NOT GOOD ENOUGH
SIR,—Mingled with his faint praise of the Minister of Housing, Mr. Kenneth J. Robinson has said a word in season about the mediocrity of house design in this country. Though they may be structurally sound and functionally very well planned, most new English houses in suburbs and housing estates are unutterably dull. Any traveller through the country is oppressed by the monotony of brick boxes, whether bungalow or two-storey, whether set out along straight roads or gently curving avenues.
1 admit that some planning is essential in a country so starved Of building land, and the prevention of ribbon development in recent years is a great achievement. But does anyone seriously maintain that 'aesthetic control' has achieved anything at all? If such control were abolished, we might have a little originality, a little colour; even bad architec- ture would enliven the scene.
May I suggest that we give the architects their heads for a while and let them run off in any direc- tion they choose. The results might be a good deal more interesting than the present overwhelming drabness and monotony.—Yours faithfully, 14 Cranmer Road, Cambridge
JOHN MARGESON
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