..i.e. crap banged up in the past 15 years.
Rated in terms of both lack of quality of design AND sensitivity of sight combined, otherwise I'd be typin this into the weekend...

1. Formule 1 Hotel, Strand.
The worst, most depressing cookie-cutter in the perhaps Liverpools most important site, The Strand. The worst of all for me.
What would we have to do to get rid? Locusts? Loud music?

2. McDonald's, Strand.
Another slice of Slough Industrial Estate on Liverpool prime. I'd love to see a boycott.

3. Dolby Hotel, Strand.
Ditto.

4. Halifax Building, Strand.
Y'know this place is almost rendered respectable given the detritus which has joined it on the strip, but yes, another disaster for the waterfront.

5. Housing Development on the Princes Half Tide Dock(?).
Abysmal abysmal tat. Has to go. Send a battleship.

6. LJM University Housing, Anglican Cathedral.
Dating year-on-year cheaparse pastiche on potentally one of the most spectacular sites. Could have made the most wonderful piazza that space in fron of the Cathedral, even the terraces which stood before where 1000 times more becoming. This new-town sliproad crap has no place anywhere near our centre. The recently added arch of the said development merely bangs the final nail into what was incredibly important site.

7. Youth Hostel, Strand.
Did no-one point out to them they were pitching up on Liverpool's Waterfront rather than an empty plot just off Leigh?? So why were they alowed to stick up this generic milk-shed surronded by a soddin field???

8. Lacy's Housing Block. Corner of Catherine and Huskisson St.
Shed replacing a great church. Question: who got the bung?
.................................................. ................................................
In fact that's my question for all the decision made upon high to wreck the city with all the above. Who got the bungs?

Still holds today:

Ian Nairn, Britain’s Changing Towns(1967)

"The scale and resilience of the buildings and people (of Liverpool) is amazing - it is a world city, far more so than London or Manchester. It doesn’t feel like anywhere else in Lancashire: comparisons always end up overseas - Dublin, or Boston, or Hamburg. The city is tremendous, and so, right up to the First World War, were the abilities of the architects who built over it – the less said about the last forty years the better…… The centre is humane and convenient to walk around in, but never loses its scale. And, in spite of the bombings and the carelessness, it is still full of superb buildings. Fifty years ago it must have outdone anything in England."

Note: "outdone anything in England", including London.

..i.e. crap banged up in the past 15 years.
Rated in terms of both lack of quality of design AND sensitivity of sight combined, otherwise I'd be typin this into the weekend...

8. Lacy's Housing Block. Corner of Catherine and Huskisson St.
Shed replacing a great church. Question: who got the bung?
.................................................. ................................................
In fact that's my question for all the decision made upon high to wreck the city with all the above. Who got the bungs?

Your as hung up on that block of flats as I am - never could understand why it happened. There's plenty sh**e been built and your list covers some bad offenders but sometimes you ask what really went on here?

Your as hung up on that block of flats as I am - never could understand why it happened. There's plenty sh**e been built and your list covers some bad offenders but sometimes you ask what really went on here?

Well it's supposedly a conservation area, part of the Georgian bit. You'd expect the management of dodgy applications from cowboy developers to be tightly drawn.

I'm familiar with some of the characters who operate around the system and all I can say is that corruption's a part of this city on various levels.

Hence my list.

I'm a corpy worker, I think I know what you mean...

I love the buildings in that area at least St. Brides is looking spectacular with its night lights. In three years doing Photography at college on Hope st. I must have photographed most of it - pity not much survived a lot of home moves :(

...used to live in St Bride's St. And the landlords were the t***ts who built the eyesore we're talkin about.

Nuff said.

Oh apart from the fact that they've got permission to develop a small unit opposite the Anglican flats.

Yippee.

I'm a corpy worker, I think I know what you mean...

I love the buildings in that area at least St. Brides is looking spectacular with its night lights. In three years doing Photography at college on Hope st. I must have photographed most of it - pity not much survived a lot of home moves :(
I'd love to see your pics Mo':PDT_Piratz_26:

I think I agree with all eight suggestions, especially the one on Huskisson Street and the dock housing (West Waterloo dockside isn't it?). There's a good book called 'It all came tumbling down' - think it's a late 80s publication, I'll find the author, but that shows some of the stuff that was ripped down post-war, and it's criminal!

It was Freddy O'connor, Liverpool taxi driver whose hobby was taking pics of buildings about to be demolished.
isbn0-9516188-0-6

Yuk :PDT_Xtremez_12:

http://static.flickr.com/113/305736620_6007bef903.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736620/)

http://static.flickr.com/116/305736691_9ed4240b97.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736691/)

http://static.flickr.com/119/305736724_e61d133ce1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736724/)

The beginning of the end for these? Hope so........

Yuk :PDT_Xtremez_12:

http://static.flickr.com/113/305736620_6007bef903.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736620/)

http://static.flickr.com/116/305736691_9ed4240b97.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736691/)

http://static.flickr.com/119/305736724_e61d133ce1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736724/)

The beginning of the end for these? Hope so........Me too. This crap would not have been passed for construction on an industrial subdivision in North America. These were OK'd, I presume, by the Manchester based heritage gestapo and if so, why hasn't anyone taken them to task over the decision?

The Echo Building looks like a giant dairy milk bar with it being brown and having square window shapes.

The Echo Building looks like a giant dairy milk bar with it being brown and having square window shapes.

This one Max?

http://static.flickr.com/116/305950258_367c9baa60.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305950258/)

Yuk :PDT_Xtremez_12:

http://static.flickr.com/113/305736620_6007bef903.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736620/)

http://static.flickr.com/116/305736691_9ed4240b97.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736691/)

http://static.flickr.com/119/305736724_e61d133ce1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305736724/)

The beginning of the end for these? Hope so........

Some idiot in Whitehall turned down a world class tower sited a long way from the WHS because it might be seen from the Albert Dock, which is enclosed anyhow. Right next door that trash was allowed to built along with a multi-floor car park and an out of place stadium.

The mind boggles. The mind boggles.

Look at the trash. It so badly designed the overflows are on the outside staining the walls. Proper plumbing systems don't need overflows for anything at all these days.

This one Max?

http://static.flickr.com/116/305950258_367c9baa60.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ijob/305950258/)

This is a fine building in many respects, except colour and finish. It is to be re-clad and added to, so maybe it will shine at last.

This is a fine building in many respects, except colour and finish. It is to be re-clad and added to, so maybe it will shine at last.

It does have a certain charm and appeal

I've always hated the Echo building, primarily for the dull 70's brown depressing finish of it. After reading forums like this where people profess a certain liking for it I've recently tried reassessing my views on it by imagining it clad in gold-leaf or something really vibrant. Hearing that someone's going to do something is good news.

But it's not just the veneer of it for me. It's also too squat. It's got the proportions of a "lump". It needs taller verticles to give it some balls. It just need to be MORE and bigger and more wierd.

Its other Brutalist close relative down the Goree, the Law Courts are pig ugly too, maybe less so..can never decide

That cop building on the Strand always did me head in for sheer gratuitous lack of any design consideration as well.

Oh, and I actually quite like those white apartment blocks you all can't stand. The finish aint up to top end standards true, but they look ok to me and the idea of having fairly original looking apartment blocks rather than the lo-density crap we get elsewhere are part of what I think cities should be about. I can imagine them in Paris easily. Get rid of the car park though.

They are disgusting - I can remember when they were first built, they were pretty much on their own. Now the arena is going up and the area is changing it seems that they are not standing the test of time as maybe some other newish buildings would do.

Can you ever see them getting approved these days? :shock:

In't the Liverpool skyline beautiful these days?





Not!.......

Concourse House annoys me whenever I look at it. The sooner it's gone the better. The recent covering of it's front is laughable. Reminds me of an ugly person wearing one of those hospital gowns that you wear for an xray, with his big hairy bottom sticking out the back.

http://www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk/con001.jpg

http://www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk/con002.jpg

They are disgusting - I can remember when they were first built, they were pretty much on their own. Now the arena is going up and the area is changing it seems that they are not standing the test of time as maybe some other newish buildings would do.

Can you ever see them getting approved these days? :shock:

Whenever I look at yourmove, those white apartments seem to be amongst the cheapest in the city centre. I incidentally think they are horrible and Waterways point about why they were allowed by the Maro development knocked vback is spot on.

They are disgusting - I can remember when they were first built, they were pretty much on their own. Now the arena is going up and the area is changing it seems that they are not standing the test of time as maybe some other newish buildings would do.

Can you ever see them getting approved these days? :shock:

You know, I've been in London for the past 9 years. Only really get back a couple of times a year, so I had my first real look at them last Christmas. I just didn't think they were that bad. What was wierd was I couldn't really make out if they were new or not..they seemed simultaneously newish and already a bit battered. When were they put up anyway?

Too be honest I was much more depressed by the Formule 1, casino, hostel, and the McD.s as I mentioned in the leader.

Yes they are awful too, they must have gone up at around the same time as the Formule 1.

Yes they are awful too, they must have gone up at around the same time as the Formule 1.

I have a source who insists all that recent trash on the strand will be shoed as the redevolpment proceeds over the next few years. As much as I'd love to believe that I can't see how the council can buy back and demolish stuff it oked just several years before.

If it can I'd be thrilled to be honest.

In isolation the white flats look bad but it must be remembered that they were part of one of the losing competition entries for the Kings dock site when the original comp was held. Maybe the developer thought they had an advantage by having a foothold on the site.
Hopefully when the new developments are finished, they will blend in with the environment more or at least tone their effect down. Recall the idea was to represent a white transatlantic liner........

One of the developments I hate most is the 'restaurant/leisure' bit and the Williamson square retail part of the Queens square development. The restaurant bit is disgusting with no relationship to the scale of the city or it's surroundings. Not even with the hotel and carpark which are part of the same development! The best bit - the square has one restaurant opening onto it and the rest have their back doors and bins on it - Total waste of what could have been a really nice space.
The Williamson square retail bit with the Liverpool shop in was actually and unbelievably designed by Ken Martin who also designed the much underated extension to the playhouse. It was a difficult site because of the underground service roads but there is a total lack of imagination and it looks more like the retail units on Edge lane retail park then anythink else.

I have a source who insists all that recent trash on the strand will be shoed as the redevolpment proceeds over the next few years. As much as I'd love to believe that I can't see how the council can buy back and demolish stuff it oked just several years before.

If it can I'd be thrilled to be honest.

What trash in particular?

In isolation the white flats look bad but it must be remembered that they were part of one of the losing competition entries for the Kings dock site when the original comp was held. Maybe the developer thought they had an advantage by having a foothold on the site.
Hopefully when the new developments are finished, they will blend in with the environment more or at least tone their effect down. Recall the idea was to represent a white transatlantic liner........

One of the developments I hate most is the 'restaurant/leisure' bit and the Williamson square retail part of the Queens square development. The restaurant bit is disgusting with no relationship to the scale of the city or it's surroundings. Not even with the hotel and carpark which are part of the same development! The best bit - the square has one restaurant opening onto it and the rest have their back doors and bins on it - Total waste of what could have been a really nice space.
The Williamson square retail bit with the Liverpool shop in was actually and unbelievably designed by Ken Martin who also designed the much underated extension to the playhouse. It was a difficult site because of the underground service roads but there is a total lack of imagination and it looks more like the retail units on Edge lane retail park then anythink else.

Y'know just before they built all that sh**e ('94 was it?), levelling the whole of that space from the Royal Court to the Conservation Centre warehouses you briefly had this great flat sweeping vista which if it had just been left unbuilt upon and made into this huge central square with a couple of fountains would've been one of the finest squares anywhere.


Oh and Waters the buildings I'm referring to are the ones in the oroinal post.

The Coopers building on the dock road depresses me, with that god awful 'figure factory' upstairs....

I would start my own fund to bulldoze it!

Its going soon

hurrah!!!!!!!