PUBLIC FOOTPATHS, &c.
The following letter is so generally applicable to the subject of the management of the roads and footways in the environs of large towns, that we insert it as much on that account as for the particular drift which recommends it to the attention of our metropolitan readers:—
To the Editor of the Morning Herald.“Sir,—The readiness with which you insert notices of public grievances, and the effect which these notices always have in drawing attention to them, induces me to state to you a serious inconvenience to which the inhabitants of Bayswater are subject, in the hope that it may through your pages attract the attention of the Metropolitan Road Commission.“It is simply this that the footpath of a considerable portion of the Bayswater-road, between the end of Oxford-street and the door into Kensington-gardens, is during wet weather, and especially after frost, in a worse state than any other footpath, as far as I know, in the neighbourhood of London; in fact, though in the immediate suburbs of the metropolis, it has, with its wide and deep open ditch, and rough hedge bank, all the characteristics of a footpath in a remote rural district. It requires only to be inspected, to produce conviction that it ought no longer to remain in its present disgraceful state. On the other side of the road, approaching the door into Kensington-gardens, there is another open ditch, which serves as a common sewer to the houses in its neighbourhood; and the fœtid exhalations from this ditch in the warm weather, and the filthy appearance of the water in it at all times, are disgraceful to the public authorities; more especially in these days, when so much attention is being paid to public drainage, and other sanitary measures.“The parish authorities have been repeatedly applied to, but their answer is, that it is the business of the Road Commissioners to attend to these footpaths and ditches.“As to the footpaths, they ought to be paved, or laid with asphalte; but if it be too expensive to pave the whole width of the footpath, a strip of two feet wide, along the middle, would be a great accommodation to females and aged persons, and to workmen going to and returning from their work in the morning and evenings. Some years ago you published a letter of mine, in which I endeavoured to point out the advantages that would result from paving a narrow strip along the middle of the footpaths, or two separate strips along such as were much frequented, on all the footpaths round London for several miles distant. Besides the obvious accommodation to females and infirm persons which this strip of pavement or asphalte would afford, it would enable mechanics going to their work to walk nearly as fast again as they do now, and consequently they might have their dwellings farther out in the country, where they would pay lower rents, and sleep in better air. Strips of Yorkshire pavement two feet wide might be laid down at 1s. 3d. per foot in length, or cheaper if the contract were made for laying down several miles of it.“As for the ditches on the Bayswater-road, they require only an 18-inch barrel-drain, and filling up to the level of the path.“If I might farther trespass on your pages, I would direct public attention to the manner in which the trees and shrubs along footpaths are cut and mangled by the parochial road-surveyors in the suburbs of London. On the south side of roads lying in the direction of east and west, it may be advantageous to cut off all those branches which overhang the footpath, the better to admit the sun and wind to act on its surface; but surely the Act of Parliament which directs the lopping of trees overhanging roads, need not be so rigidly enforced in the case of streets running in the direction from north to south, along the whole surface of which the sun shines a portion of every day throughout the year when he appears; whereas on the south sides of east and west streets, during a portion of every day in the year, he does not shine at all. The street from which I date this letter consists of detached houses, each surrounded by a garden, the low trees and large shrubs in which slightly overhang the footpath, or rather, I should say, break and vary the line of the front palisades, and render the street one of the most picturesque in the immediate neighbourhood of town; but of late a new parochial road-surveyor acting, no doubt with the best intentions, according to the letter of the law, has given notice to all the occupants to cut off the overhanging branches, which having been done by the greater number of occupants, even to the cutting off of the projecting tufts of ivy, has produced a formal line of amputation which disfigures the street, without doing any good whatever. In the case of a north and south street, it is surely sufficient to cut off all branches that would impede a tall person carrying an umbrella, or which reach as far as the curb-stone, and might be in the way of the cart or carriage taking up or setting down. I understand that in such a case as this there is no appeal, except to the magistrates, who of course can only point to the law.“I hope this last subject may be considered as coming within the province of the Metropolitan Commission for Improvements lately formed, and if so, I hope they will consider this letter as an appeal to them.“It never can be the intention of the Legislature to disfigure any public road or street when doing so is attended with no public good whatever.“Apologizing for the length of this letter, and hoping you will be able to spare room for it,“I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,“J. C. Loudon.“No. 3, Porchester-terrace, Bayswater,“February 14th, 1843.”
To the Editor of the Morning Herald.
“Sir,—The readiness with which you insert notices of public grievances, and the effect which these notices always have in drawing attention to them, induces me to state to you a serious inconvenience to which the inhabitants of Bayswater are subject, in the hope that it may through your pages attract the attention of the Metropolitan Road Commission.
“It is simply this that the footpath of a considerable portion of the Bayswater-road, between the end of Oxford-street and the door into Kensington-gardens, is during wet weather, and especially after frost, in a worse state than any other footpath, as far as I know, in the neighbourhood of London; in fact, though in the immediate suburbs of the metropolis, it has, with its wide and deep open ditch, and rough hedge bank, all the characteristics of a footpath in a remote rural district. It requires only to be inspected, to produce conviction that it ought no longer to remain in its present disgraceful state. On the other side of the road, approaching the door into Kensington-gardens, there is another open ditch, which serves as a common sewer to the houses in its neighbourhood; and the fœtid exhalations from this ditch in the warm weather, and the filthy appearance of the water in it at all times, are disgraceful to the public authorities; more especially in these days, when so much attention is being paid to public drainage, and other sanitary measures.
“The parish authorities have been repeatedly applied to, but their answer is, that it is the business of the Road Commissioners to attend to these footpaths and ditches.
“As to the footpaths, they ought to be paved, or laid with asphalte; but if it be too expensive to pave the whole width of the footpath, a strip of two feet wide, along the middle, would be a great accommodation to females and aged persons, and to workmen going to and returning from their work in the morning and evenings. Some years ago you published a letter of mine, in which I endeavoured to point out the advantages that would result from paving a narrow strip along the middle of the footpaths, or two separate strips along such as were much frequented, on all the footpaths round London for several miles distant. Besides the obvious accommodation to females and infirm persons which this strip of pavement or asphalte would afford, it would enable mechanics going to their work to walk nearly as fast again as they do now, and consequently they might have their dwellings farther out in the country, where they would pay lower rents, and sleep in better air. Strips of Yorkshire pavement two feet wide might be laid down at 1s. 3d. per foot in length, or cheaper if the contract were made for laying down several miles of it.
“As for the ditches on the Bayswater-road, they require only an 18-inch barrel-drain, and filling up to the level of the path.
“If I might farther trespass on your pages, I would direct public attention to the manner in which the trees and shrubs along footpaths are cut and mangled by the parochial road-surveyors in the suburbs of London. On the south side of roads lying in the direction of east and west, it may be advantageous to cut off all those branches which overhang the footpath, the better to admit the sun and wind to act on its surface; but surely the Act of Parliament which directs the lopping of trees overhanging roads, need not be so rigidly enforced in the case of streets running in the direction from north to south, along the whole surface of which the sun shines a portion of every day throughout the year when he appears; whereas on the south sides of east and west streets, during a portion of every day in the year, he does not shine at all. The street from which I date this letter consists of detached houses, each surrounded by a garden, the low trees and large shrubs in which slightly overhang the footpath, or rather, I should say, break and vary the line of the front palisades, and render the street one of the most picturesque in the immediate neighbourhood of town; but of late a new parochial road-surveyor acting, no doubt with the best intentions, according to the letter of the law, has given notice to all the occupants to cut off the overhanging branches, which having been done by the greater number of occupants, even to the cutting off of the projecting tufts of ivy, has produced a formal line of amputation which disfigures the street, without doing any good whatever. In the case of a north and south street, it is surely sufficient to cut off all branches that would impede a tall person carrying an umbrella, or which reach as far as the curb-stone, and might be in the way of the cart or carriage taking up or setting down. I understand that in such a case as this there is no appeal, except to the magistrates, who of course can only point to the law.
“I hope this last subject may be considered as coming within the province of the Metropolitan Commission for Improvements lately formed, and if so, I hope they will consider this letter as an appeal to them.
“It never can be the intention of the Legislature to disfigure any public road or street when doing so is attended with no public good whatever.
“Apologizing for the length of this letter, and hoping you will be able to spare room for it,
“I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
“J. C. Loudon.
“No. 3, Porchester-terrace, Bayswater,“February 14th, 1843.”