10 JANUARY 1958, Page 20

COLUMBIA MARKET

SIR,—Columbia Market is loved from afar, with Mr. Betjeman at his carriage window—Mr. Nairn from the depths of the Architectural Review.

I am neither able nor qualified to swop architec- tural gossip, other than to reiterate that I don't like the place, a view supported by the Editor of the Hackney Gazette of Monday, who says (inter alio) 'East London has in the past produced some freakish architecture like the insanely Gothic Columbia Market in Bethnal Green—which, we understand, Mr. John Betjeman wants preserved, heaven knows why.'—Yours faithfully, CHARLES F. F. FLEET Town Hall, Bethnal Green, E2