By JOHN BETJEMAN
WHICH is the most attractive cathedral city in England? Considering how little, com- paratively, it is mucked about by ugly outskirts and glaring shop fascias and modern industry, I would say Chichester. It is still conveniently small, this old city circled by silvery mediaeval walls and cut into quarters by the two Roman roads which intersect at that Tudor market cross. Its mediaeval buildings, the Cathedral and the Bell Tower, Saint Mary's Hospital and little city churches stand among handsome Georgian houses in warm Sussex brick and local stone. It is still a country town and you can look down narrow streets to trees and grass. Perhaps its most attractive feature is Westgate Fields and the meadows which skirt the city walls below the Bishop's Palace and the Deanery. Here you may see cows grazing with a Cathedral for back- ground. There are now proposals to surround the old walled city with a ring road whose necessity has yet to be proved and, what is even worse, to build a couple of primary schools and a higher education college on the meadows. The Civic Society of Chichester and the Dean have pro- tested. The Church Commissioners own much of the land. The Minister of Transport has not yet made his decision to devastate with a trunk road a unique and peaceful bit of country in a cathedral city. People have made a great fuss about Christ
Church Meadows at Oxford. But at least there is no proposal to build schools and a college on them. The meadows below the city wall of Chichester are even more worth saving, and no new schools and college, however bright and light and up to date, with their inevitable acres of mown recreation ground, can compensate for lush English meadows on a site like this. Because Chichester is less well known than Oxford, this irreparable damage will be done unless power- ful representation is made now. Please make it.
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