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21
Improvements.
The Metropolitan Hoard of Works having formed a Wicket Gate entrance to
Southwark Park from Dilston-grove, the Vestry found, that in order to obtain a
communication therefrom through to Abbeyfield-road (urged by the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood), it was requisite to make a passage-way on the site of one of the houses
in the said road; negotiations were thereupon entered into with the Freeholder
(Mrs. Carr Gomm,) and with the Leaseholders of the house, No. 09, Abbeyfield-road,
when arrangements were made for the purchase of the property bv the Vestrv, upon
the following terms, viz.:—
For the Freehold of the site £120 0 0
For the Leasehold Interest £400 0 0
Total £520 0 0
The Metropolitan Board of Works, on the application of the Vestry, agreed to
contribute the sum of £260 towards the cost of the purchase of the said premises, and
to lend the Vestry on Mortgage the sum of £250 on further account of such cost, to be
repaid by thirty consequtive annual instalments. The purchase of the property was
then completed, the house No. 69 Abbeyfield-road taken down and a passage-way
carried out on the site.
The said passage way was formally opened to the public by John Tolhurst Esq.,
at a Special Meeting of the Vestry and Parishioners held on the spot, on the 5th
September, 1885.
A Memorial from certain ratepayers of this parish in favour of setting back the
"Hoval Oak" p.h., and two or three adjoining shops at the junction of Union lload
and Deptford Lower Road, having been received by the Vestry, in September, 1885,
the Vestry forwarded the Memorial to the Metropolitan Board of Works. In December,
1885, a reply was received from that Board, stating that, although the setting
back of the buildings referred to would doubtless be an improvement, the advantages
of it would be purely local, and it is therefore one which should be undertaken by the
Vestry, and not by the Board at the cost of the Metropolis at large.
The Vestry caused a letter to be addressed to the Metropolitan Board of Works
as follow3, viz.:—
The Vestry of the Parish of Rotherhithe, Suhkey.
Offices—Deptford Lower Road, S.E.
15th December, 1885.
Sir,
I am directed by the Vestry to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 2nd inst., with reference to the suggested improvement, by setting back the
buildings at the junction of Union-road and Deptford Lower-road, and stating that the
Metropolitan Board of Works regard the matter as one of purely local interest,
and therefore to be undertaken by the Vestry and not by the Board at the