Any creative types sitting in Mike Holland’s planned “vibrant media hub” (The Argus, December 30) would be horrified to learn that a beautiful Grade-II listed example of Art Deco architecture – the Astoria – had been demolished to make way for it.

The city of Brighton and Hove has many surplus glass office blocks – what it doesn’t have is much architecture from the inter-war period, and what it does have is mostly under threat.

Saltdean Lido, the ABC cinema on Portland Road, even the Co-op building on London Road are all being threatened with “regeneration” and it’s obviously cheaper to flatten them and build anonymous boxes in their place. In this era of “make do and mend”, we should be upcycling what we have and putting them to new use – all that’s needed is a few developers with imagination.

Alan (Fred) Pipes
Gerard Street, Brighton