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9
Board, representing certain houses, courts, and alleys comprised
within the area, bounded by Great Queen Street and Wild Court on
the North; Chapel Place and King's Head Yard on the North-east;
Princes Street and Duke Street on the South-east; and Drury Lane
on the South-west, and known as the Great Wild Street District, were
an unhealthy area within the meaning of this Act, and that its powers
ought to be applied to remedy the evils existing therein. After
viewing the locality, they, in the month of December, 1876, prepared,
and shortly after laid before the Secretary of State for the Home
Department a scheme under the Act for the improvement of the
area, accompanied by plans. This scheme considerably curtailed that
reported by the Medical Officer as necessary to be dealt with, by
excluding therefrom the houses on the North and East sides
of Great Wild Street, including Wild Court and Chapel Place, and
King's Head Yard on the North-east, and a part of the North end of
Drury Lane; but proposing to widen Princes Street. The Secretary
of State, on the 24th day of March, 1877, caused a public inquiry to
be held, before D. Cubitt Nicholl, Esq., the Commissioner appointed
for that purpose, in the Board Room of this District, at which
the Metropolitan Board and this Board appeared by Counsel. The
scheme was fully considered, and witnesses examined thereon. The
Commissioner stated he should report the same favourably to the
Home Secretary. Although the area proposed to be comprised within
the scheme is considerably reduced, yet it is a matter for congratulation
if it should be approved by the Home Secretary, and carried out,
because it will be removing a most fetid and unhealthy locality, and
substituting very suitable dwellings for the artisan and labouring classes.
Since writing the foregoing, the approval of the Home Secretary
has been given, with the addition that Princes Street is to be widened
to 40ft., and the houses, Nos. 134 to 137, in Drury Lane, are to be
purchased by the Metropolitan Board, within six months after
the passing of the Act confirming the Order of the Home Secretary,
otherwise the Scheme is to be void.
Metropolitan Streets Improvements.
The Metropolitan Board of Works, in the month of November last,
gave the usual notices of its intention to apply to Parliament to
make six new streets in the Metropolis, two of such running through
the District of this Board, viz., from Tottenham Court Road by Crown
Street, Moor Street, and thence to Charing Cross; the other commencing
at New Oxford Street, and running through Thorney Street,
Bloomsbury Street, Broad Street, Dudley Street, and Moor Street; thence
passing through the parish of St. Ann, Soho, to Regent Circus,
Piccadilly. The proposed new streets would open up new thoroughfares,
and would be important Metropolitan improvements; but as they would
both pass through very densely crowded districts, and take an acre and a
half of land to form the new streets, it would involve a permanent