LETTER : Making of a world city

From Mr George Atkinson

Sir: Paul Barker lists good theatres, good cinemas, art galleries, restaurants, parks, shops, as "trump cards" in the making of a "world city". He should add public and specialist libraries of world standing - such as the Library of Congress, the new Paris Bibliotheque nationale and the eventually completed British Library at St Pancras.

But no world city has the range and quality of specialist libraries that London has: the City of London Business Library, the British Architectural Library in Portland Place and its drawings collection in Portman Square, the library and civil engineering archives of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and the many other libraries of professional institutions, also the unique London Library in St James Square. For business and scholarship, good libraries make a world city as much as good restaurants and good golf-courses.

Yours faithfully,

George Atkinson

St Albans, Hertfordshire