I agree wholeheartedly with Colin Wadey (Letters, July 3). I lived in St Aubyn's Crescent from as early as I can remember. I started school at the Red School in 1932 and left Fishersgate in January 1939, moving to Southwick.

When, may I ask, did Adam Trimingham live there, and where? I certainly don't remember the slums he refers to and neither, I am sure, do a good many more people who lived there when I did.

Mr Wadey was unfortunate in not having an inside toilet. We did and even though the houses and flats we lived in were old - many of which, I may add, are still standing - they were, as Mr Wadey said, all as clean and well-kept as it was possible to be, as were the gardens. That is more than can be said about a lot of places I have seen. So come on, Adam, give us an apology and stop casting aspersions.

-Mrs Joyce Bowles (nee French), Queens Road, Southwick