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13
London Improvements Bill.—New Street—High
Holborn to the Strand and Southampton Row
Widening.
The necessity for the formation of a new north
to south thoroughfare has been so apparent for such a long
period of time that it is difficult to understand how it has
never been carried out. Since the constitution of the
London County Council there have been several schemes
for the formation of a new street from High Holborn to the
Strand, but it was not until the month of July, 1893, that
anything approaching unanimity as to the line which the
new thoroughfare should take was arrived at. In the month
of June, 1898, the London County Council adopted a report
of their Improvements Committee, recommending that
application should be made to Parliament for power to
construct a new street from High Holborn to the Strand
and to sanction the widening of Southampton Row. This
street is to be formed by the widening of Little Queen
Street on its eastern and western sides, and by the formation
of a new street from Great Queen Street to the Strand
near the northern corner of the Olympic Theatre, from
which point two curved streets are to be formed connecting
the new thoroughfare with the Strand, which is to
be widened at a point where Wych Street and Holywell
Street open on to the roadway west of St. Clement Danes
Church and between Catherine Street and Wellington
Street In addition it also includes six subsidiary or
junction streets, viz: (1) between the new street and Little
Wild Street; (2) between the new street and Lincoln's Inn
Fields; (3) between the new street and the existing point
of junction of Great Wild Street and Kemble Street; (4)