[Closed] Worst building in UK

No. I give you Elephant & Castle:

[img] [/img]

It's worst new building I think....

Salford Shopping City. A monstrous concrete monolith, slap bang in the centre of a post-apocolyse grimscape. I'm constantly amazed that the entire local populace aren't throwing themselves off the top of it like lemmings, crashing down, their skulls imploding on piss-sodden broken paving stones, strewn with broken glass, dog shit and syringes? Probably only because the lifts are broken.

[img] [/img]

this car park that ruins worthing sea front

[url= ]ugly[/url]

Is that the winner of the Carbuncle Award? If so, it's a worthy winner, it looks vile. The only trouble is that a lot of other buildings seem to be going the same way.

[img] [/img]

Cumbernauld shopping centre. But for the full horror you really need to walk round it. In fact that first pic is its best side

[img] [/img]

The chemistry tower at Bangor university has to be up there, especially given how incongruous it is with its surroundings:

[img] [/img]

That, or Glyn Garth across the water:

[img] [/img]

Pick any shopping centre. The major shortcoming of the Manchester IRA bomb was that it didn't destroy the Arndale.

The Beetham Tower in Manchester. It's ugly.

[IMG] [/IMG]
It's an elephant.. apparently.

This is the tallest building near us and ruins the view for miles around.
I fantasise about firing a rocket at it from Epsom Downs.
[img] [/img]

I think I'd take the modernism above over thousands more of these:
[img] [/img]

anyway, my winner nomination would be Bridgewater Place:

[img] [/img]

a building so badly designed as to have killed a man.

corby bus station, grim doesn't describe it....

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

The Barbican Centre

corby bus station, grim doesn't describe it....

Part of the problem with that is that it hasn't been looked after, it's actually got quite a pleasant shape and proportion. I'd have thought it was probably quite striking when it was new and clean.

The Beetham Tower in Manchester. It's ugly

The chemistry tower at Bangor university has to be up there, especially given how incongruous it is with its surroundings:

I'd agree with that, but also the Brambell Building has to be up there too.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[i]The Barbican Centre[/i]

Looks like the same architect as Portsmouth's Tricorn Centre, which got demolished about 10 years ago.

Worcester's new library "The Hive"

[img] [/img]

Thing is, i'd rather 1000 buildings that i personally don't like the look of, but at least the architect/designer tried a bit, against just 1 concrete straight up, straight down monstrosity where the designer completely failed to take into account the needs of the end user:

Exhibit A: Northampton Bus Depot:
[img] [/img]

hideous, dark, and totally un-inviting!

^^ Ha Ha, I wondered how long it would be until various buildings at Brunel University were shown. Bloody horrible place.

The lecture centre (and Howell building) are apparently supposed to look like a galleon, but were designed to be viewed from a distance as a whole. But with all the surrounding buildings you can't stand far enough back to 'appreciate' it. I think the distance for 'appreciation' to occur is about 30 miles.

When I was there, the grassed area lower right in that pic was just a load of cocrete paving with massive concrete boxes, that might have been flower beds.
Apparently when the building was first built, that sunken bit was supposed to be a pond (the galleon in water) but they filled it and it immediately all leaked out! Might be an urban myth though.

Should really pay the place a visit! It's been quite a few years.

quote]DezB - Member
The Barbican Centre

Thing with this is it's won so many awards for it's design that it really commands a very high price, if you want to live there.. Which many do. I think they're mad quite honestly.

Pic from Farringdon Rd..
[img] [/img][

I've always reserved a special loathing for the piccadilly hotel. Its like it was designed specifically to blend seamlessly into a heavy, grey manchester sky

[img] [/img]

Birmingham.....

A lot of Brutalist architecture represented here. I always think that a lot of these examples would look stunning if they just painted over the grey concrete hideousness. Why don't they do that, is there a reason?

Thing with this is it's won so many awards for it's design that it really commands a very high price, if you want to live there.. Which many do. I think they're mad quite honestly.

My parents sold a studio flat there last year, not in one of the towers (which command a higher price), it went for over £450k! More than asking price and sold in two days.

It's listed I believe, or at least has some protection status.

A lot of Brutalist architecture represented here. I always think that a lot of these examples would look stunning if they just painted over the grey concrete hideousness. Why don't they do that, is there a reason?

That would make the buildings look too much like a building from a nice happy sunny country such as Spain and not a depressing, grey, wet shithole in the socialist utopia that was soviet russia?

Can't have that!

Plus, I think a lot were listed.

this car park that ruins worthing sea front

It certainly takes away from the architectural gem to the right.

Tom, to be fair, the lecture theatre was supposed to look like a boat an, in the right light after a night in the bar (it used to be just off to the right in that photo) it did. Legend has it that it was built the wrong way round though, and the wood effect concrete has to be seen to be believed.

However, the campus does have some merit, starring briefly in A Clockwork Orange as the aversion therapy institute. It is _very_ sixties though.

Why don't they do that, is there a reason?

It's a bit more involved than that, a lot of them suffer from the materials not really being up to the job. With some they do make the effort though and they can look really good, a good local example is Swan House in Newcastle. I don't really like wht they've done with Baron House but that's a big improvement too.

Anyway, talking about incongruity, it's only a few years since this went: [img] [/img]

Thats the main problem with Brutalism. It was representative of an age of brutal regeneration and quite frankly had to be fit for purpose in a very short time, which most achieved, not to our “modern” tastes admittedly, but non the less they have a certain fractured solidity about them.

this car park that ruins worthing sea front

It certainly takes away from the architectural gem to the right.

There are so many. A lot of it is down to taste, hence little to no accounting. But for me I feel the woefully shortsighted and brutal architecture of joy-sucking concrete tower blocks and multi-story car parks all over the country would be best reduced by explosives. Even a good, firm, merciful push might be all it would take to transform their moribund mass into ready-soaked piss-stinking rubble. Whilst studying at college I once lived in the Chapel Street Estate, nr Dudley. Admittedly it was by far not the worst (and I could see as far as Wales from the oh-so-tempting balcony, but it was nowhere to live, simply a cynical existence that fomented nightly dreams of escape and a daily drudge of avoiding the similarly crushed souls that coughed and hacked their way up 20 flights of echoing stairs (the lifts being normally the domain of dogs, micturation and drug-taking)

I had friends who lived in the long-since demolished Tanhouse tower blocks, and they took some grim pleasure recounting tales of falling televisions and human bodies that passed their 12th floor window over the years. Designed for unemployed people or those on low wages, they also housed troubled and violent families, criminals, pensioners and young homeseekers. Even if you were an optimistic tenant to begin with then the Block would soon put pay to that.

A building can change the way we live, and by small or large degree change who we are. I know what the high-minded architects and planners were thinking but they were wrong.

[IMG] [/IMG]

Tom, to be fair, the lecture theatre was supposed to look like a boat an, in the right light after a night in the bar (it used to be just off to the right in that photo) it did. Legend has it that it was built the wrong way round though, and the wood effect concrete has to be seen to be believed.

What I don't get is why Brunel University opted for a design influenced by socialism and then supported and pursued fairly right wing policies for the rest of their history.

However, the campus does have some merit, starring briefly in A Clockwork Orange as the aversion therapy institute.

There's a reason why the used it in that film! The main lecture theater is truly hideous , even if they did intend for it to look like a boat.

That would make the buildings look too much like a building from a nice happy sunny country such as Spain and not a depressing, grey, wet shithole in the socialist utopia that was soviet russia?

But most of them didn't look like that when they were built, the water staining came later. With modern materials that can be mitigated.

But most of them didn't look like that when they were built, the water staining came later. With modern materials that can be mitigated.

I was mostly kidding. Still....grey....against a British grey sky...coupled with grey roads...yay!

Having a career in building has led me to believe that all architects are incredibly crap at design and construction technique - It really is beyond belief.

I have worked in the Barbican centre on small projects in the last 2 years. There is literally nothing you can change in there, its all protected right down to the urinals in the 'superloo'.

Anyway, talking about incongruity, it's only a few years since

How the hell did that get allowed?!

My mate lives in the Barbican and showed me around, very interesting and his flat is all original (e.g.the kitchen area) which is v desirable apparently. Not for me though, I live greenery.

I have no idea if it even has a name, but the new-ish multi stroey car park in sheffield.

[img] [/img]

I've no idea whatt he idea was, but it managed to drag the 'poor' end of the high street/shopping district down even further.

[img] [/img]

This and the millions just like it, dull, uninspiring cookie cutter architecture that makes no attempt to enhance anyones life beyond keeping the weather off them.

This and the millions just like it, dull, uninspiring cookie cutter architecture that makes no attempt to enhance anyones life beyond keeping the weather of them.

Well said!

this car park that ruins worthing sea front

ugly

Thing with that is, if it was maintained and painted a crisp white it wouldn't look bad. Nothing wrong with a building being 'of it's time', it's the decline and rust staining that ruins most of these buildings.

muppetWrangler that is a thing of rare beauty. Like the way they used a Victorian theme with an earlier 'window tax chic' faux window on the upper floor. It already looks like a well-loved family home before the filler foam is dry. Said no-one ever.

Glad you guys have the money to buy houses with interesting architecture.

Surely the Hepworth at Wakefield needs a mention in worst buildings.

And there wasn't a wet eye in the house:

Glad you guys have the money to buy houses with interesting architecture.

I don't, and I don't own a house, does that mean I shouldn't have a view on architecture? Ah, trollery...

This and the millions just like it, dull, uninspiring cookie cutter architecture that makes no attempt to enhance anyones life beyond keeping the weather off them.

Yours for £375,000

Wouldn't mind if they were cheap.

muppetWrangler wins. And they're always on enormous soulless housing estates, where every single road looks exactly like the next, with exactly the same leased BMW rep-mobiles in the drive. And theres absolutely nothing whatsoever you can actually do without getting in your car and driving 5 miles round 27 roundabouts first

*shudders at the thought of it*

Muppetwrangler, I'll see your soulless house and I'll raise you the latest unimaginative pastiche development from Redrow homes:

[img] [/img]

Now what we should be building is new homes that actually look new, something like this:

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Wouldn't mind if they were cheap.

If you want to spend £3k (obv also requires land) and save the other £372000 for interesting stuff:

[IMG] [/IMG]

Many come to mind, but in my area there is one outright winner:

[img] [/img]

The former Bradford and Bingley BS HQ slap bang in the middle of what could be a nice little commuter town, surrounded by pretty hills and woods.

The definition of architectural blight.

For all that I like brutalism, the B&B is a bizarre failure of a building - again, it's exacerbated by being careworn though.

Having a career in building has led me to believe that all architects are incredibly crap at design and construction technique - It really is beyond belief

I can't believe I'm going to defend architects, but...

The concept architect comes up with a unique scheme which looks amazing, will enhance the environs and be wonderful to live or work in.

The client doesn't want to spend that much as he won't get the returns or investment on that much capital, so the design gets compromised.

The planners are stuck in the sixties and tied up in their own red tape, can't approve the form or materials, so the design gets compromised.

The structural engineer can't make the shape work without £££ or losing volume to structure, so the design gets compromised.

The services designer can't achieve the environmental or performance requirements so the design gets compromised

Everyone piles all the risk to succeed on the poor contractor (thats me!) who is balancing all the above factors on a knife edge to make the build work with next to no margin. The contractor value engineers the scheme and improves buildability to reduce risk, so teh design gets compromised.

The interior designer can't match the colour of the cushions to the walls, so ...

Its no wonder so much potential is missed in modern construction!

Malvern Rider: Leave Brierley Hill flats alone! They've served as my north star for years - anytime I've found myself lost (drunk) in a strange part of the borough, all I've needed do was find high ground and navigate by the orientation of the flats.

Plus when I was a young'un they made a handy dumping ground for the scaggy ne'erdowells I went to school with, keeping Stourbridge (comparatively) s****y.

-salutes the stars-
[img][url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5520/9481619645_430827990b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5520/9481619645_430827990b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/frRMbM ]PICT0104[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/46181615@N07/ ]spud-face[/url], on Flickr[/img]

ye gads, it took some time to figure out how to flickr link

~edit - many a happy lunch

[img][url= https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4115/4931848575_4414816012.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4115/4931848575_4414816012.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/8vP1KZ ]PICT0167[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/46181615@N07/ ]spud-face[/url], on Flickr[/img]

Oh and I've just been looking at a scheme very similar to Agent007's above, using Modern Methods of Construction (off site manufacture primarily), very high energy performance, looks fantastic.

Unfortunately the planners took so long fannyig around wanting tweaks (it was stuck in the middle of a Londo multi-storey estate FFS) that cost increases mean it is now no longer viable and we're back to teh drawing board.

🙄

grrr rant over

Malvern Rider: Leave Brierley Hill flats alone!

No worries, I did! Took me two years to escape, and I think by that time the area was also becoming absorbed/gentrified (!) by Merry Hell Shopping Mecca. Took a trip back there recently and was delighted to discover that the Bull and Bladder still serves the joint-first best beer know to humanity, and some of the friendliest locals reminded me that the area wasn't all bad, just the blocks! Argh the blocks!

MR (ex-scaggy Stourbridge ne-er do well 😉 )

A lot of Brutalist architecture represented here. I always think that a lot of these examples would look stunning if they just painted over the grey concrete hideousness. Why don't they do that, is there a reason?

Er, you know why it's called Brutalism, right?

Stumpy01, what year were you there?? It's changed a lot since I left ('96) in more than just the buildings on campus.

New accommodation across the river from the Gym and on the old all weather pitch. A new lecture block up by where the old Maths building was. Departments slashed and burned. Sad really.

Anyway, the legend I heard was that the architect of the lecture theatre saw that it had been built the wrong way round and jumped off the top. Mind you, legend also has it that the whole campus is back to front; the old HQ with the pond in front should have been at the back, with the gym end being at the front.

Glad you guys have the money to buy houses with interesting architecture.

The problem is, as 007 points out, you can actually build interesting houses, to the same cost and density as the faux victorian/tudor/edwardian/georgian crap we do get.

In 100 years (or probably a lot less) this crap will all get torn down again and something else will get built in it's place.

[i]Now what we should be building is new homes that actually look new, something like this[/i]

THEY ARE DISGUSTING! In 10 years people will see them as an eyesore, I guarantee it.
Like round my way where they've built similar looking monstrosities on all the green land they can find.

Like this:
[img] [/img]

Hideous.

I like them. At least they're not trying to be something else.

For all that I like brutalism, the B&B is a bizarre failure of a building - again, it's exacerbated by being careworn though.

Am also a fan of brutalism. And, as with so many things, there are good and bad examples.

Unfortunately, we're no longer fans of modernity in this country, and so have reverted to caricature and a bland pastiche of a past that never existed.

What's weirdest of all is that in TV show/estate agent/aspiring middle class speak, "period" property really means Victorian and Edwardian. Which tells me all I need to know about the tastes of the British: stuck in the past.

Glad you guys have the money to buy houses with interesting architecture.

There's the problem, currently architecturally interesting buildings do carry a premium. Mostly because they are small scale, often individual schemes undertaken by people that actually care enough about what they are doing enough to try and do it well. If the major house building firms actually cared about their product rather than just churning identical estates then they would be able to significantly lower the costs.

It's not all the fault of Taylor Wimpey and Barratts though, the general public and the local planners are equally to blame for the sad state of domestic architecture in Britain. It seems that unless the house is some sort of pastiche of Tudor, Edwardian, Georgian or Victorian then it doesn't belong in 21st century Britain.

Cumbernauld shopping centre really is incredible... All the charm of the chernobyl sarcophagus, and new ugliness from every angle.

jambourgie - Member

A lot of Brutalist architecture represented here. I always think that a lot of these examples would look stunning if they just painted over the grey concrete hideousness. Why don't they do that, is there a reason?

Brutalism by definition is raw unpainted concrete. So yeah you could paint them but then they wouldn't be brutalist any more, and Zombie Le Corbusier would come and patronise you frenchly and undeadly.

Anyhow, I'm going to post my favourite bit of Brutalism the Roger Stevens Building in Leeds:
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

A stunning, functional building made significantly better by having been looked after:

I can't believe I'm going to defend architects, but...

The concept architect comes up with a unique scheme which looks amazing, will enhance the environs and be wonderful to live or work in.

The client doesn't want to spend that much as he won't get the returns or investment on that much capital, so the design gets compromised.

The planners are stuck in the sixties and tied up in their own red tape, can't approve the form or materials, so the design gets compromised.

The structural engineer can't make the shape work without £££ or losing volume to structure, so the design gets compromised.

The services designer can't achieve the environmental or performance requirements so the design gets compromised

Everyone piles all the risk to succeed on the poor contractor (thats me!) who is balancing all the above factors on a knife edge to make the build work with next to no margin. The contractor value engineers the scheme and improves buildability to reduce risk, so teh design gets compromised.

The interior designer can't match the colour of the cushions to the walls, so ...

Its no wonder so much potential is missed in modern construction!

Quite agree with you but there must be a way round all this. In essence we are saying everyone's crap and that principally because there's not enough money to produce quality

<freud> Looks like a winged robot with a massive erection. </freud>

That's probably better because it wasn't just plonked like Godzilla in the middle of a bunch of Victorian or pre-WWII town planning, like the one I suggested in Bingley. Basically that, and the dual carriageway driven through the centre of town, have destroyed the place.

I'm guessing that is on a nice spread-out campus with plenty more concrete surrounding it.

In essence we are saying everyone's crap and that principally because there's not enough money to produce quality

Smaller, higher quality schemes? (I appreciate that probably doesn't then deliver the right ROI on the guys providing the funding - Stoner would know.)

[img] [/img] . . . . one of several uninspiringly hideous buildings which currently "grace" Plymouth.

Among many others, I LOVE these buildings.

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

This and the millions just like it, dull, uninspiring cookie cutter architecture that makes no attempt to enhance anyones life beyond keeping the weather off them.

Glad you guys have the money to buy houses with interesting architecture.

While this is a fair statement to make, it's a shame because interesting design isn't necessarily expensive. The market does that, not the actual design. So much clever engineering, architecture and industrial design actually drives more efficient and cost effective production methods, but the "Designer Tax" ramps up the price, leading to a level of exclusivity that prevents them from ever making it to mass market and widespread adoption.

That ghastly cookie cutter Barratt Home nightmare pictured above represents to me a far deeper, darker dystopia than even the most grim and unapologetic brutalism ever did. At least the concrete tower blocks of the 60s and 70s were built against the backdrop of hope for a better future. This mock victorian rubbish we've littered our land and poisoned our culture with since the 90s is a shining example of the frankly ridiculous relationship we Brits have been convinced we should have with our houses. We don't have homes in the UK - we have property.

Today's housing developments don't reflect economics as much as an idealised view of a Great Britain that never actually existed for the majority of those who lived in it. Our national obsession with viewing the past as a safe haven to which we'd like to return is a symptom of fear and uncertainty, built on a misunderstanding of history that inhibits our present and impedes our future.

Anyone remember this monstrosity? South shore of Westminster Bridge, now replaced by a glass/steel hotel.

[img] ?height=598&width=900[/img]

But the original architect's design doesn't look *too* bad when presented like this:

[img] [/img]

This Tim Moore book might appeal to some here as he visits some place mentioned here such as Cumbernauld.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Are-Awful-But-Like/dp/0099546930

THEY ARE DISGUSTING! In 10 years people will see them as an eyesore, I guarantee it.

Really, so you don't think big window's, lots of natural light, well thought out layouts etc will catch on? Here's a shot from inside:

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

Still think that's disgusting or would you still prefer fake leaded windows for that authentic dark interior, mock Georgian columns, and tiny pokey bedrooms (lots of them to increase the selling value)?

Can't understand why people would want modern homes to be old fashioned in style?

This mock victorian rubbish we've littered our land and poisoned our culture with since the 90s is a shining example of the frankly ridiculous relationship we Brits have been convinced we should have with our houses. We don't have homes in the UK - we have property.

^^^^^^
*sounds of cheering*

Ahh well, if we're going to go with architects plans, can any Newcastle locals guess/remember what this was going to be in place of (clue - the buildings centre-right were being preserved and are still standing):

[img] [/img]

([url= ]Bigger[/url])

jackthedog nails it. Beautifully put!

I find it depressing what it says about our country that huge swathes of the population are prepared to accept, and even embrace, living in the spirit-crushingly dullest, utterly soulless, most uninspiring, bland, backward-looking properties and surroundings, then adding in for good measure that its great, because its really handy for..... *insert name of mainline station/motorway junction /shopping mall here*

I despair!