Cumbernauld Shopping Centre (Cumbernauld)

United Kingdom / Scotland / Cumbernauld
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Officially once voted the "Worst Building In Britain", or the more familiar (to Scots at least) - the "Plook on a Plinth" award - this vast megastructure came to symbolise everything that was wrong with the planning of New Towns, and indeed many of the grand regeneration schemes of the 1950s and 1960s.

Built in several stages between 1955 and 1985, but the architectural mistakes of the original 1960s and 1970s portions is what gave the complex its dire reputation. The design, which is basically two separate buildings up on stilts which straddle the A8011 road, all linked by an elaborate system of walkways. Sections of the centre suffered from structural deterioration and were subsequently demolished, whilst the walkways themselves acted as funnels which created appalling draughts which eventually forced traders to shut up shop.

In recent years, subsequent developments have attempted to stop the rot, by selectively demolishing sections of the building, whilst linking the surviving sections to the Antoine Centre.
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Coordinates:   55°56'49"N   3°59'24"W
This article was last modified 13 years ago