SOME large brick buildings have recently appeared next to the Askham Bar roundabout which I find somewhat reminiscent of the Victorian workhouses of old, particularly as they appear to have bars at the windows.

On closer inspection I realise, of course, that these are not normal windows as such but that recent architectural feature appearing on so many of our high-rise dwellings – the ‘‘Juliet Balcony’’.

A Juliet Balcony is, in fact, a French window with the added feature of an external fence to ensure that any occupant of an upper storey does not, when they absent-mindedly decide to take a stroll in the garden, plunge instead to their deaths.

Despite the name, however, I must confess that I have yet to observe any person actually standing at their balcony taking in the world beyond.

Indeed, if any damsel were to look out from one of those balconies in particular and inquire upon the whereabouts of her Romeo, I fear the answer may be: “Somewhere up the Tadcaster road trapped ’neath the wheels of a No 843 Coastliner bus.”

Glyn Sunman, Halladale Close Woodthorpe, York.