PLYMOUTH CHURCHES
SIR,—Although one agrees so much with Mr. Betjeman's various remarks about the importance of preserving beautiful and historic buildings, it is difficult to go the whole way with him about the preservation of St. Catherine's, Plymouth.
I doubt whether this chapel-of-ease is really as beautiful as Mr. Betjeman believes, and certainly it is not in anything like a perfect state of repair. Some time ago a major part of the front of the build- ing fell to the ground, and has never been replaced; and I am told that the roof is not without defects (although of course not dangerously so).
If it came to a choice, many Plymothians would probably rather have seen money spent on rebuilding Charles Church than on demolishing St. Catherine's and re-erecting it on another site. Now that Charles's future as a picturesque ruin in the middle of a traffic roundabout is assured, one would like to see some of the public's money spent on civic sculpture, or perhaps a fountain or two, rather than on pre- serving Foulston's rather sentimental building. This in any event is not wanted by the Church Commis- sioners, and some entirely new, unecclesiastical, and almost certainly unsuitable use would have to be found for it.
Incidentally, to be fair, bombing during the last war probably destroyed rather more of Plymouth even than the present Corporation—although the latter body must by now be running the bombers a
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