Tricorn Centre

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The Tricorn Centre.
The Tricorn Centre.

The Tricorn Centre was a famed Brutalist shopping centre, apartment complex, nightclub and car park complex in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It was designed by Owen Luder and took its name from the site's shape which from the air resembled a Tricorne hat. Constructed in the mid-1960s, it was demolished in 2004. It was home to one of the first Virgin Megastores and housed the largest Laser Quest areana in Europe.

The centre was a well-known example of 1960s architecture, and in the 1980s it was voted the 3rd ugliest building in the UK. In 2001, BBC Radio 4 listeners voted it the most hated building in the UK. Demolition of the Tricorn began on 24 March, 2004 and lasted approximately 9 months.

Opened in 1966, the centre was an attempt to revitalise Portsmouth, costing the city council £2 million. It was hoped that premium stores would occupy the centre, with Marks and Spencer being the anchor tenant, but as the centre was not connected to Portsmouth Town Centre, these stores never moved in. The apartments were never fully occupied owing to problems with cramped living conditions, faulty heating and serious damp. They were boarded up in 1979.

During the 1980s, the centre got seedier and seedier, and the nightclub developed into a casino. The shops slowly left, with the last ones closing in March 2002.

Portsmouth City Council deliberated the demolition of the centre for many years. However, the uniquely designed car-parking block was too useful to the city — providing 400 car parking spaces — to be destroyed until recently. This car park was the site of many suicide attempts, being amongst the highest publicly accessible buildings on the South coast. For this reason, a plaque offering the support of The Samaritans organisation was positioned at this infamous point.

Car parking area of the Tricorn Centre.
Car parking area of the Tricorn Centre.

Numerous attempts to get the building listed as among the best examples of brutalist architecture failed throughout the 1990s, and neglect, in addition to Portsmouth's coastal, and hence wet, climate caused the building to fall beyond the scope of easy repair. Structural steel within the concrete began to rust causing expansion of the concrete, and in some sections, small stalactites began to grow off ledges.

Opponents of demolition argued that the structure, while sadly undermaintained, was still salvageable with the work of ingenious designers and a long-term city plan. However, government and public opinion was that the building had decayed too far and had attracted such a bad reputation that the only option was to replace it.

The Tricorn was the subject of such strength and diversity of public feeling that opinion boards were placed around its boarding for the public to write on.

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