HC Deb 27 March 1884 vol 286 cc887-8
MR. FIRTH

asked the First Commissioner of Works, Whether he can state to the House where it is proposed to place the ventilating shafts of the Metropolitan Railway (Park Railway and Parliament Street Improvement) Bill, and how many of such shafts there are to be, and what is to be their height and distance from each other; and, whether, having regard to the positive statements made last year by the District Railway Company as to the impossibility of ventilating underground railways in London, he will require the Metropolitan Railway Company to show the possibility of the suggested method of ventilation by practical experiment on the Metropolitan line between Portland Road and King's Cross before proceeding with the projected railway under the Parks?

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

I am informed by the promoters of the Bill that the engineer, Sir John Hawkshaw, is prepared to lay before the Select Committee to whom this Bill has been referred his plans for ventilating the Railway. He believes he can satisfy the Committee that it can be effected without any detriment to the public Parks. The promoters are unwilling at this stage to give details, and they do not think they ought to be called upon to do so.

MR. FIRTH

Will the right hon. Gentleman answer the last part of my Question?

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

I do not know what their plans may be; and therefore I cannot say whether it is reasonable that they should be asked to make experiments.

MR. GORST

May I ask whether we are to understand from the First Commissioner of Works that he has assented to the railway under the Parks without knowing how it is to be ventilated?

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

When I spoke in the debate the other day, I said we had consented to it on the assurance of Sir John Hawkshaw that ventilators would not be necessary.

LORD GEORGE HAMILTON

Will the right hon. Gentleman give an undertaking on the part of the Government that if the promoters cannot carry out that undertaking they will oppose the Bill?

MR. SHAW LEFEVRE

I have stated all along that this is the condition of the assent to the scheme, that there are to be no ventilators in the Parks. Of course, I shall require to be assured that they shall ventilate it in some other way.