Vestries and district

boards may,

of metropo

effect im

provements

within their parish or

LXXII. The vestry of every parish mentioned in schedule (A.) to the firstly-recited Act, and the district with consent board of every district, shall, with the previous consent litan board, in writing of the metropolitan board of works, have power within their respective parish or district to make, extend, widen, alter, or improve any street, road, or way, district (d). or any bridge over a canal traversing any part of such parish or district, for the purpose of facilitating passage and traffic, or for any other public purpose; or to contribute and join with the metropolitan board, or with any other body or persons, in any such improvements; and to take by agreement or gift any land, right in land, or property for the purposes aforesaid, or any of them, on such terms and conditions as they may think fit; and for the purposes aforesaid it shall be lawful for any vestry or district board, should they see fit, to take down the present bridges over canals within their parish or district, and to erect others in their place and stead, or to erect new bridges over such canals in such situations as they may deem beneficial, and from time to time to repair and maintain such existing or new bridges, and

(d) The power of making, widening, or improving streets, roads, or ways, is by the 144th section of the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, given to the metropolitan board of works only, who are authorized to contribute and join with any persons in such improvements. This provision enables vestries and district boards to effect improvements of the nature described, and to take land by agreement or gift, with a proviso that the enactment is not to limit the powers given by the General Metropolitan Paving Act, 57 Geo. 3, c. 29, or by any local Act. The 57 Geo. 3, c. 29, s. 80, et seq., post, Appendix, enables the paving authorities to make improvements of their own authority and without consent; but the provision at the commencement of the present section, rendering the previous consent of the metropolitan board necessary, seems to impose the condition of such consent before the improvements mentioned in the 80th section of 57 Geo. 3, c. 29, so far as they are identical with those described in the present section, can be carried into effect; and if that be so, notwithstanding the proviso at the end of the section, those powers would to this extent be limited. By the 19 & 20 Vict. c. 112, s. 11, vestries and district boards are empowered to take by agreement or gift any land for the purpose of open spaces and pleasure grounds.

to indemnify the canal company or other body or persons interested in such bridges against the future repairs and maintenance of any such bridges; and the expenses incurred by any vestry or district board in any such improvements shall be paid out of the general rate (e) authorized to be raised in their parish or district under the firstly-recited Act: Provided that no such extension, widening, alteration, improvement, taking down, or reerection of any existing bridge over any such canal, or the erection of any new bridge over the same, shall be made without the previous consent in writing under their common seal of the company owning such canal, and the provisions of the one hundred and seventh section (ƒ) of the firstly-recited Act shall remain in force and be applicable to this enactment: Provided also, that it shall be lawful for any such vestry or district board, under the provision contained in the one hundred and eighty-third section of the firstly-recited Act, to borrow and take up at interest on the credit of all or any of the monies or rates authorized to be raised by them under that Act any sums necessary for defraying the expenses of any such improvements: Provided, that nothing in this Act shall extend or be construed to extend to authorize the taking down or removing any bar, gate, rail, or other fence fixed for preventing any thoroughfare into or from any square, street, or way, without the consent of the proprietor of the estate or property upon which such bar, gate, rail, or other fence, square, street, or way shall be situate: Provided that this enactment shall not limit (g)

(e) The expenses of improving streets by vestries and district boards are to be paid out of the general rate, but the expenses of similar improvements, when carried out by the metropolitan board, are to be defrayed out of the sewer rates.

(f) The 107th section contains the prohibition against the removal of any bar, gate, &c., which is repeated in terms in the proviso at the end of the section, and its introduction here seems to be superfluous.

(g) As to what shall be construed to be a limiting of these powers, see note (d), supra, p. 298,

Act as to paving and improving

parts of metropolis to extend to metropolis as defined by

the powers now in force given by the Act next hereinafter referred to, or by any local Act.

LXXIII. The powers of improving and regulating streets and for the suppression of nuisances contained in the Act of the fifty-seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third, chapter twenty-nine, local and personal, intituled "An Act for better paving, this Act (h). improving, and regulating the Streets of the Metropolis, and removing and preventing Nuisances and Obstructions therein," shall, so far as the same is in force, and is not inconsistent with the provisions of the recited Acts and this Act, extend and apply to the metropolis as defined in the firstly-recited Act and in this Act, including any unpaved streets, and notwithstanding any exceptions therein contained.

Buildings projecting beyond

LXXIV. In case any building, situated within any of the parishes, districts, or places comprised in the sche

(h) This Act, 57 Geo. 3, c. 29, the General Metropolitan Paving Act (commonly known as Michael Angelo Taylor's Act), extended to all streets and public places which were at the time of its passing paved or might be thereafter paved within the cities of London and Westminster and borough of Southwark, and any other parts of the metropolis which were included within the weekly bills of mortality, and to all streets and public places which were then paved, or might be thereafter paved, within the parishes of St. Pancras and St. Marylebone, except only certain parts particularly excepted. The exceptions were contained in the 139th section, exempting from the provisions of the Act the estate of the Marquis Camden in St. Pancras, the 140th exempting the estate of Lord Sommers in the same parish, the 143rd declaring that the Act should not extend to the parishes of St. Mary, Islington, and St. John, Hackney. The 144th section saved certain provisions of the Act 56 Geo. 3, c. 128, with respect to the powers of the commissioners for executing the Act for opening a communication from Marylebone Park to Charing Cross, &c.; and by the 146-7th section the Act was not to extend to the estates of the Collegiate Church of Westminster contiguous thereto. By the 147th section turnpike roads were exempted from its provisions. See the clauses incorporated by the present section, post, Appendix.

when taken

dules of the firstly-recited Act, which shall in any part general line thereof project beyond the general line of the street in down to be which the same may be situate, or beyond the front of set back (i). the building, wall, or railing on either side thereof, shall at any time be taken down to an extent exceeding onehalf of such building, such half to be measured in cubic feet, or shall be destroyed by fire or other casualty, or demolished, pulled down, or removed from any other cause to the extent aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the metropolitan board of works to require the same to be set back to such a line and in such a manner for the improvement of any street as the said board shall direct; provided that the said board shall make compensation to the owner of such building for any damage and expenses which he may sustain and incur thereby: Provided also, that this section shall not apply to any building in the places mentioned in schedule (C.) to the Metropolis Local Management Act which does not abut upon any public street or place.

with regard

beyond line

LXXV. The one hundred and forty-third section of Mode of the first-recited Act, and the one hundred and fortieth proceeding section of the Act passed in the seventh year of His to buildings Majesty King George the Fourth, chapter one hundred of street. and forty-two, intituled "An Act for consolidating the Trusts of the several Turnpike Roads in the Neighbourhood of the Metropolis north of the River Thames" (k)

(i) This section is in substance borrowed from a provision in the City Sewers Act, 11 & 12 Vict. c. 163, s. 153, by which a similar power is given to the commissioners of sewers for the city, which is not interfered with, as this enactment only applies to the places mentioned in the schedules to 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, and therefore does not extend to the city of London.

(k) The 140th section of 7 Geo. 4, c. 142, provided that, with certain specified exceptions, no building should be erected on any new foundation within fifty feet of the sides of the road leading from the Edgware Road, near Paddington, to the Great Northern Road in Islington, and from the north end of Great Portland Street to such road,- that no part of the said roads should be paved except under the provisions of that Act; and that if any building should be so erected or pavement laid down, &c., the same should be deemed common nuisances.

are hereby repealed; and in lieu thereof be it enacted, that no building (b), structure, or erection shall, with out the consent in writing of the metropolitan board of works, be erected beyond the general (c) line of buildings in any street, place, or row of houses (d) in which the same is situate in case the distance of such line of buildings from the highway does not exceed fifty feet, or within fifty feet (e) of the highway when the distance of the line of buildings therefrom amounts to or exceeds fifty feet, notwithstanding there being gardens or vacant spaces between the line of buildings and the highway, such general line of buildings to be decided by the superintending architect to the metropolitan board of works for the time being, and in case any building, structure, or erection be erected, or be begun to be erected or raised, without such consent, or contrary to the terms and conditions on which the same may have been granted, it shall be lawful for the vestry of the parish or the board of works for the district in which such building or erection is situate to cause to be made complaint (f) thereof before a justice of the peace, who

(b) Neither this Act nor the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, gives any interpretation of the word building. The 1st section of first schedule to the Metropolitan Building Act, post, Appendix, regulating the structure of buildings, requires that every building shall be enclosed with walls. See as to the meaning of the word under that Act, Stevens v. Gourley, 29 L. J. (N. S.) C. P. 1, cited in note to sect. 143, 18 & 19 Vict. c. 120, ante, p. 104.

(c) The word "general" is substituted for "regular," which occurred in the repealed enactment. See Tear v. Freebody, 22 J. P. 707; and Robins v. Bury, 25 J. P. 83.

(d) The words " place or row of houses" were not in the repealed section, and their addition will remove doubts as to the application of the provision to separate rows of houses, terraces, and the like in long lines of road. See as to the construction put upon analogous provisions in schedule (E.) of the former Metropolitan Building Act, 7 & 8 Vict. c. 84, by the official referees, Lawes' Proceedings under the Metropolitan Building Act, 1846.

(e) The distance in the repealed enactment was thirty feet. (f) This enactment, providing for an inquiry before a justice of the peace, is substituted for the provision in the repealed