London Squares
IF Parliament agrees to give immediate and statutory effect to the recommendations of the Royal Com- mission on London Squares that were published last week, in the near future the majority of 461 squares and enclosures with a total area of 400 acres will be per' manently preserved as open spaces. The Report has, however, a wider scope than the mere prevention of building. Lord Londonderry and his colleagues have put forward a number of constructive proposals which deserve more attention than has hitherto been given.
The Spectator has many times described the shortage of playgrounds for children in London, even in the well- to-do districts of Chelsea and Kensington.
The Commissioners anticipate that any measure com- pelling the owners of squares to admit children would no doubt be strongly resisted, but they are of the opinion that arrangements for the admission of children under suitable conditions of supervision and control might well be made. The local authorities in the County of London will no doubt pay regard to the strong advice of the Commission that they should endeavour to secure the consent of owners so that children may make more use of the squares. Looking out at St. James's Square from a club window and seeing it usually quite deserted I have sometimes wondered whether the owners of London's premier squares could not do a great kindness by permitting not only children, but also club servants, who work long hours, sometimes under stuffy conditions, to be allOwed in the garden. Undoubtedly we are not taking full advantage of the enclosures which add so much to the amenities of the Metropolis, and the Report is rendering a great service to Londoners by suggesting other possible uses.
The increasing difficulty of finding parking places for cars, for example, has caused inconvenience to many, and the owners in the evidence which they placed before the Royal Commission put forward the practical sug- gestion that it was important in the public interest to allow for the construction of garages and parking places for cars in underground structures beneath the squares so as to free the streets and facilitate traffic. In such cases, of course, it might be necessary to construct entrances to the garages, slightly restricting the open space. The view taken by the Commissioners is that they do not consider it within their province to express any opinion on the question of whether the construction of underground garages in the future is necessary or desirable. But they do not recommend that the present owners of the squares should be in any way restricted from building underground structures, provided the amenities of the surface are not affected, and subject to power being given to the London County Council to impose reasonable conditions.
Another constructive proposal in the Report concerns the improvement of the enclosures which were laid ,ont during the development of high-class residential estates,- in many cases between the years of 1800 and Tg50. Most of them are surrounded by heavy iron railings and hidden from the public eye by thick shrubberies or, in some cases, by a privet hedge. It was, I believe, Mr. Topham Forrest, the Chief Architect of the L.C.C., who first made the suggestion some years ago at a lecture given to the London Society that the appearance of many of the squares would be much improved if the ugly railings were taken down, and the shrubberies and hedges removed. This has already been done at New Square. in Lincoln's Inn, where the grass is brought up to the railings and th,s delightful view across the lawn is unim- paired. The Commission advise that in other cases the railings be altogether removed, or else replaced by posts and chains, or by some light and more attractive form of protection.
The main question, however, is how to preserve. 461 squares as open spaces. Endsleigh Gardens was built upon by the Society of Friends in 1923, and Mornington Crescent more recently was acquired for a tobacco factory ; while the open spaces of Bloomsbury, around the Foundling Hospital, are still threatened. Fortu- nately at least half of the enclosures are already so pro- tected that there is no danger of them ever being built over, or of any compensation- being claimed by -the owners, who are for the most part public bodies or joint freeholders. The important problem concerns the future of 228 enclosures in private hands and now subject to certain leases. Many of these belong to. well-known men. The Prince of Wales, for example, declares his intention of maintaining the land for which he is re- sponsible in Lambeth as an open space. The Duke, of Westminster, who owns eleven squares in Westminster, puts forward a number of conditions which must be observed if his land is to be " sterilized," and no com- pensation paid. A similar attitude is taken by Lord Cadogan, who owns eleven squares in Chelsea. On the whole, the conditions suggested by the owners cannot be regarded as unreasonable, but Parliament may be' unable to grant all their requests. For example, a number of owners have asked that in the event of Parliament providing for the separate taxation of land values, the squares which they offer to preserve as open spaces should be exempt from such taxes. Possibly on con: stitutional grounds such a provision binding futUre Parliaments may be opposed, and obstacles may arise on this and other points when the time comes for the recommendations to be brought forward in legal forin. But there are means of meeting such difficulties.
One of the most interesting sections of the Report gives details of each square, and some surprising facts are revealed. For example, it has been impossible to trace the owner of Argyle Square in the Euston Road. Here, almost in the centre of London, local residents worked throughout last winter in order to save the garden from becoming derelict. The generosity of landowners, too, in the East End is not always realized. In Stepney, for example, Lord Colebrooke has agreed to a licence in per- petuity being granted to the local Borough Council so that Stepney Green Gardens may be always used as an open space, and this licence is not revocable. The Hon. Evan Morgan has offered to give the freehold of Tredegar Square in the Mile End Road to the local authority on condition that the land is not to be built upon, while Mr. B. Smith and Mr. M. F. Tweedie have let Carlton Square to the Metropolitan Public Gardens Association at ten shillings a year. When the value of land in London is remembered—the price asked for 41 acres at Mornington Crescent was £60,000—it is well we should recognize the public spirit of many landowners. Indeed, the Com- mission emphasizes that the attitude of the owners of tie squares generally discloses " a favourable state of affairs."
Londoners. ought to be very grateful, to Lord London- derry and his colleagues for having investigated the whole question so thoroughly and so quickly, and for having put forward a common-sense and reasonable policy. Even at the maximum the total cost of preserving all the enclosures mentioned in the Report, with the exception of five which are otherwise protected, would not exceed £600,000, and in view of the generous attitude of the owners, it is expected that the actual expenditure will be much less than this sum. During the next few months Parliament no doubt will be very much occupied dis- cussing the hundred clauses of Mr. Neville Chamberlain's Rating Bill; but time must be found for the introduction this winter of a London Squares Bill, which will, let us hope, be carried into law as an unopposed measure with the unanimous approval of all parties.
B. S. TOWNROE.
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