TOWN PLANNING.* THE average Englishman is content to be told
that he is not highly imaginative in artistic matters, though he is a fairly sound judge of what he sees before his eyes. If artists tell
town Planning. By H. Inito Trion. London : trisialian and Co. [154. not.]
him that England is behind other countries in care for public beauties, his imagination is more likely to shut up, fast as an oyster, than to make a responsive expansion. He is still worse to drive. Having cultivated freedom more than his artistic sense, he thinks compulsion uglier than any inartistic exterior. If he is told in effect by a Town Planning Bill: "You ought to like this, so you have got to have it whether you like it or not," he thinks there is something unreason- able in the command; such is the obliquity of the beast. If he is told further: "You are a self-governing creature, so you shall have your own power to get what you like so much ; hut if you don't exercise it, a benevolent despot at the Local Govern- ment Board, will issue a mandamus to see that you do get it and pay for it," then he will be so stupid 84 to think that he is being "put upon." That is why there is not likely to be very much cheerful co-operation in working out schemes under the compulsion of legislation. But there are other ways of inducing this fine child to stir himself without dis- turbing his little delusion that he is a free man. If he has lived contentedly in a dreary street, take him to the Letch- worth Garden City or the Hampstead Garden Suburb. To examine the plans collected this year in the interesting Town Planning Exhibition at Hampstead may not amuse him, but he will go home from the place to wake up the next day dis- contented with his street. Or let him study Mr. Triggs's book, and he will soon be grumbling at our streets, open spaces, public buildings, traffic management, &a.
Hausmann is, of course, the prophet of town-planners, though Paris is but the chief of the Meccas outside England. The well-drilled German is now consenting to have the develop- ment of his towns controlled and directed upon excellent and provident lines. Hitherto nearly all the grandest effects of Continental towns have been due to the despotic action of public-spirited and splendour-loving Sovereigns, and one wonders whether Englishmen would exchange their London for the magnificence of Berlin directed by the Kaiser, or for the beauties of Paris, owed to Napoleon III. and his unrivalled servant. As with all reformers in a hurry for perfection, Mr. Triggs looks to Government, and demands a powerful Minister of Art. But the average politician would be of no use, and the presence of a man with a strong artistic sense would raise more difficulties than a soldier at the War Office or a sailor at the Admiralty. At the same time, he disparages unduly the work of our First Commissioners of Works, for the London parks have become really beautiful of late years, and if Mr. Harcourt leaves no other record of his place in the present Ministry, the new Dutch Garden at Kensington Palace should earn for him London's lasting gratitude. Mr. Triggs does not confine himself to describing the beauties of the world's cities ; he has a most practical chapter on the management of traffic, which is well worth reading, both as to the arrangement of routes and the methods at congested crossings, such as "gyratory " regulation. The orientation of streets and the effects of sunlight do not often get the con- sideration that he gives them. Not the least interesting part of the volume is that in which the author reviews the gradual growth of ancient towns and the building, according to careful plans, of Roman and Greek colonies. Upon these the gridiron plan of New York, regardless of the site, is no improvement, and even at Washington L'Enfant's splendid plans have not been adhered to. The illustrations from photographs and plans are extremely helpful, though some of the plans have had to be reduced until the lettering is illegible. During the breathing-space which speculative builders now seem likely to take after the immense develop- ment of late years around our big towns it will be well if this book is widely read, so that the next outburst may be on more artistic lines, and show more consideration of the further growth in future generations.
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