formed in connection with the Westminster improvement, and the embankment, shall be laid out as a garden. [Adopted]” (London County Council Minutes, 20 March 1900) 96. Between 2 and 4 May 1900, the Westminster improvements clauses of the bill were considered by the Commons Select Committee on the London County Council (Improvements) Bill. The Committee agreed the amendments to the Bill. On 11 July 1900 the Lords Select Committee on the London County Council (Improvements) Bill considered the Bill. The [Lords] Committee rejected the proposed realignment of Millbank. 97. On 24 July 1900, the Council considered reports from its Improvements and Parliamentary Committees. It agreed to accept the Lords’ Committee’s proposal and proceed with the improvements on the condition that the Committee approved the plan first proposed by the Improvements Committee in June 1899: “Resolved – That the Council do proceed with the Improvements Bill, subject to the Select Committee of the House of Lords agreeing that the new street from the southern end of Abingdon-street to Lambeth-bridge shall be carried out in general accordance with the route shown upon the plan approved by the Improvements Committee on 7 th June, 1899, sanctioned by the Council on 4th July, 1899, and as shown by blue lines upon the cartoon plan now submitted to the Council, including the widening of the northern end of Abingdon-street as already arranged.” (Special Report of the Improvements Committee, 24 July 1900, 98. On 26 July the Lords Committee implicitly agreed to the June 1899 plan. On 6 August 1900 the Bill received Royal Assent. iv) Analysis of the historical context 99. The archived documents uncovered by Dr Gerhold bring the Preamble to section 8 of the Act, to life. In particular, they demonstrate that the use of the land in question for a garden was a central part of negotiations during the passage of the 1900 Act. As the First Commissioner explained in his letter of 14 December 1899 the ‘public benefit’ of a public garden ‘was, in the mind of the First Commissioner, one of the principal considerations in favour of giving up a strip of the existing garden.” 100. Mr Mould relied on the context in submitting that in return for the disadvantages to the Commissioners of the works, section 8 ensured the land was developed as a garden and not given over to buildings as it had been previously. However, once Millbank had been widened and the gardens laid, as envisaged in the plan in 1900, the 36