§ MR. RITCHIEasked the First Commissioner of Works, Whether it is true that one of the conditions on which the Bethnal Green Museum was handed to the Board of Works, was that the vacant space in which the Museum stands should be laid out as pleasure gardens, and permanently kept up as such for the recreation of the people of London; and, if so, what has been done in fulfilment of that condition?
LORD HENRY LENNOXsaid: It is quite true that one of the obligations under which the Bethnal Green Museum was in 1868 transferred from the Trustees to the Crown was that the vacant spaces around it should be laid out and permanently maintained by the Board of Works as a flower garden for the recreation of the people. Owing to some inadvertence the Board of Works was not made aware of this condition until last June; and when it was, my right hon. Predecessor, Mr. Ayrton, gave instructions that a sum of £700 should be inserted in the Estimates of the ensuing year for the commencement of the garden. Matters stood thus when I acceded to office. But, considering the uncertainty which always prevails as to the time when Estimates are voted, I feared that another year might in this way be lost. So, with the sanction of the Treasury, I ordered the works to be begun. They have been begun, and will be pushed forward with the utmost energy, so that as soon as possible the people of the East End of London will have these gardens—as is their undoubted right—finished and made available for their recreation.