Salisbury has a lot going on now. The central car park resembles a large open-cast mine.

Fisherton Street is going to be beautified and our excellent library is to be transmogrified. In short we have our own HS2 project.

I recently made a tour of Fisherton Street. The street is basically a child of the railway. Architecturally, it has nothing to write home about.

It is mainly late Victorian and not very good at that. Some of the better parts are Georgian and some have nice terracotta features at the front. The interiors are used and homely.

There are no chains, the proprietors are individuals and work hard. I can only look back to the forties (nineteen) but I remember these shops were quite long-lasting, such as Magnet Stores, Futcher the photography expert.

Willie B Abel was the wireless expert and near him was Rowland Thursby the chemist who advertised: “If you have one and ninepence and a bad cough, come to me and I will relieve you of both”. This is at the top of this long street near St Paul's church.

The Yorkshire Fisheries was another old favourite, almost like an institution. They were the fish and chip experts indeed.

The Flamingo Café seems immortal, with good old traditional food. there are also many continental establishments giving good value.

Incidentally, I could find only one shop closed and up for rent, how different from Blue Boar Row! There was also an absence of estate agents and charity shops.

I think Fisherton Street traders are quite happy for things to stay as they are.

Yes, I nearly forgot the Adult Shop! Going on the costing figures, I reckon the cost of these so called improvements is somewhere in the region of one thousand pounds per household.

John Watts

Winchester Street

Salisbury