28 FEBRUARY 1925, Page 2

The Times of Tuesday published weighty letters from Lord Curzon—on

behalf of the Fine Arts Corn- rnission--and from Mr. Muirhead Bone pleading for the postponement of a decision to act on -the Report of the L.C.C. Special .Committee and destroy Waterloo bridge. No one could read such moving appeals without Plenching at the idea of scrapping the bridge. Yet we do not think that a - careful -examination of the .Special Com- mittee's Report. will give the impression that its members were unaffected by the aesthetic side of the question. Our impression is that they considered it fully and very reluctantly came to the conclusion that, sooner or later, the ever-growing needs of London would necessitate a larger and more modern bridge on the site of the present Waterloo Bridge. But we agree with Lord Curzon that the problem of bridges in central London has hardly been considered as a whole and that it may be possible to save Waterloo Bridge and yet provide the traffic facilities that are so urgently needed if not only the L.C.C. but the Government will take a broad view of the matter' and be prepared to consider a really large-scale scheme, perhaps involving such radical improvements as moving Charing Cross Station to the south side of the river and the embanking of the southern shore.

* * * *