I can, and I wish people would do it more. I wish I had had the gumption to go and find Sir Basil Spence and ask: “What were you thinking?” I can’t now, because he died in 1976, but not before he had designed the old Home Office building, now the Ministry of Justice, in Petty France. You know the one: the concrete mushroom just off St James’s Park in London.
And he designed Kensington Town Hall, which is near The Independent’s office in west London. When I walk the last part of the way to work, from Notting Hill Gate, the backstreets of Victorian houses are a delight, and you can see why rich people like to live here. But then there is the bit where I have to cross a road without turning my head to the right in case I should catch a glimpse of the 1970s ugliness and be struck down by the unfeeling arrogance of it.
So all praise to Sinclair, the co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, who has launched the Dead Prize to recognise bad buildings and honour their failings. Nominations for the prize are open until 1 November, and suggestions can be submitted via Twitter to @deadprize. His focus is “getting a better understanding of how a design failed” and to “hopefully do something to rectify these designs against humanity”.
‘The spaceship’: The University of York’s Central Hall (Alamy)
As soon as I have written this, I shall nominate all of the Top 10 Horrible Buildings which I compiled recently for The Independent on Sunday’s magazine. As well as Sir Basil’s gruesome legacy, I listed Preston bus station (“concrete lasagne”), the University of York’s Central Hall (“the spaceship”, in the middle of “the largest plastic-bottomed lake in Europe”), the Southbank Centre in London – and Buckingham Palace, just to prove that old buildings can be ugly, too.
Read more: The Top Ten: Horrible buildings
I could easily have compiled a Top 100. There are so many not well-known buildings which perhaps have even more of a lowering effect on the quality of life of the people who cannot avoid them. Council estates such as Thamesmead in south-east London or Southwyck House in Brixton, or Brunel University in Uxbridge.
The ArcelorMittal Orbit, built especially for the 2012 London Olympics (Getty)
I admit my selection was biased: most of them are not just in Britain but in London. The Dead Prize is worldwide in scope – it was launched in Dubai – but I stick to what I know. It helps if you see these things week in and week out. Sometimes time softens the shock and can even turn it into affection. The ArcelorMittal Orbit, for example. I could not believe how bad that was when I saw the plans. Now, though, I think the twisted red metal tower is beautiful.
However, there is one building that I see nearly every week which I grow to dislike more each time. I cannot believe that I left it out of my Top 10. Now, I can put right my omission, by nominating it for the Dead Prize. I hereby name the Walkie-Talkie, a tower block in the City of London that is hideous, out of scale, wrong, a stupid shape, bigger at the top. It has a ridiculous white border around its unattractive outline.
Sinclair says he doesn’t want to “name and shame”, although I don’t see how he can do one without the other, and the Walkie-Talkie is certainly a crying shame.