BUILD IT YOURSELF
SIR,--Leslie Adrian is right in stating that I was one of the 'antis' in the matter of Dr. Yudkin's new house. He is, however, wrong in his implications about the difficulties of the brave pioneer who wishes to build 'where there are also period houses.' The point about the once unspoilt enclave of Hampstead where I used to live (I have now moved to the other part of Constable's country, protected this time, I hope, by the National Trust) is that it was all period houses. As one came down Holly Walk, on the left was the beautiful little group of which the centrepiece is the loveliest Catholic church in London (as any artist will tell you). The right-hand side was bounded by a fence and trees, beyond which one was vaguely conscious that Galsworthy-Charles Addams architec- ture began again.
I don't think my protests and those of all the other residents contributed much to the delay. The fence (and some splendid trees) had been torn down and work actually begun before the public inquiry was announced at all—and then the question was only whether Dr. Yudkin's house should be practically flat on to Holly Walk or set back a few yards. All the other side at the inquiry had lawyers with black coats and striped trousers, who listened tolerantly to my passionate plea, knowing jolly well that the whole thing had been buttoned up long before. I don't mind Scandinavian boxes in new suburbs, or in Scandinavia. But not in Hampstead.—Yours faith- fully,
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