What is the character of the North Laine in Brighton?

Councillor Bob Carden says that in rejecting the design for Acacia's circular shop window in Gloucester Road, "we are not trying to destroy the special character of the North Laine" (Letters, February 2).

I am sure they are not deliberately trying to do any such thing but what exactly is the North Laine's special character?

Surely it is that the area has not one quality but many qualities, happily co-existing in a state of continual change?

The North Laine had taken on this constantly-mutating identity as early as the 1820s and, from this perspective, Acacia's round window is perfectly suited to its North Laine setting.

-Henry Law, Brighton