West End Letters: Vandals! | Rebecca Hossack

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 21 November 2008

Vandals!

• CAMDEN councillor Rebecca Hossack argued early on that the Middlesex Hospital building could have been converted into New York-type apartments – airy, spacey, interesting and idiosyncratic.
Fitzroy Square interior designer Kitty Edwards-Jones made a valiant rearguard effort to document and preserve as much of the Middlesex Hospital as possible, including Fitzrovia’s own “Bridge of Sighs” over Riding House Street.
She researched how ordinary citizens had, out of charity and generosity, contributed to the birth of this hospital.
For all its faults, this was a building born out of the love and dedication of a community.
To Fitzrovians, the
273-apartment, £1bn Noho Square project was a back-room stitch-up.
Whatever happens to this space (Noho Square deal in ruins, October 31), let it be quintessentially rooted in and be part of (not alien to) Fitzrovia, our lovely little corner of London.
Get people involved who care about Fitzrovia, who care about London, who care about quality and good design, who don’t just pay lip-service and “clear off” when they can’t make a buck.
Ms Hossack is right to have referred to those who pulled down the hospital in Mortimer Street as “ghastly vandals”.
Name and address supplied, NW1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
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I could not agree more – an appalling display of hubris and corporate vandalism.
The Middlesex and its staff were an integral part of the Fitzrovia community. I can only hope that this goes back to the drawing board.
D. Marriot