A company called Foundling Estates, Limited, has bought for- a
million- and a-quarter sterling the site of the Foundling Hospital and a considerable amount of the contiguous land. The chief object of the transaction is to transfer Covent Garden Market to the Foundling site. The hospital would, of course, be destroyed, the open land would be built over, and Brunswick Square and Mecklenburgh Square, both of which have remark- able charm, would disappear. Bloomsbury is extremely badly off for open spaces, and it seems almost incredible that just when ideas of decent and appropriate town- planning have taken possession of the public mind there should be a danger of this contemplated injury to Central London. It is true that Covent Garden badly needs reform, and it may be that reform is im- possible without removal ; but the market ought not to be removed to the Foundling site. The interest of all Londoners in preserving what is artistically charac- teristic and in ensuring a sufficient number of open spaces transcends all private business interests. ,. * * *
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