§ SIR HARRY VERNEYasked the honourable Member for Truro, Whether, when a new street is formed, it is the habit of the Metropolitan Board at the same 139 time to make a subway for containing gas, water, and other pipes; and, whether the Board will use their endeavours to have subways made whenever they have the opportunity of doing so?
§ SIR JAMES M'GAREL-HOGGIn reply to my hon. Friend's Question, I beg to state that in forming new streets the Metropolitan Board have, when considered advisable, made subways for containing gas and other pipes, as in the case of the Victoria Embankment, Queen Victoria Street, Northumberland Avenue, Commercial Street, White-chapel, Garrick Street, and Southwark Street. The great inconvenience, however, of disturbing existing arrangements would not, I think, justify the formation of subways in all cases; and I am not, therefore, prepared to say that the Board will, on all occasions, use their endeavours to have them made. Power is usually taken in the case of long and continuous improvements to form subways; and such power has been taken with regard to the new streets proposed from Charing Cross to Tottenham Court Road and from Piccacadilly Circus to New Oxford Street.