Letter: Even at the 11th hour, ​it’s not too late to save Havelock House

I couldn't help but see the parallels with a similar situation in New York, in 1975, where another iconic building was earmarked for demolition - Grand Central Station. To be 'replaced' with an office tower-block.

However, they hadn't reckoned without the former first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Grand Central was symbolic of old Manhattan, a city her grandfather, James T Lee, had helped build.

Mrs Onassis cared about historic preservation, having restored the White House to its former glory and saved Washington's Lafayette Square from being replaced by ugly government office buildings in the early 1960s.

After reading a story in the New York Times about the station's plight, she joined in the fight with the Municipal Art Society.

This organisation had successfully called for the city's first zoning code and pioneered the Landmarks Preservation Law in 1965, as a result of the razing of the original Pennsylvania Station (which had been replaced by a modernist office complex - comparable to Belfast's Orpheus Ballroom/Co-op store being replaced by the glass monstrosity that is the Ulster University).

In spite of the fact that time hadn't been kind to Grand Central Station, which had become seedy and run-down, with its cerulean blue ceiling depicting the zodiac in gold, virtually obscured by nicotine soot, Mrs Onassis knew there was beauty beneath the grime.

As she said – "If we don't care about our past we can't have very much hope for our future".

Those were her words at a press conference in Grand Central's Oyster Bar.

She added - "We've all heard that it's too late, or that it has to happen, that it's inevitable. But I don't think that's true - because I think if there is a great effort, even if it's the eleventh hour, then you can succeed and I know that's what we'll do."

Which brings us back to Havelock House, due to be demolished on January 8.

It would be a great shame if this were to be allowed to go ahead and it is my prayer that, even now, with just a few days to go, that the developers/builders could be persuaded into a stay of execution, with a view to a compromise – such as retaining the outer frontage of the building, with the interior turned into living accommodation.

Imagine, if you can, October 2024, when Ulster Television celebrates its 65th birthday.

Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to point out to tourists - 'There's the building where it all began?'

Fiona Norris, Belfast