History of the Tower Bridge and of Other Bridges Over the Thames Built by the Corporation of London; Including an Account of the Bridge House Trust Fr

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1894 Excerpt: ...the Corporation, was in progress. HOLBORN VALLEY VIADUCT. The Holborn Valley Viaduct spans the ancient valley of the River Fleet lying between Snow Hill on the east and Holborn Hill on the west. After the Great Fire of 1666 the Fleet was widened and turned into a canal from the Thames up to Holborn Bridge, and here barges were wont to be moored. The steep declivities of Holborn and Snow hills occasioned great inconvenience to the traffic and were the cause of many serious accidents. Various schemes of improvement were propounded from the middle of the last century onwards, and some relief was afforded at the beginning of the present century by what was known as the Skinner Street improvement--a straight thoroughfare which replaced the narrow and tortuous Snow Hill. In January, i860, the Common Council instructed the Improvement Committee to inquire and report on the desirability of establishing a central railway station in the City of London, in the neighbourhood of Smithfield or elsewhere, and whether the Corporation should take part in the furtherance of such a scheme. The committee, in their report, submitted a design of the then City architect, Mr. J. B. Bunning, for raising part of the valley of the Fleet, and thereby improving the dangerous and inconvenient gradients of Holborn Hill, Skinner Street, and Snow Hill. A scheme for effecting this purpose was brought under the notice of the Government in 1862, and an Act was passed in the following year prolonging the City's d. coal duty for a period of ten years, the produce to be applied by the Corporation in the first instance to the raising of Holborn Valley and afterwards to such further City improvements as Parliament might sanction. No less than 105 designs were submitted, and Mr. Bunning being dead,...