Absurd criticism (From The Oxford Times)

Absurd criticism

7:10am Thursday 29th July 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(0)

Sir – You report the refusal by John Penrose, the Heritage Minister, to list the gatehouse at St Anne’s College, against the recommendation of his statutory advisers English Heritage. In the case of the Physiology Laboratory, which I followed up through the Freedom of Information process, it emerged that English Heritage had recommended listing not once but twice, with the full approval of the most senior listing officers, but that the DCMS had advised the minister to prefer the opinion of the consultant who was being paid by the University.

Although the sole consideration for listing is supposed to be the quality of the building, they also told him that the University wished to demolish the building to make way for a new Biochemistry building.

Such decisions by Ministers, who are themselves as unqualified to judge architectural merit as the civil servants of the DCMS, make a mockery of the process.

In the case of St Anne’s, you quote Mr Penrose as saying that the gatehouse has ‘no special decoration or craftsmanship’. This is an absurd criticism of a building of this type and date. It must be remembered that Sir Nikolaus Pevsner thought it worthy of an illustration in his Buildings of England: Oxfordshire.

Peter Howell, Oxford