The main cause of all the grave disadvantages the people of London had so unceasingly suffered under in this matter arose from the fact that the interests of the Water Companies and the interests of the people of London ran directly counter to each other. London, in fact, had from the very outset been at the mercy of trading companies for its supply of this necessity of life, and bitter cause, indeed, had London to rue it.
It is too soon to know what improvements will result in the supply of water to the people of London, but in the interests of the public health it is most unsatisfactory that the public should even now be debarred from that direct control which alone can secure them the fullest benefits.
In another of the numerous branches of the great subject of the public health of London—the widening of the streets and thoroughfares—the improvements made in process of years was marked, and the better provision of light and air and breathing space has been considerable.
The total gross cost of new streets and improvements carried out by the Metropolitan Board of Works had amounted to over £12,000,000,[192] whilst it had contributed another million and a half to the cost of smaller street improvements carried out by the “City” and other districts, which latter also expended considerable sums.
The London County Council continued the policy of the Metropolitan Board of Works, and by the year 1904–5 it had carried out, or was in process of carrying out, improvements at an estimated gross cost of over £11,000,000,[193] the greatest and most costly of all being the new thoroughfare—Kingsway and Aldwych—connecting Holborn with the Strand, which swept away some of the most notorious and worst slums in London.
In addition to these, many local improvements have been carried out by the “City” and by the Vestries and District Boards, and later by the Borough Councils. These were estimated to cost about £1,800,000. The total work accomplished, therefore, has been very considerable, but the cost has been huge; amounting in the whole to about £27,000,000.
Of greater value to the health of the people has been the increase of the number of parks and open spaces in London, not merely in preventing land being built over, but in the opportunities afforded the people, and especially the younger portion of them, for exercise.
Here considerable acquisitions have been made since the time of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Immediately after the creation of the London County Council two generous gifts were made to the citizens of London—Waterlow Park of 30 acres and Myatt’s Fields—and the Council had acquired Hackney Marsh, with 337 acres; Brockwell Park, with 127 acres; and Avery Hill, 84 acres; and some distance from London, 803 acres of Hainault Forest. In addition to these several small pieces of ground were acquired and thrown open as public gardens and recreation grounds.
The “City” had also acquired, outside the County of London, Epping Forest, about 5,560 acres in extent, Burnham Beeches, 375 acres; Coulsdon Common, 347 acres; and a few small open spaces in the “City” itself.