The Tricorn was a great example of modern architecture
The News on September 10 looked back at the 1960s Portsmouth brutalistic concrete edifice – The Tricorn.
I was one of those strange people who thought it was a fantastic mass structure and I wrote so in The News’ letter pages at the time. Now there is mainly boring open space.
By coincidence, on BBC Radio 2 I learned of the Car Park Appreciation Society and their new book. It only covers existing car parks – nice seaside ones and the brutalistic one which survives at Gateshead, a bigger Tricorn by the sounds of it!
They could have constructed The Tricorn with all the sharp edges but they didn’t; there were rounded corners and undersides of the car park floors – they looked like trays against the sky.
There were ground floor shops and a high-rise nightclub (there’s a book on it). A tower staircase was worth the climb for the exercise and view of the city. There were two ‘beautiful’ spiral cantilevered car ramps, one up, one down (inside edge fixed, outside free) and they used to take the weight of the city’s 10-tonne fire trucks – remarkable!
Sadly vandalism took its toll and The Tricorn became a grim place to visit and work. I concede that, but it looked good from a distance.
To me, Portsmouth is a real city unlike some.
It has history. There are so many old buildings and pubs which have survived wars, it has a high skyline and lots of people.
The Tricorn was part of that.
Dennis Willis Barncroft Way, Leigh Park