London, May 25.
I have often called attention to the gradual changes which are coming over London life, but as they are becoming more and more pronounced, there are aspects worth mentioning for the information of those who live Overseas and only know and visit the Metropolis once in every few years.
The first most noticeable change Has been provided by the sale of town houses. The © old-fashioned town house, with very few exceptions, is now almost extinct.. Few families are well enough off to keep up a big country house and a big town house, and they usually sacrifice the latter. When they come to town, they either take a furnished suite in a hotel or hire a furnished flat, of which there are always\ a large number available. Ag the result, in every part of the West End, notice boards are out announcing the sale of desirable properties. I counted 12 in Eaton Square, some 10 in Curzon Street and several in Park Lane, while I venture to say there are not half-a-dozen important streets in the West End which have not some house or other on the market.
There are clearly, however, few people ready to take these white elephants, and a very rapid transformation of many of them into flats is now in progress. This is the case even in Mayfair, where flats are seldom let under £400 a year, so the transformation, though costly, is a paying proposition. This transformation of houses into fiats will of course in time exercise a centralizing effect on the population of London, and perhaps stem the tendency in the direction of de-centralization which has been setting in for many years. Obviously, if you have six famille on the same ground which used be occupied by one, the West End will soon alter its character and become rather a, densely populated area.
The existence of flats, however, makes expenses very much easier, since it avoids the servant question and reduces all outlay to a minimum. No new blocks of flats are being built without steam heating add hot water throughout, night and day, and coal fires are practically unnecessary.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.