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former, stating that the original enquiry extended
only to a suggested improvement at the corner of
Calthorpe Street, and that it would be impossible
to add much to the street in the manner proposed.
He also asked that before the matter was further
considered he might be furnished with a plan
showing the proposals of the Yestry. He further
stated that the Post Office traffic would be mainly
provided for within the walls of the disused prison,
and that any land that might be thrown into the
street would have to be acquired by the Local
authorities by purchase from the Postmaster-General.
The Yestry thereupon directed that a plan showing a
uniform width of 60 feet, from Calthorpe Street to
179, Farringdon Road, by setting back the wall of
the prison, be prepared and forwarded to the First
Commissioner of Works.
About this time, however, the Post Office Sites
Bill was introduced into Parliament to set at rest
certain doubts which had arisen as to the validity
of the transfer of the site of the Prison to the Post
Office Authorities, and the following communication
was received from the Clerkenwell United
Ratepayers' Protection Society :—
The Clerkenwell United Ratepayers' Protection Society,
33, Wharton Street, W.C.,
July 3rd, 1889.
Dear Sir,
Referring to the Government proposal to take over, for
the purposes of the Post Office, the site formerly occupied by the
House of Correction, and the opposition thereto, on the part of a
minority of the ratepayers, in favour of the conversion of the said
site into an open space, I am required to ask you to be good
enough to lay before your Yestry the fact that my Society is
strongly in favour of the space being taken over by the Postal
Authorities, in view of the great amount of local prosperity which
would thereby be caused by the bringing into the Parish of a
large working and occupying population in partial substitution of
the loss of trade entailed by the withdrawal of the warders, etc.
Further, the population of Clerkenwell is steadily decreasing and