THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL AND PLACES OF RECREATION. T HE London
County Council have consented to apply to Parliament for power to take over the Albert Palace, near Battersea Park, and to maintain it as a place of public recreation, provided that it is handed over to them free of expense and in good repair. The form in which the resolution was ultimately adopted, points to a compromise between the section of the members which desires to promote the amusement of the poor at the public cost, and the section which wishes to see the Council embark in large commercial speculations. Mr. Burns was the champion of the former view. He declared his object to be the providing " 'Arry and 'Arriet " with a roof under which to make love. At present they court in the streets ; but agreeable as this may be in the summer, it has obvious drawbacks in the winter. The lovers get wet ; the lady, at all events, gets draggled ; and to avoid these inconveniences, the couple not unnaturally go to the public-house. We see no reason to question any of Mr. Burns's statements, nor do we understand the incredulity with which his assertion that love-making would always continue was received by some of his hearers. We have not the least doubt that if young people cannot court under cover they will court in the open, that in rainy weather they will regard the shelter of the public-house as better than no shelter at all, and that in this respect at least their comfort will be improved and their characters pro- tected by the free opening of the Albert Palace. The alterna- tive theory, which would make the County Council a huge commercial company, found expression in the addition to the resolution of a sort of rider empowering the new owners of the Albert Palace to run it as a paying exhibition. They may make " reasonable charges for admission," and " let all or part at a rental." As yet, therefore, it is uncertain whether the part played by the Council is to be that of the distinguished philanthropist or the enterprising manager ; whether they hope to make money for the ratepayers by entertainments " at popular prices," or will be content with the more familiar function of laying out the money which the ratepayers provide for them. Of the two, we prefer Mr. Burns's plan. The Council would make a bad impresario ; and if public money has to be spent on the Albert Palace, it will be better laid out in giving free shelter to lovers than in making up the deficit consequent on an unsuccessful season. Nor is there much doubt that the former mode of expenditure will be the one ultimately adopted. To allow the Council to start a music-hall of its own, and then to expect its constituents to stand being kept out of their own " Palace," would argue a very inadequate appre- ciation of the tendency of which this resolution is the expression. The London County Council is not without ambition, and we do not think that it will consent to be less liberal to the ratepayer than the State is to the tax- payer. The most economical Government has never ven- tured to charge for admission to the British Museum or to Kew Gardens, and the sixpence demanded on certain days at the National Gallery is only meant to protect students against the too pervasive presence of an ad- miring crowd. The County Council is even more directly amenable to popular pressure than the House of Com- mons, and a " Free People's Palace " would make an excel- lent cry at the first triennial election after the Council's new purchase had been made a paying instead of a free exhibition.
A further, and perhaps more interesting question— because it opens out a wider field of speculation—is as to how much the County Council stands committed by its new departure. The undertaking to keep the Albert Palace going at the cost of the ratepayers, is a step consider- ably in advance of any that has yet been taken. The Albert Palace is neither an open space nor a lung of London. It is not a necessary condition of the public health that " a winter garden, a palace of physical recreation, a small park with a roof," to which all comers shall have free entry, shall be opened at Battersea. The justification for the decision of the Council must be looked for in another region. It must be found in the doctrine that all pleasures that the well-to-do may legitimately provide for themselves, the municipal authority may legitimately pro- vide for those who are not well-to-do. We do not propose to inquire into the soundness of this assumption ; that, for the moment, we will take for granted. Our task shall be the humbler one of calculating how far along this road the Council are likely to be compelled to go, sup- posing that they elect to travel on it. We should say that they will have to go a very long way. To begin with, there are the claims of other parts of London. For the moment, Battersea has the advantage of having a palace for sale in her midst. But we cannot expect the rest of London to acquiesce in Battersea's good fortune without making an effort to share it. Wherever a building of any size is offered to the County Council, it will be diffi- cult for it not to accept it. Mr. Burns, it is true, contests this inference. In answer to the question, " What has the Council done for Islington," he instances certain improve- ments in the main drainage of the district. But to look after the main drainage is one of the original duties of the Council, one of the few ends for which every one agrees that it exists. Battersea, no doubt, has had, or will have, its main drainage equally well looked to, equally with that of Islington ; but if Battersea is to have a palace into the bargain, we shall certainly find Islington complaining that she has not had her fair share. Even if the Council is able to maintain its refusal to take over any building which is not in good repair, and free from all liabilities in respect of unpaid purchase-money, there are other buildings which may one day be offered to it on these terms. The Alexandra Palace will hereafter stand to North London in much the same relation as that in which the Albert Palace stands to South-West London ; and if the shareholders in the Crystal Palace should ever wish to wash their hands of an undertaking which is not so profitable as it once promised to be, South-East London would have a very strong claim on the consideration of the Council. But can the Council expect to limit its operations to the maintenance of build- ings thus presented to it ? We greatly doubt it. If the object is good, if the provision of places of public recrea- tion is recognised as one of the proper functions of the Municipal authority, what right has that authority to leave this function undischarged until some chance-person hands over to it a ready-made palace ? Rather, we should say, it will be the duty of the Council to consider the wants of the several districts of London, and to set to work gradually to supply them. There are wants, no doubt, that are more urgent than recreation, and the supply of Palaces of Pleasure will probably continue to lag behind the demand. But there will be a continuous effort to overtake it, attended with greater or less success, according as the Council is willing or unwilling to spend freely.
It will be interesting to see what kind and amount of recreation the Council provides in these new ventures. We may be pretty sure that the public will not long be satisfied with the very moderate suggestion of Mr. Burns. To make love under cover is delightful for those who are making it. But after all lovers are only a fraction of the community, and, however interesting they may be to each other, they are not often interesting to other people. What, then, are these other people to do while the lovers are making love? They will want some recreation for them- selves, and every recreation that can be named has the characteristic of costing money. The modern temperament does not care to amuse itself, it wants to be amused. The directors of the Crystal Palace could tell a sad story of the growing indifference of the public to all those per- manent features of the building from which so much was once expected. The courts are the receptacles of one exhibition after another; the fountains are only looked at when they are illuminated ; the slightly monotonous de- corum of the centre transept is relieved every winter by a Christmas pantomime. The public whom the County Council will have to please will be the public that frequents the Crystal Palace on Bank Holidays. It will be no more discriminating, but it will be no less exacting. The only difference will be that, whereas the crowd that grumbles at the quality of a Crystal Palace entertainment only stays away another time, the crowd that grumbles at the quality of a County Council entertainment will unseat the Councillors who have amused them so ill. And then there is the spread of education to be reckoned with. We cannot wish that the public taste should go unimproved, or that it should always be content with a circus or an exhibition of fireworks. But if it does im- prove, if it demands the best music, the best acting, the best pictures, the cost of maintaining places of physical recreation must grow in proportion. If a slightly Bowd- lerised music-hall song is amusement enough to-day, a Wagner opera may be indispensable to-morrow. It is not a pleasant prospect for the ratepayer, and we can only hope that he will be unselfish enough to rejoice that, through his instrumentality, London is at last in a fair way to get its amusements cheap.
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