Letter: Thames in peril

Thames in peril

Sir: It is not only Twickenham riverside which deserves celebrity support (letter, 22 February); Kew needs it too.

For ten years we have been fighting a scheme for the Kew riverside site between the Public Record Office and the river Thames. As ever, it is almost entirely for gated "luxury" flats, in six blocks at right angles to the PRO (a brutal edifice itself) and the tow path, stepping down from six to four storeys high.

The Thames in London needs a continuous protection zone along its whole length on both sides, wide enough to encompass those few remaining undeveloped sites, which are under threat of massive over-development and appalling "architecture". The public should have the right to control whatever impacts on land in the public realm.

CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT

London W4