City development wins 'ugliest building' accolade

The development on Liverpool's Lime Street has been voted one of the "ugliest buildings in the UK"

A development in Liverpool city centre has been crowned the 2024 Carbuncle Cup winner after it was voted the ugliest new building in the UK.

The city's Lime Street redevelopment, which houses a supermarket and restaurants, was given the title by London magazine, The Fence, which annually celebrates what it calls the nation’s most "hideous" architecture.

The £49m scheme, designed by Broadway Malyan, completed in 2019 and features sheet-metal cladding etched with images of Georgian buildings that once stood there.

Some people in Liverpool told the BBC it was a "beautiful" building and "better than what was there". Broadway Malyan declined to comment.

The Futurist cinema was once admired for its marble-walled auditorium and plaster work

'Monstrosity'

John Belchem, chairman of the Merseyside Civic Society, said he agreed with the accolade, adding that the building was a "disgrace to the city".

He told BBC Radio Merseyside: "That whole run on the eastern part of Lime Street could have preserved the character they had before but alas they didn't and now we end up with these ghastly things.

"It's made even worse by those screens which depict what's been replaced. That's nothing less than an insult."

Campaigners previously tried to rescue the building, which housed the 1912 Futurist cinema, but Liverpool City Council said it could not be saved and plans for the new development were approved in 2015.

The magazine described the replacement construction as a "monstrosity", saying: "Much like everything else in Liverpool, it is a 412-bed student accommodation block and a 101-room Premier Inn hotel.

"Two new additions the city’s residents have never asked for or benefited from."

The Futurist was reportedly the first to show sound films in 1926

The buildings were nominated by the public and then judged by a panel of experts.

But those local to Liverpool, and some tourists disagreed with the award.

One local told the BBC: "The old buildings were far too gone.

"I think it's really nice, it's artistic, the pictures, the way it's laid out, the shapes they've done it in.

"I like the colours as well."

One woman who was visiting from Edinburgh said: "At first by the looks of it, it just looks unreal from the outside, I'm hoping the inside is going to be the exact same.

"I do like it."

A student from France said: "I think it's a modern generic building, not specifically beautiful but I've seen worse."

W Hotel in Edinburgh, Virgin Hotel in Glasgow, Mast Quay II in London and Ilona Rose House in London were also among the shortlist.