Not ‘pretty,’ but popular, 15 years on
PLYMOUTH’S Drake Circus Shopping Centre may just have saved the city centre as a retail destination, but it still looks “horrible”, a leading architect says.
Architecture professor Robert Brown said the mall, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this month, has been an important economic boost for Plymouth’s retail area and helped make the city a destination for visitors.
But he said the building itself is too inward looking and doesn’t connect well with the streets around it.
And as for its appearance, the University of Plymouth professor said it leaves a lot to be desired, particularly the corner housing the Primark store, where Exeter Street meets Charles Street.
“The view from Exeter Street, and seeing Charles Cross Church with that horrible collection of stuff behind it, well, it’s tragic to be confronted by that,” Prof Brown said. “The idea that you have a preserved ruin and then put a facade behind that so you see it as you come up Exeter Street, well, that’s a shame. I can’t fathom how that was conceived or people thought it was a good thing.”
The appearance of the 39,484sq ft complex has drawn criticism since it was opened in October 2006. That year Building Design magazine awarded it the inaugural Carbuncle Cup for architectural grotesqueness and called it a “crime against architecture”.
Internationally-renowned David Mackay, the late architect behind the “vision” to revitalise Plymouth, called the shopping centre “very ugly” and said he “warned” designers about its look.
Jeremy Gould, professor of architecture at the University of Plymouth at the time the mall opened, called the building “inexcusable” and The Times placed the pile, designed by London-based architects Chapman Taylor, on its “worst new building in
Britain” list. Prof Brown, current professor of architecture at the University of Plymouth’s School of Art, Design and Architecture, said the different facades “lack coherence” and give the impression of “stage sets”. However, he feels the main problem is the building’s failure to blend with its surroundings, and said it compares unfavourably with the Princesshay development in central Exeter which contributes to a vibrant street life.
“It’s a very internalised building,” he said. “It doesn’t contribute much to the streets around it.”
He said that Cornwall Street’s cafe culture and the M&S building provide
vibrancy, but the mall’s failure to link with this was a “missed opportunity”, and it is disconnected from the university’s Roland Levinsky Building. “There is life in the streets around it but more could have been done in terms of a direct relationship,” the professor said.
But Prof Brown did stress the important role the mall has had for Plymouth, and said building it in the city centre, and not out of town, was a significant step. “It is a focal point for shopping and food and a place people enjoy going to, and it has acted as a major retail draw, assisting the city’s position as a focal point for retail in the South West,” he said.