Sir – We are concerned that the photo-montage of Oriel College’s proposed student accommodation blocks within the Bartlemas Conservation Area which featured prominently in your article (November 18) failed to represent a true picture of the threat to the rural setting of the medieval hamlet’s three historic listed buildings.
The elevation facing eastwards into the core of the hamlet presents a predominantly flat-roofed, vertical façade with third-floor balconies, punctured by three ‘solar chimney’ stairwells which rise to more than nine metres in height.
It is unfortunate that Oriel’s architects have not produced a similar photo-montage of this east elevation at any time throughout the protracted three-year planning dispute within this the smallest and most sensitive of Oxford’s conservation areas.
Adam Romanis, Vicar of St Bartholomew’s Chapel (Grade 1)
Sarah and Christopher Franks, Bartlemas Farmhouse (Grade 2*)
Sally Jeffrey, Bartlemas House (Grade 2*)
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