According to a poll by games manufacturer EA, The Bullring in Birmingham is the UK’s ugliest building. Maybe I’m biased, being Brummie born and bred, but I can name countless buildings far uglier than my home city’s much-lauded and internationally acclaimed shopping centre.
More than a third of the 1,111 people surveyed thought Birmingham had the country’s ugliest buildings. On this I could be persuaded to concur, but the Bullring is certainly not one of them.
I’m not sure who was surveyed for this poll, but as the Liver Building in Liverpool made it into the ugly list I think we can all conclude that the entire thing was a wasted exercise. To name one of Liverpool’s most instantly recognisable and attractive pieces of architecture as one of the ten ugliest buildings in the UK is madness. Why not chuck the Houses of Parliament in there if the aim of the game is stirring up a bit of controversy?!
To make a point, here’s my snappily-titled list of Five Buildings Far Uglier Than The Bullring Or The Liver Building…
1. Any of the countless identikit city centre apartment buildings lying empty across the country
2. The Blackpool Tower
3. Dover Ferry Terminal
4. Manchester Arndale Centre
5. Gateshead Shopping Centre/Car Park
I think EA should stick to making PlayStation games and leave architectural surveys to 4Homes – you can vote for your favourite UK landmark on the right hand side of any of our architecture pages…
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Completely agree with the comments of Rich Payne; I suspect some good old fashioned Brummie/Scouser bashing from those in the media regions (London and Manchester – in case it isn’t startlingly obvious), but I wouldn’t dare say such a thing because, of course, that would be sour grapes with a touch of paranoia…
Seriously though, this does seem a rather futile attempt at a survey and as such should be taken with a great big pinch of salt.
Glad you agree Dave! – I found the whole survey to be a bit of a joke and would love to know exactly how it was conducted because the results are so skewed as to suggest somewhat unscientific research methods. But then I don’t want to reek of sour grapes and paranoia either! Was surprised that it got so much unquestioning coverage in the press actually – lots of news agencies and property publications covered the story without stopping to question the frankly preposterous results.
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