West End Extra - Letters to the Editor: Square disappeared under tons of concrete

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 29 February 2008

Square disappeared under tons of concrete

• THE article by Martin Sheppard in which iconic architecture like the Euston Arch was demolished in 1961 reminds me what happened to Euston Square (Arch enemies of architecture, February 22).
Once a quiet square with with trees and a small park in the middle it had the Orange Tree pub in one corner.
It was here that many radical political groups met, including the survivors from the International Brigade who fought Franco in the Spanish Civil War. (1936-1939).
It disappeared under thousands of tons of concrete, unlike the similar small garden-squares of Paris which survive to this day.
Forgive me if I mix my metaphors and bring in a piece of iconic human architecture but one which wasn’t demolished or concreted over – Bernard Kops (The faces change, but it’s the same old buzz, February 22).
In the early 1950s I browsed and bought books from his barrow in Cambridge Circus.
I remember him as clearly as I remember the old Euston Square.
He was dressed in a black polo-necked jersey and black trousers – a slim figure with combed-back black hair – he looked like a poet trying to get a living.
Wilson John Haire
Address supplied

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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