In message
E27002 wrote:

On Sep 28, 11:36*am, Paul Terry wrote:
In message , Tom Barry
writes

Westway's an interesting one - it was clearly massively destructive of
an established community, but also built and designed to very high
standards.

At the time (and I lived in the area then) it's real significance was as
a potential prelude to the destruction of huge swathes of housing for
the London motorway box. As a youngster living in West Kensington and
owning a car, it first seemed wonderful - but it very quickly became
obvious that the country couldn't afford schemes on that scale.

What was not realised back then was that much 19th-century housing in
the central area could be upgraded to very acceptable modern standards -
instead there was a presumption that people would be happier in the
outer suburbs - an idea that totally collapsed when rising oil and
transport costs made suburban living far less economic for those with
jobs in town.


We can be grateful that the destruction ceased when it did. London
was saved from a horrible fate.

Not applicable to you Adrian, but anyone else interested might like to hunt
out a recent BBC/OU programme on iPlayer, Saving the Market. All about the
campaign to save Covent Garden from demolition, has a lot about the proposed
inner urban motorway box we nearly got in the centre of London.

--
Graeme Wall

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Transport Miscellany at www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail