Impression of how the new research lab could look in King’s Cross

• YOUR coverage of the dysfunctional council meeting to decide the fate of King’s Cross was enlightening, (Lab too ‘ugly’ for spot near St Pancras? March 4).

It demonstrates why we cannot allow subjective taste and uninformed opinions of architecture and city planning to determine the community impact of new buildings or the demolition of existing ones.

In this case the proposed lab has garnered legitimate criticism and probably will, as Cllr Oliver Cooper predicts, undermine any case for Unesco world heritage status.

But for Cllr Cooper to compare the proposed lab to Trellick Tower, a Grade II*-listed, world-famous and much sought-after, predominantly social housing, complex, reveals why he and other councillors might be unfit to make such important decisions.

Unlike Grenfell Tower, the Chalcot estate and others, Trellick Tower has great modernist style, innovative features and proved able to withstand an in-flat originated fire on the 27th floor with no deaths, major injuries and relatively minor damage.

Even if the Goldfinger vs Ian Fleming story Cllr Cooper refers to were true, it allegedly arose over planning permission for Ernö Goldfinger’s 1939 flats (2 Willow Road, Hampstead), and not Trellick Tower.

Today, 2 Willow Road is a popular Grade II*-listed National Trust property (and still lived in by private residents), which shows how wrong Fleming was. Trellick Tower was opened in 1972, six years after Fleming died. So he had nothing to say about it.

JOYCE GLASSER
Savernake Road, NW3