increased in width to 60 feet, the estimated net cost of the
necessary property, after deducting recoupment, would be
£601,500. To this must be added the cost of constructing the
embankment, and making up the widened road, such cost being
estimated at £41,000. The total net cost of the scheme is
therefore estimated at £642,500.
If in lieu of laying out the land to the east of the street as a
garden, the site should be let on building leases, the new
buildings to have a frontage to the river and a road between
them and the river, the recoupment would be enormously
greater and the estimated net cost of the scheme would then be
no more than £71,900. The difference between this and the
£642,500 (i.e., £570,600) represents the cost to the Council of
laying out the land east of Millbank-street as a garden. The
area of this land is some 184,000 square feet, or about 4 acres.
While recognising the importance of such an improvement in
throwing open Millbank-street to the river and extending the
public garden, we feel that having regard to other public
improvements required in all parts of London, the outlay of
£570,600 on the acquisition of about 4 acres of garden could
not be justified unless Parliament should be prepared to make a
large contribution towards the cost, in view of the importance
of improving the access to the Houses of Parliament from the
south, and of removing further from them the buildings in
Millbank-street.”
(Further Report of the Improvements Committee, 25 th May and
15th June 1898,
85. The County Council then proposed a scheme in which the land between Millbank and
the river would be laid out as a garden. However, in order to increase the County
Council’s bargaining power with the Government, the Council amended the wording
of the resolution so that it would not be committed to laying out the land by the river
as a garden:
“… the chairman of the Improvements Committee accepted,
and the Council adopted, a further amendment moved by Sir
Arthur Arnold and seconded by Mr Verney, to provide that
Millbank-street should be widened to either 70 or 80 feet, and
substituting the words “deal with” for the words “lay out as a
garden” in recommendation (a).”
(Improvements Committee Adjourned Report, 13 March 1900,
“In the discussion in the Council the opinion was expressed by
some members that the Government ought to contribute more to
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