There can be little doubt that Magdalen is the most attractive of the Oxford colleges.

Many of the buildings are of different vintages but they all seem to blend well together, with the library, in particular, being one of the best bits of Victorian architecture in Oxford.

This building, besides being an asset to the college, provides a fitting end to the east of Oxford’s High Street.

Having seen what little has been divulged about the proposed extension to the library, one gets the feeling that this new building will not fit in at all well.

I once had the opportunity to talk to an architect who was responsible for a building in Banbury Road and asked him if he thought it fitted in well with its surroundings. His reply was that what an architect has to do is to design something that fills a space to do a particular job, not to think about how it looks.

Time and time again I see plans for new Oxford buildings which look as though they were prepared on a duplicator, because all of them seem to consist of a large area of flat wall with oblong windows cut into it.

I know that architects would point out that we are in the 21st century and buildings should reflect that fact, but, isn’t it time that someone designed buildings with character and a style that fitted in with their surroundings?

Perhaps, forgive the pun, architects are not taught to think outside the box.

Does anyone else feel that art, in general, has descended into a dark age?

DERRICK HOLT, Fortnam Close, Headington, Oxford