CIRCA 1850 my great great grandfather purchased an array of dilapidated buildings midway along King Street, which included shops, cottages, stables, a smithy, coach house and an inn, the Hat and Feather.

Later he willed the various parts to his four sons; the Hat and Feather to my great grandfather.

Later again the brothers sold their various properties to Richard Harding Watt, architect of the Italianate buildings which are dotted around the town.

Having acquired the properties Watt promptly demolished them.

Then in 1907-09 in their place he designed and built the very striking and beautiful Kings Coffee House, better known to Knutsfordians as La Belle Epoque.

Since then the building, amongst several more in Knutsford, has been an attraction to thousands of visitors to the town, many wishing to pay tribute to Mrs Gaskell, our own much-revered authoress. The Gaskell Memorial Tower, if seen from the top of Church View, draws the visitor towards it. He or she might then wish they had not taken the trouble to do so.

Despite the welcome appointment of a town ranger to keep the steps leading to the tower in good order, the pigeon population is determined to have the last word.

It has adopted the top of the tower as a ‘pigeon cote’ with flocks numbering as many as 40 entering it at any one time.

The consequences are that despite the excellent attention of the town ranger the Church View steps remain the principal latrine for roosting pigeons and moving quickly past is a necessity for pedestrians. Moreover, using the handrail is not recommended from the hygiene point of view.

Nor does it help that presently two drains at the bottom level are blocked with thick mud.

However, what is far more worrying to admirers of the Kings Coffee House/Belle Epoque is the worsening condition of the fabric of the building, which is most evident on the wall adjoining the steps where a tree appears to be holding the wall together.

Any attempt to remove same would most likely bring some of the wall down.

This lovely iconic building is deserving of greater care and attention and reflects rather badly on those whose responsibility it is to maintain it.

I would not wish the building to deteriorate into the condition in which my great great grandfather found the site 170 years ago.

John Howard Knutsford