I wish to add my voice to the growing number of people who appreciate this town as an environment built by people who not only loved beauty and form, but were able to combine aesthetics with how we live.

Streetscapes and townscapes can be seen as true art for the people. Great artists have chosen to paint them and they are all the more appealing because they are recognisable parts of our world rather than the idealised spaces of imaginary landscapes.

The distinctive bow-fronted architecture in the Brunswick area especially seems to attract contemporary artists whose paintings have been shown and sold in Brighton and Hove galleries.

The Brighton Festival’s art trails probably have several examples on view right now.

All of us spend our lives inside, and surrounded by, architecture. Where we live, go to school, go on holiday, influences us for good or ill. There has been enough said about the brutal concrete blocks that encourage violence and lawlessness.

There should be more said about the elegance, space and human scale of places that do us good whether we are aware of it or not.

Highly individual buildings and regular Regency squares alike, are art and sculpture for living. They feed the eye, they bring, without us being aware of it, a sense of peace and rightness. Seeing the street as a whole, how its perspective leads to another street and how the pattern is enlivened by a square, folly or church tower helps us realise that going shopping or going to work brings other, more satisfying delights. If our children can grow up surrounded by beauty and a sense of proportion and reason, it will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

R M Knox-Peebles Western Esplanade, Hove