Calendar: 1853-1854 Page 42

40 ANNUAL REPORT 185 live small houses in Clement's Lane but proceedings have been already taken to secure these Up to the present time the Committee have taken no steps to open up the communication between the Hospital and King's College ami the Strand by purchasing and removing the block of houses at the end 01' Houghton Street They are not without hope that the proposed new street from Chancery Lane to Long Acre may spare the Hospital the necessity of expending as large sum on this object as was originally contemplated The Committee however regard the opening of this communication as deserving of their early and careful consideration The whole cost of the site including the Burial Ground and the Grange Property purchased some years ago will be little short of 21 000 The sum is undoubtedly very large but compared with purchases which have been made by other parties in the immediate neighbourhood the Committee have full reason to be satisfied that the price they have paid is less than might reasonably have been expected The situation must be regarded as most favourable whether the wants of the immediate neighbourhood the density of the population close around the airiness of the locality or its contiguity to King's College and to the great thoroughfares of Holborn and the Straud be considered whilst in its extent the site already obtained is fully equal to any enlargement of the Hospital at present contemplated by the warmest friends of the charity II -Tiie New Building The ground having been cleared and the necessary excavations made the foundation-stone of the New Building was laid in June last and the Com- mittee feel sure that the Court will join them iu respectfully and gratefulh acknowledging the kindness of His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury in presiding upon that occasion in the unavoidable absence of the Bight Honourable the Earl of Ellesmere the President of the Institution Since that time the Architect has been diligently occupied iu perfecting his plans iu preparing the working drawings and specifications and in inviting com- petition from different eminent builders The great extent of the works con- templated and the necessity for dividing the contract into three parts -the second to be built after the first and the third to succeed the second have occasioned so much study on the part of Mr Bellamy that the Committee have only lately succeeded in procuring the required tenders Messrs Lucas Brothers have obtained the contract and they are already at work upon the first part of the building This will include the entire Out-patient depart- ment together with the Chapel operating theatre post mortem theatre and portion of the Carey Street front of the New Building giving rooms for ninety beds as well as the dispensary and dispenser's establishment The Out-patient department situated in and at present approached from Grange Court is ultimately intended to form one side of the new street lead- ing from Cliaucery Lane to Long Acre