How the proposed ‘glass box’ would look

• THE existing building at the junction of City Road and Islington High Street does not have “long extensive runs of dead frontage” as the critics say but a joyful play of orange and yellow brick contrasted with beige stone and a variety of flat and rounded surfaces which gladden the soul, (Love it or hate it ‘glass box’ plan for prime Angel corner, September 9).

The “bell tower” echoes and contrasts with the towers which crown the Co-op bank and Starbucks opposite. Where Islington planning officers find “noisy and smelly extractive vents that vent onto the pavement”, I see vents that warm homeless people. There will be greater need for warmth this bleak winter.

By contrast, the proposed “glass box” (pictured above), is a joyless rictus of rigid rectangles that deadens the soul. It is a building knocked up by a computer having a bad day.

MICHAEL STEWART
River Street, EC1