Sir – If the artist’s impression reproduced (November 12) is the best that Keble College can come up with to complement the former Acland hospital on a prime city centre site, perhaps they should save some more pennies first. Or just build one decent building at a time as finances permit rather than erecting such an architectural monster of an anywheresville office block which has no place in the heart of a world-famous medieval city, even the Victorian Quarter.

Is it not bad enough that we have just seen the physical and metaphorical heart ripped out of the world’s oldest museum and a beautiful neo-classical example of early 19th-century architecture in its own right, in the name of the ongoing sanitisation/ homogenisation of our heritage?

I mean I don’t doubt that more display space is useful, but at what cost? Where is the character and soul to be found?

And what was wrong with the continuous rotation of displays to garner interest all year round? Contrary to all the hype, the Ashmolean was just as welcoming to the public and free as it is now before the rebuilding. And part of the beauty of the museum for this visitor was the fact that it was itself a museum piece and a splendid example of its kind.

There is nothing unique in what it has been largely replaced with, but rather a depressing sameness of the kind to be found in virtually any gallery or museum given too much money to play with.

That unspoken architectural school of ‘Brutalism’ seems determined to have its way it seems.

As for the plans for the old JR infirmary, sometimes I think someone somewhere is trying to turn Oxford into the new Basingstoke. Certainly there is increasingly less for visitors to Oxford to admire. Either that or April Fool’s Day has come early (fingers crossed).

Finally, regarding the suggestion of combining a new arts centre with the new Westgate, is it too much to ask that culture and shopping be kept at a respectable distance from one another?

Does anyone want their first sight when coming out of a profoundly moving concert or thought-provoking play to be some garish supermarket sign reminding them they are short of washing powder?

L King (Miss), Sandford-on-Thames