In a recent letter I spoke of how the dislocation of life caused by the frost was intensified by the habit of everyone to flock out of London to remote suburbs. London Transport has this week produced a very interesting report showing how this habit has been fostered by building unnecessary lines to once beautiful places in the country near London, with the result that the Home Counties have been largely ruined, and internal areas of London reduced to semi-slums, In thirteen administrative areas sutveyed by the report, the population grew between 1931 and 1938 from 727,000 to 958,200 an increase of 32 per cent. Between Uxbridge and Harrow the population nearly double itself in these seven years. Between Kingsbury and Stanmore the increase was 86 per cent. and in the North Harrow, Watford, Chesham ang Amersham neighbourhood 51.
It will be noticed that only the northwest and north of London are mentioned. The south and southwest müst have been equally invaded. Twelve years ago London stopped short at the beginning of the Great West Road and Qsterley was still an fashioned village. Now it reaches two-thirds of the way to Staines. which has grown out of knowledge The neighbourhood of Oxshott and Leatherhead is populous with villas and bungalows, and further east Orpington begins to join up with London.
Among the week's obituaries must certainly be mentioned the death of Gus Elen, with whom as one writer puts it "the race of great coster comedians becomes practically extinct." One is tempted to omit the word "coster" though it was certainly in that character that Gus Elen made his name. He had not the supreme versatility of Albert Chevalier, but he was as good a coster. He was unquestionably one of the great lights of the best days of the music hall. His most famous song—in those day: each comedian had his or her owr song often self-composed, as all Chevalier's were, was "Down the Road."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.