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molly bloom
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Lundenwic
Oct 2001
time: 15:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Azazel
At least doesn't look like a box with coloumns, and doesn't have shacks and barracks near it. |
Come friendly bombs and... oops too late. It's been demolished.
Nobody loved the Tricorn Centre enough.
" Renowned for its 1960s architecture, by the 1980s it was so dated that it was voted the 3rd ugliest building in the UK, the Tricorn was demolished during 2004. The demolition began on the 24th of March 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 Spencers 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 due 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 carparking spaces, to be destroyed until recently. This car park was the site of many suicide attempts, being amongst the highest publically accesible buildings on the South coast.
Numerous attempts to get the building listed as among the best examples of brutalist architechture failed throughout the 1990s, and neglect, in addition to Portsmouths 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 concerete, and in some sections, there were small stalagmites beginning to grow off ledges.
Opponents of demolition argued that the 'modernist/brutalist' 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 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. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalism
 Attachment: tricorn.jpg
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molly bloom
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Lundenwic
Oct 2001
time: 15:34
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What's worse of course is that they had a perfectly good entrance once upon a time:
" Euston Arch
Destroyed 1962
The Euston Arch was a beautiful and powerful creation built in the Victorian Era as a mighty symbol to the glory of railway travel. Designed by Sir Philip Hardwick, the Arch was part of a collection of classically ornate waiting rooms, train sheds, and ticket halls, all decorated and carved in extreme victorian elegance, and all combining to make the original awesome Euston Station. The Euston Arch, at the forefront of it all, stood on the longitude shared with nearby Drummond Street, around where platform 9 starts nowadays. This was a solid granite monument standing over 70 ft tall, with ornamental gates, the roof being topped out with a fearless announcement of it's name: EUSTON. Imagine being driven up towards its Greek style pillars prior to catching your train. What an amazingly inspiring sight. What an absolutely glorious construction.
Save the Arch Campaign
The later addition of the wondrous Station Hotel, built flush on the Euston Road, meant that one would drive through the Hotel alley before being startled and amazed by the appearance of the main Euston Arch. This bold 'Doric Portico' structure were a major sight to behold for London and its visitors, a very important element on the Victorian Architectural trail, so imagine the shock when, in the sixties, after the arch had stood untouched and loved for 125 years, its destruction was ordered. There was a minor protest and furore. The Victorian Society had its 'Save the Arch' campaign, led by former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman. But the government was not interested. The ever obedient populace saw the Arch's fate as academic. So, in 1962, it was all over, and the whole area flattened to make way for the vulgar terminus that exists today. All the brilliant buildings of the original station were wiped out, just so the developers could move in and build the present ugly carcass. Evidently, most of the Arch was transported from London, so that the villain of this treachery could stone landscape his garden. So at least there is still an option to search, recover, and rebuild, and the government might one day right one of London's most evil architectural wrongdoings.
Forty years on, and the death of the great Arch of Euston became the main inspiration for this very humble London Destruction website that you're reading now. I just can't believe that they smashed up such astounding beauty. It's such a sad story, one that has been re-run with many other buildings, architectures, and traditions. I would so love to see Euston Arch rebuilt one day as a monument to saving the great buildings of London. "
http://www.geocities.com/londondestruction
Attachment: eustonarch8.jpg
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molly bloom
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Lundenwic
Oct 2001
time: 15:34
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quote:
Originally posted by Azazel
I actually kinda liked Euston station. Certainly more than the embarassing neo-classical bull that is pictured.
[flame shield on] |
Have you seen or experienced it in the daytime ?
A perfectly good (and historically important) Greek Revival Doric propylaeum was demolished for reasons which later turned out to be entirely spurious. Its replacement is the typical late 1960s early 1970s bleak concreted piazza, litter strewn and architecturally insignificant.
History
Although the present station building is in the International Modern style, Euston was the first inter-city railway station to be built in London. Its Greek Revival portal, "Euston Arch", introduced the concept of a monumental railway station as the modern portal to a city.
Its loss helped galvanize the environmental conservation movement in Britain, which had previously been focused on preserving aristocratic power houses, picturesque vernacular architecture and unspoilt landscapes. The loss of the original Pennsylvania Station in the United States has been referenced as comparable.
It was designed by a well-known classically trained architect, Philip Hardwick Sir Philip Hardwick (1792-1870) was an architect (son of architect Thomas Hardwick) particularly associated with transport-related buildings (eg: railway stations, warehouses) in London and elsewhere.
Like Inigo Jones some 200 years earlier, Hardwick was inspired by Italian architecture, following a trip to Italy in 1818-19. These influences manifested themselves particularly in his famous 'Propylaeum' or Doric Arch at the old Euston station (1837), designed for the London and Birmingham Railway. At the Birmingham terminus, Hardwick also designed Curzon Street Station (1838).
(Euston Station)....Initially it had only two platforms, one for departures and one for arrivals. Until 1844 , trains had to be pulled up the hill to Camden Town by cables as they did not have enough power to get there under their own steam.
The station grew rapidly over the following years as traffic increased. It was greatly expanded in the 1840s...
....It was 125 feet long, 61 feet wide and 62 feet high (38.1 by 18.6 by 18.9 m), with a coffered ceiling and a sweeping double flight of stairs leading to offices at the northern end of the hall. A 72 foot (21.9 m) high Doric arch was erected at the station's entrance to serve as a portico; this became renowned as the Euston Arch.
In the early 1960s it was decided that the old building was no longer adequate and needed replacing. Amid much public outcry the old station building (including the famous Euston Arch) was demolished in 1962 and replaced by a new building, which opened in 1968. The modern station is very much a creation of 1960s architecture. It is a long, low structure with a frontage of some 647 feet and a very functional (and windswept) concrete exterior. Part of the station building includes two office towers which look out onto adjacent Melton Street and Eversholt Street. The station itself has a single large concourse populated with the usual assortment of shops and eateries, separated from the somewhat bleak train shed. A couple of small remnants of the older station were kept, close to Euston Road, but were hardly an effective sop to those offended by the loss of the former building. The station is set back much further than the 19th century original and since the construction of additional office buildings in front of it, it is effectively screened from view from the road.
Euston is widely regarded as the ugliest and the most unpleasant of all of the Central London rail termini. The dark ramps which passengers have to descend from the concourse down to platform level seem claustrophobic to many, while the concrete-adorned square outside the entrance is a popular stamping ground for beggars (who also frequent the station concourse itself), and rough sleepers. It is unfortunate that this is the first view that many visitors and tourists get of the capital. "
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Euston
http://home.clara.net/rogerpattende.../catalogue.html
Attachment: propylaeum.jpg
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