Sir – I read your article (March 1) concerning renovation of the plasterwork in the Odeon cinema in Magdalen Street. My family was responsible for this work when the cinema was built in the 1920s.

I have often wondered was there any controversy at the time about the render facade which is obviously a nod towards Italian Fascism, not the most popular political opinion in Oxford at anytime.

The Oxfordshire Limited Edition also had an article on the Painted Room. My father, Bill Herbert and uncle, Cliff Herbert, carried out the plastering renovation work in the very early 1950s to this room.

My father and uncle Cliff and grandfather Jesse Herbert did the ornate ceiling set out in radius form, over the ATM area in Lloyds Bank Cornmarket/High Street corner of Carfax, they also plastered the New Theatre, Midland and County Bank ceiling.

I still have contract/cash books relating to work to villas in Park Town and colleges in Oxford, as well as large contracts in London and the Isle of Wight dating from the 1890s up to the 1950s.

There were and still are, families of local tradesmen who are responsible for some very skilled construction work in and around Oxford. The public seem to forget this fact, as they are fed a never-ending diet of cowboy builder programmes on television.

Bill Herbert, Middle Barton