Sir – I would like, through your pages, to congratulate the university’s planners. The two new buildings on the grounds of the old Radcliffe Infirmary are of no particular note, but the gap between them is masterly.

Just stand outside the old Infirmary on the city side of Triton’s fountain and then look to the north-west.

The gap formed by the two buildings perfectly frames the delightful Radcliffe Observatory with its tower of the winds topped by Atlas and Hercules manfully supporting the globe.

The same view can be glimpsed from the Woodstock Road when travelling north.

How thoughtful of the planners to provide us all with this spectacle when utility would suggest closing the gap. However, one right does not correct six wrongs. Could the planners who so sensitively designed the Radcliffe gap be the same planners who designed the monstrosities that now terminate our view of the city from Port Meadow? If so, shame on you and those who allowed you to erect such a dreadful assemblage.

These bulky buildings will be something to be ashamed of for as long as they are allowed to stand. Would that each one of them was a gap, in other words: would that they had never been built. Wishful thinking I know. But in matters that affect the long-term beauty of Oxford surely a compromise that lowers the intrusive height of these shameful blocks is essential.

Rob Walters, Oxford