Keep Haringey Council out of graceful Woodside House

Having tired of the Civic Centre s built-in obsolescence and the soulless wasteland of concrete and engineering brick which they have made of Wood Green town centre, Haringey Council now wants to move into the graceful Woodside House, which they will undo

Having tired of the Civic Centre's built-in obsolescence and the soulless wasteland of concrete and engineering brick which they have made of Wood Green town centre, Haringey Council now wants to move into the graceful Woodside House, which they will undoubtedly treat with the same barbarity.

Years of official vandalism have seen dignified, solid buildings replaced by jarringly unlovely chimaeras of social engineering and incompetence.

Recently the arts-and-crafts Park Road hospital in Crouch End, still beautiful, weatherproof and welcoming after nearly a century, was dismantled to be replaced by a 'modern' sickness-processing factory that I very much doubt will make it to 20 years, before crumbling into a depressing slum.

Meanwhile, the council is engaged in vicious fights all over the borough with campaigners who are trying to prevent the similar mutilation of Wards Corner, St. Ann's Hospital and Alexandra Palace (amongst many others).

Everyone in Haringey has to face the fact that the council is not a responsible curator of what is left of our borough's architectural heritage. Keep them out of Woodside Park.

Lydia Rivlin

Muswell Hill, N10