Show reconstruction OF LONDON the PROJECT OF THE MARQUIS OF westminster the london sioe SIce spectator says the standard published on christmas day a v ery very remarkable paper which proba ply wy was very little read an account of he reconstruction of fashionable loudon london how in lu progress C iss under the order of the grosvenor family owner of the soil toll from the west side of bond street to sloane square in chelsea of an estate that ia is which includes all ty burnia all belgravia aud and all pimlico boasting the finest and most secure rent roll in europe and possessed with the passion a for business the marquis of ki vest westminster test Yest minster is in hi his s own district almost as powerful as 11 Hauss maii mali in the he department of the seine land ord lord of the house of commons and with whole batches of peers among his tenantry any application of his big for a private act assure is sure to meet with attention while his right of destruction as ultimate landlord is as the leases fall in more complete than that of the parisian prefect ba M haussman could not leave great spaces uncovered in paris patis for if he did the evicted might murmur loudly and the emperor interfere but the Alar marquis quis can he could within 20 years render west london uninhabitable by a mere fiat flat and it would task the whole powers of parliament to interfere with his caprice fortunately ho he is a sensible man who loves money and has some greal great great ideas and he is taking advantage of the fallar falling in ln of his leases to make southwest london a city worthy of the richest if not the most illustrious aristocracy in the world if the writer in the stana stand ard is not misinformed and he must have derived some at least of his facts from the ruling architect for he details the plans as yet not commenced the Grosve nors will before 1880 have turned a camp of brick and stucco into a city of portland stone As each batch of leases fallain falls fall sin jn the houses are to come down even grosvenor square being doomed and the lease holders bolders either rebuild them on the plan framed by mr br gundy and approved by the marquis or the landlord does it himself stucco and sham generally are strictly forbidden and the plan as described seeks a kind of congruity of stateliness which unless it is wisely restricted may interfere a little too much with comfort A city needs buildings other than palaces and stables the guiding idea of that plan is to make the grosvenor estate the residence of the rich to cover it with houses which in any other city would be called palaces to exclude meanness and ugliness as well as all sources of disease and make of west london the most aristocratic city in the world there is nothing whatever to hinder the realization of the plan the marquis is as rich as a city himself the family can afford to spend a generation or two in their great work for under our system a grosvenor succeeds a grosvenor the list of eipl expectant octant tenants is endless and there is no possibility of resistance from without if the poor are provided for which will we trust be the case the public have no right to complain and if they had the com plaint must be loud indeed which which would induce parliament to interfere with a great proprietors right to do as lie he will with his own an outside observer may think that a system under which an individual can own a whole city can order an entire aristocracy to live in the houses that seem to him best can even compel them to spend a sum of almost national importance because he holds certain ideas of architectural propriety is not a system calculated to endure the privileges of property hold their ground however while the privileges of rank decay the senatorial families doubled their property after the senate had bad ceased to torre torri reign ign and power like that of the af marquis of Wet westminster minster if only wisely used may survive our grandsons or for that matter theirs the bf marquis of westminster has the reputation of being one of the keenest kc enest and hardest men of business in the kingdom who can subscribe 1000 to a fund rund but who can also resent being cheated of a halfpenny half penny he is not rebuilding building Gro venoria in order to impoverish po merlh his we M may 11 rely on that too despotic it is only only by a despotism arstrong as strong as that which the marquis exercises that we shall ever accomplish the end in view an end much greater than that for which we are even now investing the metropolitan po littin board of works with all the powers they require that board I 1 about we are told to pull down the street in ln which we write and rebuild it to the grave annoyance and loss of every single individual in the street simply because it breaks what would be a handsome liand lland some line of houses from the thames side to the strand |