should not be allowed for all large trade buildings. There need be no fear of skyscrapers of the American type, for the simple reason that the London soil does not provide a secure foundation for ordinary buildings much exceeding 100 or 120 feet, without extremely expensive concrete rafts and piles. But it has to be remembered that the average London street is too narrow to be lined with very lofty buildings. Victoria Street is a case in point.
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