10 MARCH 1967, Page 24

How to choose an architect Sir: In applying the word

'falsity' to a kind of building he dislikes Mr Manser (3 March) adopts the tone and the moralistic outlook on architec- ture of Pugin and the Gothic revivalists—an approach even less persuasive since Geoffrey Scott wrote than it was before. Some prefer one style, some another. Why import odium theologicum or seek to present a preference as an orthodoxy?

If Mr FitzPatrick is condemning an actual bad design for Richmond Green, I am wholly with him; but if he is saying that a non-Classical design of 1967 has a better chance of being worthy of Maids of Honour Row than a Classical design, I think him an optimist.