Civic awards

SIR – Well, meow! One of the St Albans Civic Society Awards for architecture was handed to the old Town Hall on St Peter s Street with the the disdainful remark that the Merchant Tea and Coffee Company had simply shoehorned in their corporate furniture, t

SIR - Well, meow! One of the St Albans Civic Society Awards for architecture was handed to the old Town Hall on St Peter's Street with the the disdainful remark that the Merchant Tea and Coffee Company had simply shoehorned in their corporate furniture, taking no regard of the elegant Georgian interior of the building.

Is this the same elegant interior that was allowed to moulder away for many years by the self-same council? Remember the threadbare carpets? The cheap-looking banner slung across the front entrance?

Somehow the Tea and Coffee Company, always packed out, seems a perfectly pleasant and welcoming alternative to all that. If the council is so exercised about preserving Georgian elegance, they had plenty of time to do something about it.

L HORTON

Creighton Avenue, St Albans

SIR - Re: St Albans South Signal Box. As a member of the voluntary Trust supporting the restoration of the box I was delighted to read the report of the Civic Society's Award to the box.

Anybody who has visited the box in recent months and the thousands of rail travellers who have passed by will have seen the transformation of the box from a graffitied pigeon nest into a viable working museum set in a small well laid out garden. A wonderful asset to the city.

The Trust is always on the look out for any items of memorabilia, photographs or reminicences of the local railway scene over the years. These can be for display in the box or publishing in the Trust's newsletter. If there are any readers who have items of interest the Trust would be pleased to hear from them via its website www.sigbox.co.uk or by visiting the signal box on one of its public open days.

RICHARD KIRK

Marshalwick Lane, St Albans