Reader's letter

City of York Council is studying plans for a new hotel to be put up in place of the old Victoria House - an utterly banal but once useful Co-op at the bottom of Micklegate.

This street, which curves up in stately style from Ouse Bridge, is known the world over as being (in the words of Pevsner's The Buildings of England) 'without any doubt the most architecturally rewarding street in York'. Can we then rejoice that it will be relieved of the feeble rectangle Victoria House?

I'm afraid not. Should readers of this letter decide, as I hope they will, to inspect the plans under examination at St Leonard's Place, they will discover a building that in size (it will tower over St John's Church next to it), in shape (it has projecting eaves, metal-framed windows and rectangular towers), and in overall effect (that of an architectural dog's breakfast) is almost designed to make us regret the old Co-op.

In fact, its only merits are the views of York that it will offer from its top floor, and these will be achieved at the cost of ruining the look of central York for the rest of us. Surely such self-destruct principles have been shown up once and for all by the disgraceful slab that calls itself The Moat House Hotel.

There is no reason why a modern hotel should not be put up at the foot of Micklegate, but it must at least respect the scale of York's finest street and preserve some of its dignity and grace. Those who take the trouble of inspecting the plans, which they can do over the next two weeks, will discover a final joke that the authors of this grotesque project are a firm of York architects.

Jacques Berthoud,

New Walk Terrace,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.