I HAVE just received a clipping from your paper about the facelift for the Marble Arch on Leeman Road (April 9). Having been born and bred on Leeman Road, I walked through the arch many times.

As a boy it was scary to hear the trains rumble overhead, especially during the war when it was divided into sections with sandbags to form air raid shelters.

During my school days I passed through the marble arch twice a day because the Manor School had been bombed and we had to share the Priory Street girls' school.

I remember the water stains on the tiles, but in those days there was no graffiti. I always found it better to walk through the marble arch than on the footpath alongside the roadway which was slippery with pigeon droppings and water seeping through the roof.

Donald Brown,

Deer Park, Victoria, Australia.

Updated: 10:16 Thursday, May 13, 2004