View Full Version : what is london's worst building?
Pickman's model
22-03-2005, 14:22
according to a time out poll, these are london's ten worst buildings:1. Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre (The Willett Group, 1965)
2. Tower Thistle Hotel (Renton Howard Wood Partnership, 1973)
3. Centre Point (Richard Seifert, 1967)
4. Buckingham Palace (John Nash, 1830; Edward Blore, 1847; Sir Aston Webb, 1914)
5. No 1 Poultry (Stirling Wilford Associates, 1998)
6. Brunswick Centre (Patrick Hodgkinson and Bickerdike Allen, 1973)
7. Vauxhall Cross (Terry Farrell & Company, 1993)
8. Portcullis House (Michael Hopkins & Partners, 2001)
9. National Gallery Sainsbury Wing (Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates, 1991)
10. National Theatre (Denys Lasdun, 1977) http://www.thisislondon.com/londoncuts/articles/17410998?source=Evening%20Standard
which one d'you think's worst?
ernestolynch
22-03-2005, 14:30
http://www.stheliervts.co.uk/gfx/homepage/sthelier.jpg
Can anyone suggest a viable, architectural reason as to why Buckingham Palace is so bad?
I think the vote (in Time Out) has been swayed by the republican feeling. It's a shame because there could have been a real vote that would ensure certain eyesores are finally torn down.
Orang Utan
22-03-2005, 14:31
Not keen on Heffalump & Castle but Key Bridge House in Vauxhall offends me each time I walk past it.
building image
What. The. Fuck. Is. That!
Pickman's model
22-03-2005, 14:33
Can anyone suggest a viable, architectural reason as to why Buckingham Palace is so bad?
I think the vote (in Time Out) has been swayed by the republican feeling. It's a shame because there could have been a real vote that would ensure certain eyesores are finally torn down.tearing down buckingham palace would be a good start...
preferably with the windsor klan inside.
Orang Utan
22-03-2005, 14:34
Can anyone suggest a viable, architectural reason as to why Buckingham Palace is so bad?
I think the vote (in Time Out) has been swayed by the republican feeling. It's a shame because there could have been a real vote that would ensure certain eyesores are finally torn down.
It's just too drab and not impressive enough given its location - it just brings the entire area down - looking down the Mall towards that monstrosity is very disheartening - imagine how good a truly magnificent builiding would look in that prime spot.
http://www.cml-group.co.uk/images/London-2.jpg
although I don't think that picture really does it's ming-ness justice.
judging solely on my particular bugbear, pedestrian-friendly-ness, it has to be the barbican.
Lollybelle
22-03-2005, 14:40
The Brunswick centre, definitely. It's ugly and depressing and completely out of character for the area. Although one good thing is that its so minging no chain shops want to move in there.
lang rabbie
22-03-2005, 14:43
What. The. ****. Is. That!
St Helier Hospital
flimsier
22-03-2005, 14:44
I quite like the Brunswick Centre. Used to spend hours hassling shoppers outside Safeway to buy Socialist Worker. I think the reason people hate it is because it's a council estate.
I think E&C shopping centre is far worse.
St Helier Hospital
Ah. Or rather, eurgh! :(
Orang Utan
22-03-2005, 14:50
St Helier Hospital
In London? :confused:
sleaterkinney
22-03-2005, 14:53
I had to google to find out what No 1 Poultry is...
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/england/london/poultry/endflatiron2.jpg
Hmmmmm
bluestreak
22-03-2005, 14:54
i think centrepoint is pretty fucking vile. i don't mind buck house architecturally, its what it represents that offends me. personally i'd have it turned into retirement flats.
what london needs is more gothic towerblocks.
lang rabbie
22-03-2005, 14:56
Can anyone suggest a viable, architectural reason as to why Buckingham Palace is so bad?
I think the vote (in Time Out) has been swayed by the republican feeling. It's a shame because there could have been a real vote that would ensure certain eyesores are finally torn down.
It's certainly not one of the ugliest. The front from the Mall is phenomenally bland, but quite cleverly disguises the fact that it is a refacing of a really ugly block that was thrown up in the 1840s to house Queen Victoria's ever expanding brood. The rest of the building (designed by Nash) is worth keeping as a People's Museum come the revolution. :D
The Portland Stone front is actually one of the earliest examples of pre-fabricated construction - put up one summer while George V was off shooting!
By the turn of the century the soft French stone used in Blore's East Front was showing signs of deterioration, largely due to London's notorious soot, and required replacing. In 1913 the decision was taken to reface the façade. Sir Aston Webb, with a number of large public buildings to his credit, was commissioned to create a new design. Webb chose Portland Stone, which took 12 months to prepare before building work could begin. When work did start it took 13 weeks to complete the refacing, a process that included removing the old stonework.
ernestolynch
22-03-2005, 14:59
In London? :confused:
No, in Cairo.
:rolleyes:
lang rabbie
22-03-2005, 15:07
No. 1 Poultry
By the time he designed this, IMO Jim Stirling was clearly losing it. There is no subtlety at all, and the facades look like a kid's set of building blocks.
Don't forget they demolished Mappin and Webb building to construct it - one of the best Victorian examples of "how to turn a corner with style".
The only decent feature is the views from the roof garden, although I think typical City security may now restrict access to customers of the pricy Conran restaurant.
For another view... see here (http://www.hughpearman.com/articles/cwa4.htm)
Im not sure what some of those building look like, but I'v been past No1 Poultry many times not knowing what it is but thinking it looks like it was made out of childrens building blocks. What was going on in the mind of that architect?!?
Not sure if it beats elephant and castles shopping centre though. :eek:
Orang Utan
22-03-2005, 15:37
No, in Cairo.
:rolleyes:
Not Jersey then?
No. 1 Poultry
By the time he designed this, IMO Jim Stirling was clearly losing it. There is no subtlety at all, and the facades look like a kid's set of building blocks.
Don't forget they demolished Mappin and Webb building to construct it - one of the best Victorian examples of "how to turn a corner with style".
The only decent feature is the views from the roof garden, although I think typical City security may now restrict access to customers of the pricy Conran restaurant.
For another view... see here (http://www.hughpearman.com/articles/cwa4.htm)
Just looked at some pics of the original building. Oh my god, someone needs to be shot for what happened there.
Sigmund Fraud
22-03-2005, 16:13
Was going to nominate the British library in St Pancras but I'm now swaying towards no.1 Poultry. I go past it 3 days a week but until seeing that photo on this thread I didn't realise what a minger it is. :eek:
Orang Utan
22-03-2005, 16:30
I actually like Centrepoint - am I the only one?
Makes an excellent homing beacon for those north of the river, by all accounts.
I actually like Centrepoint - am I the only one?
Makes an excellent homing beacon for those north of the river, by all accounts.
I like it too. Very distinctive.
I hate Portcullis House - an opportunity wasted. It's just so mediocre, such a cop-out of a building.
Buck Palace is pretty shite - I don't think that's to do with 'republican feeling' so much as it's a dull, oversized lump.
onemonkey
22-03-2005, 17:10
I hate Portcullis House - an opportunity wasted. It's just so mediocre, such a cop-out of a building.and at absolutely scandalous expense.. :mad:
which reminds me, I guess the millennium tent isn't really a building.. ;)
incidently, just got back from Paris, we were staying in a hotel next to the Opera Garnier, walked past the renovated Louvre, it reminds you how feeble our public buildings are.. (we managed to avoid the new bibtech f. mitterand and lets not mention the Opera at La Bastille)
if you want superb modern buildings go to Berlin
incidently, just got back from Paris, we were staying in a hotel next to the Opera Garnier, walked past the renovated Louvre, it reminds you how feeble our public buildings are
Tower Bridge - Tower of London - Buckingham Palace (okay, just me it seems) - Vauxhall Cross (ditto) - National Gallery - Tate Modern - London Eye - Houses of Parliament - Swiss Re Gherkin - Nelson's Column - Marble Arch - City Hall - St. Paul's Cathedral - BBC Broadcasting House (NOT Television Centre!) - Victoria & Albert Museum - Natural History Museum...
Come on, the Olympics should be in our pocket on the basis of London's architectural wonders alone.
And I for one liked the idea of the Millennium Dome if only politicians hadn't hijacked the whole thing to be a corporate publicity stunt - amazing, something good done by Heseltine, but unsuprisingly ruined by New Labour!
Orang Utan
22-03-2005, 17:22
What's Vauxhall Cross? Is that the Raelian escape ramp thingy that's the new bus interchange?
Phototropic
22-03-2005, 17:23
Elephant and Castle is godawful. So disjointed with all those big roads and that grim shopping centre.
I have voted for Centre Point just because I have seen it so often when I was going to gigs and I hate it.
And as for Buckingham Palace, poltics aside, it really is just a bland ungly building. A really lame attepmt and neo-classical(?) style. There are much better examples than that shit thing.
http://carnets.de.route.free.fr/Photos%20gf/Londres/Buckingham.jpg
I mean look at this pic. Where is the excitment in it?
Phototropic
22-03-2005, 17:25
Nelson's Column
The IRA had the right idea with the one in Dublin. It's a pillac on a pillar! WHat do you like about it out of interest?
The IRA had the right idea with the one in Dublin. It's a pillock on a pillar! WHat do you like about it out of interest?
It's grand and impressive monument to one of Britain's finest admirals. It looks good, it's got a touch of class and it puts someone on a pedestal who deserves to be there. Typically British though, giving someone who happily killed plenty of Johnny Foreigners a huge monument in the capital...
However, it's not half as good as the Monument de Colon (Columbus Monument) in Barcelona because you can actually go up in it in a lift and see the city from there.
Blimey, doesnt this question come up a lot
Its the Seagram building....bleurch :eek:
lang rabbie
22-03-2005, 19:06
The IRA had the right idea with the one in Dublin. It's a pillac on a pillar! WHat do you like about it out of interest?
It is ill-proportioned, certainly buggers up Barry's original plans for the layout of the square, and the sculpture of Nelson is fairly risible...
BUT... to anyone with more than a one dimensional view of history, it remains a tangible reminder of what the debate is about the nature of heroism/victory/patriotism.
It allows you to actually engage children/ students in a debate about the nature of war and empire, not to mention the appropriation, through all ages since Pericles ran Athens, of classical architecture to celebrate victory as defined by those in power.
And the Landseer lion sculptures are cool - whether you are 5 or 50!
golightly
22-03-2005, 20:06
http://www.aviewoncities.com/img/london/kveen010b.jpg
A contender surely. :(
Mrs Magpie
22-03-2005, 20:18
What's that awful place in Croydon (begins with a B?) that loses refugees paperwork?...I know what goes on in there is grim, so I reckon the architecture is too...
DJWrongspeed
22-03-2005, 20:35
i voted the thistle tower hotel, i think there was an idea a few mths back for tax incentives to demolish black listed buildings, this one was in the line of fire.
As for centre point, the actual tower is OK but the surrounding base design is terrible. Working round there u don't really have to look at it anyway given the design of the streets.
There are some absolute disasters east of liverpool st. station, the city of london, all the money all that shit?
ernestolynch
22-03-2005, 21:35
Not Jersey then?
Oh right I see, 'twas your attempt at Geography humour!
3/10
See me.
golightly
22-03-2005, 22:10
What's that awful place in Croydon (begins with a B?) that loses refugees paperwork?...I know what goes on in there is grim, so I reckon the architecture is too...
Do you mean Lunar House? I know it doesn't begin with a B but it does lose passports and the like. :(
lang rabbie
23-03-2005, 11:18
Do you mean Lunar House? I know it doesn't begin with a B but it does lose passports and the like. :(
http://www.ukstudentlife.com/Prepare/Croydon/LunarHouse.jpg
It has a smaller twin, on the other side of the next road. Before the Home Office finally did something to improve the reception area in the mid-1990s they both had strangely kitsch lobbies reminiscent of hotels in the Soviet Union.
Zappomatic
26-03-2005, 19:23
http://www.cml-group.co.uk/images/London-2.jpg
although I don't think that picture really does it's ming-ness justice.
Ahh 1 London Bridge! Who on earth desgined the steps leading down to the river? Such an uncomfortable angle, I'm just glad I've never had to go down them whilest a bit drunk.
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