Re Simon Jenkins’ excellent article on listing (Yes, rebuild the Crooked House brick by brick – and buttress local planning, too, 14 August), yes, the pub should be rebuilt – perhaps calling in a deconstructivist architect such as Daniel Libeskind, who specialises in sloping floors, out-leaning walls and overhanging eaves.
As for listing, perhaps it would make sense to reverse the entire system. Instead of listings being the odd exception among the unlisted, why not begin by listing everything, so that every development proposal would have to begin by unlisting whatever is on the proposed site? Sure, that would make a lot of casework, but it is pretty much what happens in every conservation area. And there are regions such as national parks where entire counties are in effect conservation areas.
