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22
taken by indictment or otherwise. But "The Disused Burial
Grounds Acts, 1884," now prohibits building on disused Burial
Grounds, and there is no probability of the place causing the Parish
any further trouble.
THAMES COMMUNICATION.
Neither the Bill of the Metropolitan Board of Works for constructing
a tunnel at Nightingale Lane, nor the Bill of private
promoters to authorise the construction of a "duplex" bridge near
the Tower, which had been referred to a Hybrid Committee, passed,
and there upon the Vestry passed a resolution expressing its hope that
the Metropolitan Board of Works would take the necessary steps to
obtain Parliamentary power to construct a tunnel or bridge for
vehicular and podostrian traffic from Shadwell to Rotherhithe. A
copy of the resolution was sent to the Metropolitan Board of Works
and to the various Vestries and District Boards. The Vestry also
expressed the opinion that steam ferries would be an utterly unsatisfactory
and insufficient mode of providing means of communication
across the Thames East of London Bridge. In reply to the communication
from the Vestry to tho Metropolitan Board of Works tho
following letter was received:-
"Spring Gardens,
" 22nd November, 1884.
"Sir,—Referring to the communications from the Vestry of Bethnal
Green on the subject of means of transit across the Thames in the eastern
parts of London, I am directed to state that with regard to the opinion
expressed in the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons,
that a subway should be constructed by the Board at or near Shadwell,
the Board has consulted its Engineer, and is advised by him that to carry
out the suggestion it would be necessary to adopt one of the following
courses : (1) to construct a subway immediately under the bed of the river,
for which purpose it would be necessary to form a coffer-dam, and thereby
interfere to a serious extent with the entrances to the London and Surrey
and Commercial Docks; or (2) to construct the tunnel at a much greater
depth, involving the use of mechanical means for lowering and lifting the
traffic on both sides of the river.
"Having regard to the stringent conditions as to the navigable waterway
which were sought to be imposed upon the Board last session in connection
with the Bill for a subway at Nightingale Lane, by Wharfingers and
others interested in the navigation of the river, as well as the Wharfingers
adjacent to the site of the Works, and to the objections raised by the
Conservators of the Thames to the interruption of the river traffic by
cofier-dams, the Board is of opinion that the opposition to the formation of
a shallow subway at Shadwell by coffer-dams would be of a formidable
character.
"The Board is also of opinion that the construction of a tunnel at a much
greater depth below the bed of the river, and dependent entirely upon the
use of mechanical means for lifting and lowering the traffic on both sides
of the river, is a work of so novel a character that it should not be hastily
undertaken.