Having a reference point on the wing or the strut where one puts the centerline provides automatic adjustment of distance from the runway regardless of height when downwind
DFC is absolutely correct. I did my PPL on Tomahawks at a field with an 800ft circuit height. For LH circuits the filler cap on the left wing in line with the runway on the downwind leg meant you were where you should be.
Threshold 45 degrees over your shoulder was the turn on to base.
I was also taught (and it was in the States) to bung on the first stage of flaps downwind abeam of the threshold and trim out the control forces accordingly, rather than on base when the workload is starting to get a wee bit higher. Subsequent use of flaps was dependant on the conditions during approach, full flaps not necessarily being needed, but the trim change needed was and still is not nearly as much as that inital one.
Of course at 800' circuit height approaches tended to be powered as much as glide, but even now 20-odd years later I rarely use my Cessna barn door full flaps untill I'm over the fence and committed to landing.
If you are trying to tighten circuits at your local airfield then use ground features to mark the corners of the circuit. Certainly works if you don't have other aircraft ahead of you to worry about.
C-dog