The Tricorn Centre was a Brutalist shopping, apartment

Apartment

An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...

, nightclub

Nightclub

A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...

 and car park complex in Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, England. It was designed by Owen Luder

Owen Luder

Owen Luder, CBE is a British architect who designed a number of notable and sometimes controversial buildings in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and 1970s...

 and Rodney Gordon

Rodney Gordon

Rodney Gordon was a British architect. He was the primary architect of the Tricorn centre, Portsmouth. Architecturally, his works were primarily in concrete; he was said to be a Brutalist and his buildings have been described as "dramatic, sculptural and enormous" as well as "futuristic".-...

 and took its name from the site's shape which from the air resembled a Tricorne

Tricorne

The tricorne or tricorn is a style of hat that was popular during the 18th century, falling out of style by 1800. At the peak of its popularity, the tricorne was worn as civilian dress and as part of military and naval uniforms...

 hat. Constructed in the mid-1960s, it was demolished in 2004. It was home to one of the first Virgin Megastore

Virgin Megastore

Virgin Megastores is an international chain of record shops, founded by Sir Richard Branson on London's Oxford Street in early 1971. Virgin Megastores are best described today as entertainment retailers....

s and housed the largest Laser Quest

Laser Quest

Laser Quest is the name of a Canadian-based indoor lasertag game based around infrared hand held units and vests, as well as the name of the company which operates each game center. There are over 140 Laser Quest centers worldwide, including ones in Canada, the United States, the UK, France,...

 arena in Europe.

The centre was a well-known example of 1960s architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

, and in the 1980s it was voted the 3rd ugliest building in the UK. In 2001, BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 listeners voted it the most hated building in the UK, although it was much admired by others, who saw it as an irreplaceable example of Brutalist architecture. Demolition of the Tricorn began on 24 March 2004 and lasted approximately nine months.

Early years

Opened in 1966, the centre was an attempt to revitalise Portsmouth, costing the city council £2 million.
Originally called the Casbah by its creators, it was deliberately designed with vast amounts of blank surfaces on the idea that tenants would provide the color and character via their signage and store frontages. It was hoped that premium stores would occupy the centre but as the centre was not connected to Portsmouth Town Centre, these stores never moved in. Instead the units were let to smaller stores. As well as small traders, tenants included a supermarket and two pubs. In 1967 the received a commendation from the Civic Trust

Civic Trust

The Civic Trust of England was a charitable organisation founded in 1957. It ceased operations in 2009 and went into administration due to lack of funds/...

.

Flats

The centre included eight flats. While initially popular with some residents, the flats suffered from poorly constructed roofs and leaking walls. Only one tenant was left by March 1979 and the flats were later boarded up.

Businesses in the Tricorn

With the failure of a large store to move in, most of the shops were small traders of various types. There were also market traders with a range of stalls. The council succeeded in getting the fruit and veg market to move from Commercial Road but there were soon complaints. Conditions were found to be dark, damp and poorly ventilated. Access was also a problem with lorries finding it difficult to get to the market via the spiral ramps. There was also a Fine Fare

Fine Fare

Fine Fare was the name of a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. It was famous for its Yellow Pack budget own-label range.-History:The company started as a single supermarket in Brighton in 1956. It was one of a series of convenience store chains established in the 1950s, the others being...

 supermarket.

Pubs

One of the early pubs in the Tricorn was The Bell. It closed due to the activities of the clientele (known as the "Bell Boys").

Demolition

During the 1980s, the centre became increasingly seedy and the nightclub was developed into a casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

. The shops slowly left, with the last ones closing in March 2002. The centre's car park was also the scene of many suicide attempts, being amongst the tallest publicly accessible buildings on the south coast. For this reason, a plaque offering support from The Samaritans was positioned at this infamous point.

Numerous attempts to get the building listed as amongst the best examples of Brutalist architecture failed throughout the 1990s, and neglect, in addition to Portsmouth's wet coastal climate, caused the building to fall beyond the scope of easy repair. Structural steel within the concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

 began to rust causing expansion of the concrete, and in some sections, small stalactite

Stalactite

A stalactite , "to drip", and meaning "that which drips") is a type of speleothem that hangs from the ceiling of limestone caves. It is a type of dripstone...

s began to grow off ledges.

Portsmouth City Council deliberated the demolition of the centre for many years; however, the uniquely designed car-parking block, which provided 400 parking spaces, was too useful for the city to destroy it until 2004. The site is now occupied by a ground-level open-air car park.

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.

External links

• Official redevelopment site
• A photo gallery of the Tricorn, its opinion boards, and the car park replacement
• A page appreciating the Tricorn Centre
• "Country's ugliest building to be torn down"
• "R.I.P. Britain's ugliest building"
• "3d images of the tricorn"
• Reflections on the Tricorn
• Pictures of the Tricorn
• Tricorn in Lego!