STREETS. Most of the streets are narrow and many of them are inadequate, particularly in the large business districts, where the congested conditions of the street tratlie are a great disad vantage. Some of the most important strects are being widened, but no comprehensive scheme to relieve the uncomfortable crowding in the Strand, Fleet Street, Oxford Street, Holborn, Ch•apside, and other leading streets has yet been adopted. The finest promenade in London is along the Thames Embankment, which is buttressed up by a wall of large granite blocks, and afford, on of the most spacious thoroughfares in Regent Street, where the most fashionable shops are situated, has ample width, but its architec ture is plain and monotonous. Buildings of more imposing quality have been erected in consider able numbers on Oxford Street, which ranks next in importanee among the business thoroughfares.
Piccadilly is famous for the shops that line its eastern half and the line dwellings and club houses along its western extension. Among other familiar streets, many of which are treated under separate titles, are Fleet Street. snainly devoted to the newspaper trade; Paternoster Row, near Saint Paul's Cathedral, the headquarters of the book trade; Downing Street, containing the new Government offices; Holborn Viaduct, an elevated street overcoming the steep descent of Holborn Hill between Ne•gate and Hatton Garden. and lined with fine stores; Bow Street, with its cele brated police court; the Haymarket, with its the at•es and hotels; Bond Street, the seat of the retail jewelry trade, with fine stores; and Pall Mall, a street of handsome buildings and the centre of club life.