§ SIR HARRY VERNEYsaid, be wished to ask the First Commissioner of Works, Whether, in consideration of the inconvenience and danger arising from the narrow entrance from Piccadilly to Park Lane, he will take measures to open the communication from Park Lane into Hamilton Place?
MR. COWPERsaid, that this communication between Hamilton Place and Park Lane was recommended by a Committee of the House of Commons in 1855. It was fully considered by the Government in 1856, but the difficulties were found to be such that no steps were taken. The difficulties were these:—When Hamilton Place was laid out, in 1809, it was intended to be a street without any thoroughfare, and those who now held from the Crown leases of those houses had taken those leases on the understanding that that arrangement was still to continue. If a communication were to be made from Hamilton Place to Park Lane, it must pass not only through gardens which were now considered a portion of Hyde Park, but likewise through two gardens held on lease in connection with the adjoining houses, which were let on terms that had now forty years to run. Under these circumstances, the Government were not prepared to take any steps. It appeared that these gardens could not be taken without an Act of Parliament, since the trustees were not willing that Hamilton Place should be made a thoroughfare; that Act of Parliament must direct a purchase of the property, and if so, a considerable amount of compensation would probably be awarded. It must be remembered also that Hamilton Place was not of the width required for an important thoroughfare, as the distance between one area railing and another, at one extremity of the street, was not more than thirty-eight feet. He thought the better way to improve the communication would be by widening Park Lane, and he recommended his hon. Friend to turn his 1874 attention rather to the widening of Park Lane than to the extension of Hamilton Place.