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12
OVERCROWDED DISTRICTS AND OPEN
SPACES.
The year of the appearance of this Report is remarkable
in the annals of the Parish on account of the agitation which
has divided public opinion. The question of the purchase of
land in Brixton and Vauxhall for the purpose of playground
or park, has engaged local and even general attention. In
the wards, discussion has driven the peaceable ratepayers into
hostile camps. The Public Halls have been the scenes of
motion and amendment. The Vestry has held late sittings.
Resolutions have with difficulty been passed by the Board
of Works. Even in Parliament bills promoted in aid have
witnessed a division. But in spite of this manifest divergence
in opinion, against the health aspect of the question, against
the desirability or even the necessity of preserving open
spaces for public recreation, neither one side nor the other
has ventured to offer any argument.
Indeed, those who are the bitterest opponents of the
proposed schemes are eager to admit that war is not waged
by them against the principle, but against the manner, in
which it is proposed to carry that principle into effect.
Upon the kernel of the question the people of Lambeth are
in complete accord.
The agitation in this and in other districts where enterprises
of a like character have been set on foot, is only the
surface manifestation of a deeper undercurrent of feeling
which pervades the Metropolis. There is a widespread
conviction that an element of danger exists in the steady
advance and consolidation of brick and mortar, and in the
Unrestricted absorption of open and unoccupied space.