Dugald Gonsal

• I WAS sad to learn of the death of Dugald Gonsal from the pages of the CNJ, (Thank you Dugald Gonsal, August 3).

In the mid-1980s I worked at Camden in the housing department. One day the borough engineer, Dugald Gonsal, summoned me to a meeting. On entering his office he quipped “Were you expecting me to be Scottish with a name like Dugald?”

He could be great fun but he was also a visionary. Dugald told me proudly that his student thesis was about regenerating the railway goods yards around King’s Cross.

In the mid-1980s the area was still down at heel. To be honest his ideas sounded fanciful to me as I waited for the 73 bus home in the evening on a deserted Euston Road.

How wrong I was. As I look around at the British Library, St Pancras Hotel and Coal Drops Yard, that have risen like a phoenix from the ashes, I wonder what Dugald would think.

He was spot on about the potential of the area. But what would he make of these changes? Might be interesting to compare and contrast Dugald’s vision with what actually transpired.

Anyway my main point is that Camden has lost one of its great chief officers. Heaven will be a better organised place now.

ALISTAIR McINTOSH
Camden Mews, NW1