My many rants about the shittiness of modern architecture are by now a fixture of this weblog, and I see no reason why I should end them anytime soon. Take a look at Britain’s Ugliest Buildings, and tell me why I shouldn’t pray for a series of Muslim assholes piloting airliners on one final mission for Allah, with these dungheaps as targets.
My least favorite (and it was a tough decision, let me tell you) is the so-called “Walkie-Talkie” building, not because of its inherent ugliness — it would actually work quite well in a more modern city e.g. Abu Dhabi — but because of the violence it has done to the skyline of one of my favorite cities in the world, viz.:
Somebody hide the TNT, willya?
YGTBSM! It’s beyond ugly…it’s UGLEE.
Instead of annually hanging Guy Fawkes’ in effigy, RHIP demands whomever approved that building permit take the big step – for real. Heck, maybe he can hold hands with Lord Mayor – make it a duet.
It’s pretty amazing how that building is so bad and strange that it looks like it’s Photoshopped (badly) into every image you see.
42 Fenchurch… so every morning, it throws enormous slices of toast into the air? Perhaps the euros would feel better about Brexit if HMG offered to build a fence around Stonehenge and impound all the architects there.
Every time I see one of these modern “masterpieces”, I’m reminded of the immortal words of Arthur Dent: “You barbarians! I’ll have you hung, drawn and quartered, and whipped, and boiled, until you’ve had enough! And then I’ll do it some more! And then I’ll take the little bits and jump on them! And I’ll carry on jumping on them until I get blisters!” That would seem to be a good place to start for today’s crop of carbuncle-tects.
(Monty Python’s “Architect Sketch” is also highly relevant; the rotating knives would come in handy.)
I had to look that one up: https://youtu.be/85dq13RDMys
This one also works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXbIDwLeeEo
To quote the immortal Gunnery Sergeant Hartman ,in another context, from the movie “Full Metal Jacket”: “You’re so fuckin’ ugly, you could be a modern art masterpiece.”
Been about 8 years since I was last in Londonistan and that monstrosity was not there that I can recall, however, what has been done to the entire Canary Wharf area is just as despicable. London of old is vanishing amidst these glass and steel monstrosities. Even the Millenium Wheel or whatever that thing is called, is a horrid discombobulation on the Thames.
It is sad to see England sinking into a third world morass. I will keep my memories of the Commonwealth (UK, Australia, NZ, Ireland and Canada – never did get to India or the other outposts) as I remember them in the 70’s, thank you very mutch.