Tricorn Center Portsmouth

[graybags]

Tric

Memories

There was an excellent Chinese here in the early days

I used to come out of Unicorn gate in the dockyard and cross the road and there it was : an eyesore

G

 

[Ubermutant]

Wow anything Tricorn related is great (its how I stumbled upon this site) and any new pictures are great, most websites seem to have the same 5 views and thats all.

I'd love to see any more pictures you have, plus do you have a copy of that original flyer or is it a scan you found somewhere? I have been looking for original material for some time, and apart from a few bits a pieces in Portsmouth Library nothing much has turned up. You'd think a building like the Tricorn would have more written about it.

 

[Poopfleas]

I grew up and still live in the area and the Tricorn was part of that growing up experience. I always found more to the place than simply it’s looks. To me it had some undefinable quality that I could sense when I was close to it. Like that feeling of standing quietly watching the rain patterns in puddles. It was stronger in the damp walkways or skateboarding in the car park. It was ugly, but beautiful ugly, and I honestly think it should have been preserved as a historical building.

 

[wolfism]

Cheers for bumping this thread – I'm a fan of Owen Luder's work and while I managed to see the Trinity Centre in Gateshead (which is the Tricorn Centre's cousin) I never made it down to Portsmouth. I agree it was beautiful in a Modernist, brutalist way, and at least one of Luder's buildings should have been preserved. As it is, several have been demolished in the 21st century rush to destroy Modernism which is just as short sighted as the 1960's rush to destroy Victorian buildings. Anyhow, well done to WOTS for capturing it.

 

[Wal]

The Tricorn Centre invokes memories, It was used to describe a Monolithic Structure when I did a light rescue course at Horsea Island in the late '60s. There was a pub the Kashba (sp) and I celebrated the New Year of 69/70 in the Tricorn Club. That said it was still a concrete monstrosity.

 

[Hayman]

Cheers for bumping this thread – I'm a fan of Owen Luder's work and while I managed to see the Trinity Centre in Gateshead (which is the Tricorn Centre's cousin) I never made it down to Portsmouth. I agree it was beautiful in a Modernist, brutalist way, and at least one of Luder's buildings should have been preserved. As it is, several have been demolished in the 21st century rush to destroy Modernism which is just as short sighted as the 1960's rush to destroy Victorian buildings. Anyhow, well done to WOTS for capturing it.

Would Luder ever have lived in anything he designed? I very much doubt it. From online:

It was during his first stint as head of the institute that Luder had a much-publicised meeting at Downing Street with Margaret Thatcher in 1982, heading up the cross construction industry organisation representing contractors, architects and unions known as the Group of Eight.

However the ‘bow-tied bête noire of Brutalism’ will be most remembered for his numerous, unfortunate appearances on the roster of the Rubble Club – ‘a support group’ created by the late Isi Metzstein for architects whose buildings have been demolished during their lifetime.

The first to go was the Tricorn Centre, a former shopping, car park and nightclub in Portsmouth, which was flattened in 2004. The building was once voted the third ugliest in the UK and Prince Charles described it as ‘a mildewed lump of elephant droppings’.

But the highly sculptural landmark was defended by writer and critic Jonathan Meades, who said: ‘You don't go knocking down Stonehenge or Lincoln Cathedral. I think buildings like the Tricorn were as good as that. They were great monuments of an age.’

In 2012, Derwent Tower, an unpopular 29-storey block of flats in Gateshead known as the Dunston Rocket, was also pulled down. The building, which suffered from damp and leaks, was designed by the Owen Luder Partnership and completed in 1973.