Dreaming cranes

IN HIS book “Notes from a Small Island”, Bill Bryson, an American author, took exception to some of Oxford’s 20th-century architecture. It is, he wrote, as though the city had said to itself, “We’ve been putting up handsome buildings since 1264; let’s have an ugly one for a change.”

Much of Oxford is beautiful. A quarter of the university is listed. Some buildings date back to 1424. But in the 1960s planners added ugly shopping centres, offices and even college buildings that drain the beauty from the city centre. Now a building programme is under way that aims to avoid such errors, and even reverse a few.