gan to rule the roast. That a
great deal of work _was_ being done, however, is shown by reference to
the Borough accounts for 1840, in which year L17,366 was expended in
lighting, watching, and otherwise improving the thoroughfares, in
addition to L13,794 actually spent on the highways. 1852 saw the removal
of the turnpikes, at a cost of over L3,200; in the same year L5,800 was
expended in widening the entrance to Temple Row from Bull Street, and
L1,800 for rounding off the corner of Steelhouse Lane and Snow Hill. In
October, 1853, it was decided to obtain for L33,000 the 11,540 square
yards of land at the corner of Ann Street and Congreve Street, where the
Municipal Buildings, Art Gallery, and new Gas Office now stand. Almost
every year since has seen the purchase of properties more or less
required for substantial improvements, though some of them may not even
yet have been utilised. A few fancy prices might be named which have had
to be paid for odd bits of property here and there, but about the
dearest of all was L53 10s. per yard, which the Council paid (in 1864)
for the land required to round off the corner of New Street and
Worcester Street, a further L1,300 going, in 1873, to extinguish certain
leasehold rights. This is by no means the highest figure given for land
in the centre of the town, as Mr. John Feeney, in 1882, paid at the rate
of L66 per yard for the site at corner of Cannon Street and New Street,
the portion retained for his own use costing him even more than that, as
he generously allowed the Corporation to take 30-1/2 yards for L1,000.
The introduction of the railways, and consequent obliteration of scores
of old streets, courts, alleys, and passages, has been of vast service
towards the general improvement of the town, as well in the matter of
health and sanitation, as leading to the construction of many new
buildings and the formation of adequate approaches to the several
railway stations, the erection of such establishments as the Queen's
Hotel, the Great Western Hotel, &c. Nor have private property owners and
speculators been at all backward, as evidenced by our magnificent modern
banking establishments, the huge piles of commercial buildings in
Colmore Row, New Street, and Corporation Street, the handsome shops in
New Street, High Street, and Bull Street, with many other edifices that
our grandfathers never dreamed of, such as the Midland, the Grand, and
the Stork Hotels, the palatial Club Houses