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Preston building into final of Carbuncle Cup

Posted on - 2nd September, 2017 - 12:00pm | Author - | Posted in - Preston City Centre, Preston News, Transport
Preston Station's new side entrance Pic: Paul Melling
Preston Station’s new side entrance Pic: Paul Melling

The side entrance of Preston Railway Station has advanced into the final stages of an architectural competition.

It’s not, however, one of merit and glowing praise.

The Carbuncle Cup looks for the worst new building completed in the last year.

Facing into Butler Street the side entrance has drawn scorn from Prestonians and architects alike.

Building Design magazine runs the annual competition to find the most incoherent, overblown and ‘plain, cheap and nasty’ buildings in Britain.

Read more: Bar at Preston Station to change its name

Steve Webberley nominated the railway station’s side extension – designed by AHR – saying it was a “deadening cake tin slapped on its side”.

He said: “This fractured geometric lean-to would seem out of date 10 years ago. It isn’t even that well-planned inside. The relationship with the window line of the brick station is laughable. We’ve come a long way from Brunel. A very long way…”

Virgin Trains, who operate the station, and Network Rail, are overseeing a £2million renovation of the mainline station.

They are it was a ‘contrasting structure to create a more modern and passenger friendly environment’.

Read more: We went to see what lies beneath Preston Railway Station

The side entrance is on the shortlist and up against the Nova offices in London, Greetham Street Student Halls in Portsmouth, 8 Somers Road in Malvern, Circus West in Battersea and Park Plaza in Waterloo.

The winner of the Carbuncle Cup is to be announced on Wednesday 6 September.

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