Where is the nearest paint store to ikea in glasgow?

Answer 1

There's a B&Q across from the Ikea at Braehead.
That'll be your best bet if Ikea themselves aren't selling any.

Answer 2

Ikea sells paint

Answer 3

Ikea sell paint!

Answer 4

What is the worst eyesore in the UK?
Jeremy Harper nominated the student union building at the University of Bristol
Windfarms, motorways and service stations are among the worst architectural eyesores in Britain, according to a survey out on Thursday.

The poll, selected by readers of Country Life magazine, also included hated buildings such as New Street rail station in Birmingham and Oxfordshire's Didcot Power Station.

Most of the structures were chosen because they were badly designed and insensitive to their surroundings.

Which building or structure would you vote as the UK's worst eyesore?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

Your comments:

As an ex Reading resident, I am safe to say this town has more than it's fair share of architectural disasters. There's the gas towers alongside the railway, the monstrous prison, the nasty glass train station, and the twin evils of the Broad Street Mall and The Oracle. I'm so glad I moved to London, a city that is achingly beautiful.
Hugh, London

What a waste of money these wind farms are. We have enough wind in this country without having to artificially make more!
Andy H, Lacock, England

Gateshead shopping centre.
Lisa Akrigg, UK

Wind farms - not just because they are huge, visually polluting and generate their own noise pollution, but because they totally fail to perform the task they are claimed to fulfil. 70% of their capacity has to be backed up by conventional means of production - quite the most pointless piece of 'greenery' that has ever been invented.
R Scott-Watson, UK


Horrible, dirty, smelly, scruffy - and that's just the people
Pauline Yates, Suffolk, UK
MIDDLESBROUGH! (My birth place.) Horrible, dirty, smelly, scruffy - and that's just the people. As for windfarms - MORE PLEASE!! I have driven through them, lovely, quiet, clean, renewable energy. Looking at them gives me hope for my son's future, any grandchildren I may have and generations beyond.
Pauline Yates, Suffolk, UK

Easily the millennium dome - not only is it an eyesore, its been empty for years, cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions that could have been better spent on a better national health/schools/public transport etc - i say tear it down!
K Robinson, France

It has to be my place of work... Energis house in Reading. It's one of the first things you see when arriving into Reading via train from London, and to be honest it is the worst example to show any newcomer to the town. A large hexagonal concrete block, nothing more, nothing less! On the other hand, I noticed someone doesn't like The Oracle, I happen to think it is very nice, with some lovely lines, and an absolutely lovely riverside section.
Stuart Mason, England

Bow High Street. I work nearby, and whenever I need to go to the bank I have to really put myself in to mood to take that short trip. It is such a dull, boring, depressing high street.
Debra, London UK

Fort Dunlop viewed from the M6 was never pretty, but it was impressive. As Lenny Henry said, "You knew when you were getting near home". Now it's just been turned into an advertising hoarding
Chris, England

Our greatest eyesore is the proliferation of ersatz Edwardian and Georgian houses blighting our land. Modern housing built with the latest energy saving techniques and devices with vastly improved environmental performance are possible. Instead we are saddled with out date ugly hoses that refer to a shameful past for this region of Europe.
Mike Newport, Europe/English region

Come on! It has to be Centre Point on Tottenham Court Road. No other of our monumental eyesores is seen by so many millions every year!
Martin, Bangkok Thailand

Elephant and Castle shopping centre!
Frances, UK


The best thing when you're working there must be that you can't see it
John, UK
Virtually any building faced with glass, steel and/or concrete that has been built since the 50's especially the Lloyds building in London. The best thing when you're working there must be that you can't see it. Obviously architecture is very subjective but it's funny how architects of these eyesores usually only get compliments from other architects. The only reason they get awards is that the buildings they design are generally suitable for their function and are built down to a price - aesthetics don't seem to come into it.
The thing I would replace is the joke that Warrington town centre has become and the council hilariously think it should be a city! Also I wouldn't live within sight or sound of a wind farm.
John, UK

The angel of the north. What a waste of public money. It is famous just because it is big. If they had built a giant pig it would still have all the arty types oohing and aahing.
Neil K, England

Milton Keynes. Never have I seen such a dull, drab town of concrete, concentric circles and roads measured to the inch with steel rules in my life. Horrible. Lacks any soul, and indeed any sign of life, as a town and I couldn't wait to leave on my trip up there. Absolutely horrible. Should be demolished. Any town that names its streets after grid references is yawnsville for me. Ugleeee.
Donna, Kent, UK

The 1970's LSD-induced sculpture that now appears outside the council offices in Andover. It looks like three bent lamp-posts with brightly coloured Emmentelle cheese dangling from the top. Makes a once nice market town look like 1970's Amsterdam - expect Van der Valk to be appointed Chief Constable any day now. Wrote to complain and, apparently, myself and half the town had expressed similar views but none of us could see the beauty or something and, yes, it was paid out of our money. Must take the big-picture view though I was told. It will help bring in tourists ha! ha!
Terence Summers, Andover, England

Leatherhead! It was voted the worst High Street in UK and rightly so.
Inga, England

(1) Swathes of fast food litter all over the place. (2) Any town centre with homogenous chains of Next, Gap, Benneton etc (3) The Oracle in Reading. Unbelievable that the town planners allowed this vast monster to be built- then again, this is a town that has had some of the UK's finest Victorian brickwork replaced by concrete boxes, and where a town with hundreds of "office to let" signs allow developers to build more and more offices.
Michael, UK

The Barbican in London. Who's idea was that?
Adam, UK

Junction 27 Retail Park off the M62. A complete blot on the landscape, which unfortunately just keeps on growing.
Kirsty, UK

Croydon!
Duncan, Surrey

The Spinaker Tower in Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. It's nearly four years late, is half finished. Bland concrete painted white - awful. From a distance it looks like an industrial chimney.
Kevin, England

Here in the California we have wind generators just outside of Palm Springs. I kinda like them. With the growth in the area I don't think that fuel burning power stations should be our future. With the problems in the Middle East we need alternatives. Somebody needs to redesigned them. We have cell phone towers that look like palm trees. That's ugly!
Russ Black, USA


Black telephone boxes that have appeared in London
Julian, UK
Black telephone boxes that have appeared in London. Plus all the other street furniture that Camden Council have painted in thick black textured paint (like black artex.)
Julian, UK

The University of Kent's Templeman Library.
Matthew Wassell, England

Suburban shopping precincts which have no proper shops, only insurance brokers, estate agents, video rental outlets and betting shops and maybe one convenience store if you are lucky.
Jane, Wales, UK

Without a doubt windfarms. In a country of 60 million people these ugly eyesores have no chance of generating anywhere near enough power for the country. This is just the Government sucking up to the minority greens and politically correct brigade again who they seem to listen to more than anyone else.
Alan Baker, England


The foreboding London Stock Exchange Tower, 350ft of dirty depressing, characterless monolith
Russell, UK
I look out of my office onto Bank 'square' in the City of London. The view is of the wonderful grandeur of the Bank of England and the Royal Exchange with the Duke of Wellington sitting proudly in front on his horse. However ruining the view is the foreboding London Stock Exchange Tower, 350ft of dirty depressing, characterless monolith borne in late 60s/early 70s. What was the architect thinking of and more importantly what were the planning committee doing when they approved it.
Russell, UK

Croydon - should be wiped off the map, grey, ugly and just very nasty.
Annie, UK

I would much rather see 1,000 wind turbines to a Nuclear power station which along with being hideous is killing all that lies around it!
I Noble, Stafford, GB

I had an ambition to visit London for over fifty years. I saw it just a couple of months ago. The thing that I found the most eyesore was the construction going on at different places, especially near the Houses of Parliament. The half of the road was blocked and I couldn't enjoy the sight very well until my last day in London.
Agha Ata, USA

South Woodford halls of residence.
Julian, London


I am at a loss to understand the hatred of Windfarms
Si, England
I am at a loss to understand the hatred of Windfarms. Bold and graceful in my opinion - far nicer on the eye than the concrete monstrosities that litter our fair land. The worst of these would have to be the gargantuan cinema complexes that are springing up in and around our towns and cities.
Si, England

The most insensitive eyesore is the IMAX theatre by the Bournemouth pier. This monstrosity has destroyed a formerly exciting part of arriving at the beach, to wit, arriving at the top of the hill and seeing the beach and ocean suddenly appearing before you. This was the most memorable sight of my childhood.
Glenn Fiddy, Canada

Having only seen a wind farm once, just outside Burnley in Lancashire, I have to admit I found it mightily impressive, not only as a feat of engineering but also as something that I considered pleasing to look at. As for eyesores, Derby city centre is going to take some beating. It is rapidly becoming one giant wine bar and a place to avoid like the plague every weekend evening.
Brian, UK

The Renault building in Swindon. It looks suspiciously like it's been made of Meccano!
Kate, UK

Brighton's West Pier! Why don't they just pull it down!
Peter, England


Northampton Bus Station... can make you feel very very depressed purely because of the surroundings!
Rosanna, UK
Northampton Bus Station is by far the worst place that was ever built: massive, ugly and dismal to look at from the outside, and dreary and dim inside. Having to wait half an hour for a coach can make you feel very very depressed purely because of the surroundings!
Rosanna, UK

The London Parliament building. Not only is it ugly, but it is right next to two of our most famous and fabulous landmarks - the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Just shows that for all the advances made since those two structures were built, we've lost the ability to create anything of beauty.
Linda, UK

Coventry City Centre It's been suggested the true disaster of Coventry was not the 1940 Blitz but town planners after the war and the Luftwaffe should be invited back so we can start again.
Ian, England

My reflection the morning after the night before!
Simon, UK

I really wish people wouldn't criticise wind farms. I would much rather have 12 hills full of wind turbines than 1 single nuclear power station. Wind farms are not ugly, I think they actually look fascinating. In Denmark, they have whole fields of them, and I think they look quite awe-inspiring.
Amy, Belgium


We need to educate the public better as to the advantages of modern nuclear power
Iain Nicholson, UK
I'd much rather see some safe, well-built, clean nuclear power stations in strategic places around the country than hundreds of square miles of wind farms, with their swirling blades killing birds, and the potential for shed blades which are a danger to birds, animals and humans. I can see we need to educate the public better as to the advantages of modern nuclear power.
Iain Nicholson, UK

Fast food outlets - appearing like nasty rashes throughout the land, disfiguring every environment they manifest themselves in.
J. A. Brown, UK

Poole House at Bournemouth University - 70's concrete mixed with blue window panes mixed with and yellow trimming. And, it's a lot worse than it sounds!
Rich, UK

I'd be more than happy if someone tore up the M25, which cuts an ugly scar across the beautiful North Downs, and replaced it with wind turbines. At least then the view would be of something environmentally positive.
Adele, Surrey

I was surprised to see that Battersea Power Station was in the top 10 most hated buildings - in my opinion this building is one of the most beautiful buildings on the London skyline. My vote goes for the shopping centre at Elephant and Castle (its pink and resembles everything bad about 1960s architecture), the Trafford Centre in Manchester (tacky and grossly overdone) and Euston Station (completely uninspiring and characterless - what a welcome for those arriving in London from the north).
Becky, UK

Memorial Stadium, Bristol - disgrace to the country.
Boscher, ENGLAND

There are so many eyesores where I work, in Birmingham, that I'd be hard pressed to choose just one...
David, UK

London's Oxford Street is an all-out embarrassment stuck in the 1960s - pedestrianise it please and get rid of those dirty, noisy and uncomfortable old buses. A row of trees down the middle would make the world of difference.
Paul, UK

Peterhead in Scotland. It stinks of fish and Branston Pickle. Has no redeeming attributes and the nearest trees are 8 miles away. Also Stevenage town centre. Defiantly a 60's concrete eyesore.
Terry, England


Most of the things labelled as contemporary art are eye sores
Doug, Scotland
Most of the things labelled as contemporary art are eye sores. Derelict buildings are also really bad. Train stations, multi-storey car parks and some bus stops. It's no wonder there are so many eye sores around since the government seem to allow vandalism, among other crime, unpunished.
Doug, Scotland

Outdated - outlived usefulness, domineering, expensive to up-keep and run. It's got to be Buckingham Palace. Change of use on the cards? Not too soon!
Jan, Scotland

So wind-farms are more visually offensive than nuclear/coal/gas fired power stations and their associated cooling towers??
Kevin, UK

Wind turbines are an eyesore and a waste of money. They take five years to generate the amount of energy that it takes to build them in the first place, and you'd need to cover half the country in them to generate all the power we need.
Tom, Yorkshire

Leeds City Centre is horrendous. Also the derelict house next door to me which I cannot do anything about as the owners - who live in the Isle of Man - wont take responsibility for it!
Liz, UK

Why be so negative? Why not nominate Britain's most beautiful building. We could start with the new interior of the British Museum. Wonderful!
A Boots, UK


Penrith, definitely, ugly pink sandstone everywhere, yuck!!
CW, UK
Penrith, definitely, ugly pink sandstone everywhere, yuck!! By the way, wind turbines are great, I can't think of a better use for the bleak and ugly fells of Cumbria (with the exception of the Lake District National Park) and would love to see some of these small minded NIMBY's generate power in their own back yard, rather than sticking power stations in the poorest parts of the country, where I suppose people aren't supposed to mind the pollution/view/radiation etc.
CW, UK

Bridlington front, the china drying plant at Par beach, every building on the UEA campus, Peterborough Blackpool, Runcorn New Town in its entirety, Cheltenham lower high street, the hugely underwhelming "Revelation" at Chatsworth, Hattersley station, the area around Carnforth Station, the new gym near Hathersage station and the Stopford Building at Manchester University.
Paul D, UK

I cannot understand how people can complain about the relatively few windfarms dotted around the country when everywhere you turn great ugly chains of power pylons blight the landscape, as aesthetically pleasing as a tub of lard!
Chris White, England

UPVC windows and doors are the most insensitive addition to thousands of buildings across the UK In Surrey the installation of UPVC has reached epidemic proportions!
Caroline Coker, England

A little town called Swindon.
Ria, UK


The Millennium Dome
Vickey, Cobham, Surrey
The Millennium Dome. Not only because it's hideous, but mostly because of all the money it cost and is still costing us today that could be spent on better things like the NHS. Turn it into a massive centre for the homeless.
Vickey, Cobham, Surrey

Wind farms, are without question elegant, pure, minimal and use nature to form kinetic sculptures. For a REAL eye sore, visit any housing development in middle class Britain, with there "Plastic Georgian / Edwardian Developer interpretation of the past" lying in fields which inevitably join traditional villages together in a swathe of mediocrity! Dull boring and blighting the British countryside! Yukk!! At least Wind farms have a limited lifespan!
Simon Millington, Britain

The worst eyesore for me personally is the Cellnet mast directly across the lane from my house. I have a prime view of this from my bedroom window. I for one would much rather have a "Wind Turbine" there.
June Cunningham, Manchester, UK

I did live next to a nuclear power-station, and it was far less intrusive than any wind-farm. Windfarms - with their constantly moving propellers - attract the eye because human vision is selectively biased towards noticing moving things. And you need a vast area of windfarms [which don't work when it's not windy!] to be equivalent to even the smallest power-station. What price our hillsides?
David Moran, Scotland/Australia


The shopping centre in Swindon - 1960s architecture at it's ugliest
Tabitha, Oxon, UK
The shopping centre in Swindon - 1960s architecture at it's ugliest and surrounded by dingy, dirty multi-story carparks. And it's always cold and windy when I go.
Tabitha, Oxon, UK

Hemel Hempstead, oh please please please please let something destroy it, wipe it off the map and expunge it from history.....I guess I don't like it!!!
Theron, England

Without a doubt large Windfarms on mountain ridge lines closely followed by the Scottish Parliament building at Hollyrood.
Graham Hendersaon, Scotland

I nominate the two disused cinemas, one at the Bakers Arms, E17, and the one in Highams Park, E4. I cannot understand how the property owners cannot be forced to do something about them.
Kevin Saint, UK

Windfarms are beautiful! Leave them alone! What is the alternative? The ugly monolithic nuclear power stations. Windfarms are beautiful because they are safe and clean with no pollution. Wake up and smell the clean air!
Bazza, Bonnie Scotland

All the awful tacky amusement arcades, souvenir stalls, burger vans, funfairs etc which ruin so many of our (otherwise lovely) seaside towns.
Lin, UK


The bus station in High Wycombe, Bucks, along with all the other ugly monstrosities built in the 1960s under the banner of utilitarianism
James Cox, Bucks, England
The bus station in High Wycombe, Bucks, along with all the other ugly monstrosities built in the 1960s under the banner of utilitarianism. Drive through practically any town in the UK and the idiot planners of yesteryear have left their monolithic, windowless and concrete epitaphs behind for us to hate. Nice one.
James Cox, Bucks, England

The new Sainsbury's development in Selsdon, near Croydon. Hideous, completely out of place and built at the cost of over 100 mature trees.
Andy Burton, UK

I see nobody from Peterborough has bothered to comment. This is the depressing effect of long-term exposure. I escaped two years ago and have largely recovered.
Michael, UK (Not Peterborough anymore)

Iain. I work in nuclear safety and would rather see nuclear power stations which provide the power of 500 wind turbines. They are not dangerous (RBMKs would never have been licensed in the UK) and are no uglier than any other industrial building. It is your wind turbines that are a blight on the beautiful landscape.
Roger, England


Few would rather see nuclear power stations
Iain MacSween, Scotland
As someone who works in the siting and design of windfarms I am amazed at the ignorance of many of the previous comments. Public opinion is generally positive, as few would rather see nuclear power stations, an uglier and more dangerous option, than windfarms. For many years we have used the landscape to support our needs and wind turbines are merely an extension of this practice.
Iain MacSween, Scotland

It's staring us in the face, too much corporate advertising everywhere you turn.
Rob, UK

My neighbour's security light.
Gerry, UK

Brighton Centre - totally inappropriate in its setting and completely insensitive to neighbouring buildings.
Stephen Hardy, UK

What an eyesore the Angel of the North is! It represents the North East as hostile, rusty and decadent. Public 'art' should be pleasing to the eye if it is to be publicly funded.
Andrew Jubb, England


A contrived piece of nastiness if there ever was one
Bob H, UK
So many choices. In my home town of Glasgow, the Anderston Centre - a nasty bit of 1960's comprehensive redevelopment that needs comprehensive demolition. A bit further afield, Cumbernauld new town centre would be immeasurably improved by being blown up (I think it was recently voted one of the worst buildings in Britain). And in my adopted city of London, the architect Norman Foster's GLA building. A contrived piece of nastiness if there ever was one.
Bob H, UK

Luton - every last brick of it. Also, Barbican - quite hideous!
Richard, England

The London Eye, without a doubt. It makes our finest city look like nothing more than a circus.
Lydia, UK

Birmingham. Without a doubt. They've tried to brighten it up with the likes of the Bullring. But the words 'silk purse' and 'sow's ear' come to mind for some inexplicable reason. Not even the exits in Birmingham are pleasurable. New Street station, the M6... argh... it's horrible.
Pete, Frodsham, UK.

My back garden's not looking too good.
BL, UK


Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces at the University of East Anglia
James, England
Norfolk and Suffolk Terraces at the University of East Anglia, Norfolk: the famous 'ziggurats' won architectural prizes in the 1960's, which is a fair indication of how awful they are. They're built of dull-grey concrete, they're like ovens in summer and fridges in winter and security for the students in them is appalling. They're a blot on the Fine City of Norwich.
James, England

After the collapse of industry in Stoke on Trent the city has been left with numerous derelict buildings, which makes the entire city an eyesore. The main site being the Shelton Barr steel works. This enormous mill stands alongside the A500, and does not give visitors to the city a very good impression.
Nick Clowes, England

One of the best sites I've seen was a huge windfarm outside San Francisco. They are hugely graceful and stunning to look at - I'd love to live near one. I think a lot of people in the UK need to realise that everything changes and that windfarms are one welcome change - they're the future, embrace them.
Sean Malyon, Bristol, UK

To Sean Malyon, Bristol, UK. I've seen the same one, or at least a similar one east from Palm Springs towards Joshua Tree. I am sorry to disagree, but I think it is hideous. Literally thousands of wind turbines. But have you heard them? You can, from miles away. The irony is that these monstrosities are about as effective as a few AA batteries! Maybe California has less choice but the UK is surrounded by (very windy) water. We should keep them offshore. The installation technology is well established, as is the means of gathering to power hubs etc.
Paul B, UK


For me the grey smog of polluted air over London is the top eyesore
Stuart Rogers, UK
It's a shame wind farms are seen to be a top eyesore - soon or later we need to embrace them. For me the grey smog of polluted air over London is the top eyesore.
Stuart Rogers, UK

It really annoys me when people say that windfarms are an eyesore. What would you rather look at, massive chimneys spewing out smoke? What would people rather live next to, a nuclear power plant? Give me windfarms (and more of them) any day. Grow up and find something else to moan about!
Kevin Thomas, UK

Quotation: "I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may - light, shade and perspective will always make it beautiful" - John Constable, English Landscape Artist (1776-1837). My sentiments exactly, although that shopping centre car park in Portsmouth would tax anybody's attempt to see beauty in everything - thank heavens it's being pulled down !
Jeff, UK


There are two disgusting derelict concrete towers on Poole Quay
Aly, UK
There are two disgusting derelict concrete towers on Poole Quay near to the harbour bridge. Broken windows, filth and rubbish - all on a big chunk of the most expensive real estate in the country. Oh, and if anyone does knock them down can they also please demolish that horrendous glass-and concrete monstrosity being built where the lovely old Poole Pottery used to be. Pleeeeeaaase !!!!!
Aly, UK

Horsham's (Sussex) Capital Theatre must be seen to believed. The council some time ago pulled down the original beautiful theatre to make way for a shopping centre and then used a converted cinema as a theatre for a number of years. However some idiot, out of the misguided view that glass conservatories can be used anywhere, has put a monstrous one on front of the converted cinema at a cost of millions. It ruins what was a pleasant tree lined thoroughfare with something that I'm sure even Damien Hirst would despair of.
Dennis Livingstone, UK

HGVs, 4x4s and countless cars blight the view of our country and cities from just about every angle!
Martin, UK

I think it's interesting that city folk point to grey concrete buildings and country folk point to wind farms. I guess if you come from the city then a windfarm has to look elegant after grey office blocks and if you come from the country, any blot on the landscape is bad. However, people need to live and work somewhere and power has to come from somewhere (and we do use a lot of it). Architects will never be able to please everyone. Perhaps city and country folk should swap places. Personally, I'd rather live next to a windfarm rather than a grey office block, or a nuclear power station come to that.
Martin, UK

My vote goes to the 2 disgusting gas holders in the centre of beautiful bath. They're huge, rusting and quite disgusting.
Peter Vincent, UK


I despise acres of identical new houses crammed into as little space as possible
James Trinder, United Kingdom
I despise acres of identical new houses crammed into as little space as possible with their fake retro Georgian or Tudor features and boxy little rooms. Also, the yuppyfied Leith docks in Edinburgh are hilarious. Basically £250,000 aluminium clad office building with laminate flooring overlooking a wasteland of toxic docks and syringes. Both types of development attempt fake class and style and fail miserably.
Brian , Scotland

I think wind farms are amazing and my 9 year old son does too, we saw them on the way from Coventry to Cambridgeshire last year, the real eyesore is the new Bullring in Birmingham, what's with all the discs?
Elaine, Coventry, England

The telephone exchange in Newbury, Berkshire. It is a concrete multi-storey surrounded by two or three storey brick buildings. The architects blatantly made no attempt to make this building blend in with its surroundings.
James Trinder, United Kingdom


The ugliest building in Belfast must be the Queen's University Students' Union
Conor, UK
Belfast has more than its fair share of eyesores - mostly from the '60s and '70s. It has some stunning old and modern architecture though to make up for those disasters: like Sir John Soane's design for the Royal Belfast Academical Institution or the stunning modern Waterfront Hall. However, the ugliest building in Belfast must be the Queen's University Students' Union.
Conor, UK

St George's Wharf, off Vauxhall Bridge, London. So awful it makes the adjacent MI6 building look good. It's straight off the set of the film Bladerunner where the aggressive architecture was intended to show a grim future where the rich and their all-powerful corporations rule over the ordinary people like gods. Hopefully we're not quite there yet but seeing buildings like this makes me wonder.
Dan, UK

Although they are a great idea and we should utilise more renewable energy sources it's a shame that the windiest place are often the prettiest. In order to blend the turbines more into the natural landscape why not paint them a neutral colour rather than the blindingly obvious white!
Andrew Robinson, UK

Simple: Graffiti and litter. I am at loss as to why police can't stop the former and as to the latter I am perplexed at how people can dirty their own country.
Bob Gardiner, UK


Anything coloured in establishment grey
Mark, UK
Anything coloured in establishment grey. This includes anything built with uncoloured cement and any galvanised mesh fencing. I am quite happy to tolerate windfarms and propose that house owners should be allowed to use wind generators on their roofs as both are ultimately beneficial in preserving the rest of the environment.
Mark, UK

The physics and engineering departments of Oxford University. Hideous, concrete monstrosities that jar among the dreaming spires. The planning committee who gave building permission should be ashamed of themselves.
Hannah, UK

The angel of the north, seems not to resemble an angel at all but a mere piece of rotted architecture with no inspirational quality.
Adele Hammond, England


Plymouth city centre and particularly the Drakes Circus development
David, Qatar / Plymouth
To add another 60's eyesore to this list - Plymouth city centre and particularly the Drakes Circus development. People should be shot for building such cheap and nasty buildings. At least these 60's developments should have taught the next generations of designers that concrete is NOT an architectural material and should be left only to civil engineers to use.
David, Qatar / Plymouth

Coming from the Highlands I appreciate the role that windfarms can play in our local economy. People I have spoken to are generally favourable because of the employment opportunities. Most windfarms are being built on fairly inoffensive sites. The people that speak out against them are mostly incomers who have retired to the area to appreciate the scenery. However young people in the Highlands need opportunities or they have to leave the area. Windfarms can provide such opportunities.
Andrew Mackenzie, Scotland

The '60s tower blocks, left of the track, just before my commuter train pulls into London Victoria. I swear they look like upright tombstones except tombstones look more cheerful - and are better maintained. I can't tell you if there are two, three or more of these filthy monstrosities because I close my eyes every time I see the first one coming.
Valerie Dabbs, UK

Having just come back from South Africa where cell phone masts are very well disguised as trees, their UK equivalent get my vote for our most prolific eyesore
Mark Buckland, UK

City Centre, Bristol. A soulless concrete nightmare with a complementary one-way system. Built to replace the WWII bomb damage. And it was an improvement?
Lesley, England


The sight of white wind turbines in a rolling green landscape tells me the future is coming
Paul, UK
Wind farms are great! When I was a child I had dreams of how the future would look - domed cities, flying cars and so on. Now I'm nearing fifty, I realise I'm never going to see those things, but the sight of white wind turbines in a rolling green landscape tells me the future is coming after all, and it cheers me up immensely.
Paul, UK

Outside M&S in Nottingham they put up this fountain of what was supposed to be a tulip. It looked more like a sex aid and because at was at the top of an incline it made walking there in winter quite interesting to say the least. Apart from that, any 1960's shopping precinct (see St Ann's in Nottingham for a lovely example), the millennium dome, Scottish Parliament building (hideously over budget already and bound to be an eyesore of gigantic proportions), and most of the overpriced works of 'art' that councils for some bizarre reason keep inflicting on the general public when they honour someone or put up a new (also eyesore) shopping centre.
Katrina, UK

For London, Elephant & Castle shopping centre with BBC Television Centre & the US embassy running it close. Nationwide, nothing can possibly beat Lion Yard in Cambridge - a 70s concrete shopping centre & car park smack in the centre of one of the most historic sites in the world. Although thankfully this is now being demolished.
Aidan Merritt, UK

The greatest scar on the landscape is those annoying windfarms. Areas of outstanding natural beauty are being ruined by these monstrosities.
Gary Shaw, England


Wind farms: off shore only please
Jon, Leicestershire
I've lived near to both the M62 and a wind farm in the middle of the beautiful peak district. Of the two the wind farm was much the worst. By definition the turbines must be on high ground and moving/noisy, whilst the road was hidden at the bottom of a valley. Wind farms: off shore only please.
Jon, Leicestershire

Allotments. They seem to muster the biggest collection of rubbish apart from, possibly, the local refuse 'swap shop'. Plastic bags, old bits of wood, oil drums, completely unnecessary scarecrows. And all this on what could be valuable building land. Leave farming to the farmers.
Mike Grimes, UK

So Mike Grimes thinks allotments are the UK's greatest eyesores does he? Perhaps he'd prefer a nice shiny motorway service station or a flyover abutting his obviously palatial residence. Leave it out, Mike - allotments provide a haven for wildlife in the urban landscape and give pleasure to thousands who enjoy this harmless and productive pastime. I nominate golf courses for their bland, artificial appearance and their obscenely wasteful use of land.
Simon Taylor, UK

Simon Taylor: Yes, There are two golf courses close to my family home which, hitherto, I had not regarded as palatial but I will have a word with the estate agent tomorrow. I am pretty sure that these golf courses are a haven for countless species of wildlife (many of which are not vermin) and look a darn sight more attractive than allotments will ever look like. Come on everybody, next time you see allotments, consider how much more aesthetically pleasing it would be if it were anything else. By the way, motorway service stations do not shine and fly-overs do not abutt.
Mike Grimes, Liphook, UK

East London Mosque on Whitechapel Rd is an orange brick oblong building, with three out-of-place looking minarets on the roof. The whole thing is bereft of architectural merit, and looks cheap and hurried.
James Frankcom, England

A radical thought - All new buildings must be built in traditional style, since nearly all modern ones look terrible after just a few years. I can't think of any exceptions to this.
Paul, Scotland


The Arndale tower in the centre of Manchester looks like a giant toilet
Paul Villa, Wales
The Arndale tower in the centre of Manchester looks like a giant toilet, covered in disgusting yellow tiles. At night they try and make it look better by putting pink lights on the top. It's awful...reclad it or tear it down especially as the rest of the Arndale is being refurbished.
Martyn, Manchester

Any steelworks - I have several in my locale. They always think it will help them to blend in if they are painted bright blue! Why are wind farms seen as eyesores? They always remind me of huge flowers dotted across the landscape.
Paul Villa, Wales, UK

The eyesore that jars the eyes most is the ASDA supermarket here in my home town of Winsford in Cheshire. When the store was refurbished and extended recently, the company decided to cover the brick facade that had been there for years with white cladding. Now instead of having a building that blends in with the surroundings, we have a huge white eyesore. The annoying thing is that this building is opposite the Borough Council building where no one seems to have thought about the aesthetics when the planning permission was granted.
Geoff, UK


Park Hill flats in Sheffield are now dirty, dangerous concrete towers.
Ged, UK
Park Hill flats in Sheffield were built in the 60's. They are now dirty, dangerous concrete towers. Slowly decaying and falling apart. They need to be torn down to allow modern development of the area. Unfortunately for some strange reason they were declared as a listed building a few years ago. How can we possibly consider moving on through the 21st Century with shocking reminders of architectural disasters we have allowed in the past, haunting us as they over look a regenerated city.
Ged, UK

The Tricorn shopping centre in Portsmouth - fortunately it's been condemned and is up for demolition, but it's still there and has been for too long...
Nigel , UK

Nigel UK: I was at Portsmouth Poly (as it was then) in the early 80s and the Tricorn Centre was supposedly marked for demolition then. Don't hold your breath...
Joy, UK

Is it just me? I think wind farms look beautiful. The elegant sweep of the arms moving in unison. I can understand there might be local concerns about noise, for example, but ugly? No.
Ian Gent, UK

The King's College London campus on the strand has to be the worst. A black concrete lump in the middle of a corridor of cream Portland stone. Awful, awful building, please, someone knock it down.
Mark Sarton, England


Pontypridd's 1960s concrete shopping centre has to be the worst eyesore in Wales
Steve Lake, Wales
Pontypridd's 1960s concrete shopping centre has to be the worst eyesore in Wales. It's so ugly it looks as if it was pre-vandalised by the original designers and the underground car park is as intimidating as any scene from a post-apocalyptic Hollywood movie.
Steve Lake, Wales

The Farrer Theatre - Eton College. Whilst fantastic on the inside, it is completely out of character with the rest of the school's beautiful buildings.
Ollie, England

Heathrow Airport, the gateway to our nation, is an ugly monument to mediocrity and small-mindedness. This soul-deadening troglodytic labyrinth is an altar to petty consumerism that removes all dignity from travelling. As an urban statement it is an eyesore that adds insult to the environmental injury.
Miriam Neuber, London, UK

The reclining telephone booths in Kingston-upon-Thames. An eyesore and insult to local residents whose rates were stolen to fund them.
Ian Cavill, England

The "Gateshead Flasher", i.e. Angel of the North. Its all rusty and everything! Where are its arms/hands?
Steve C, UK.


London... a sprawling mass of miserable grey buildings
Alex, England
Without a doubt its London. Most cities have some kind of structure like an actual centre, London however is for the most part just a sprawling mass of miserable grey buildings.
Alex, England

Derby - obviously designed by a committee that never met.
Nick Barker, UK

Surely it's not the buildings but the huge number of road signs, traffic lights, "traffic calming" measures, speed bumps and multi-coloured road markings that blight our cities?
John Murray, Scotland

Windfarms look cool. MacDonald's golden arches do not. Unless you're really hungry...
Anona , UK


Wind farms are elegant, inspiring, and one of the few current pragmatic hopes for a smog-free world
Christopher, Cambridge, UK
I'm surprised the BBC used a wind farm as the image to this story. I suppose it reflects the fact that the poll was conducted by Country Life magazine, which may be a publication slightly out of touch with reality. Wind farms are elegant, inspiring, and one of the few current pragmatic hopes for a smog-free world.
Christopher, Cambridge, UK

Personally I like wind turbines, I first saw them up close while driving home from Edinburgh to the Borders over Sutra. It was dusk and the sky was a deep red, then I just turned my head and they were about 20 feet away from me and they were stunning. The worst structure to look at is the Edinburgh University Library - a 60's concrete creation.
Craig, UK

Birmingham is the biggest eyesore in the world! A series of motorways elevated above a massive power station and very run down looking buildings for miles around - without doubt, the most depressing environment on earth!!! Put some wind turbines there to brighten the place up a bit, please!
Nick, UK

Tony Blair's Grin
Khawaja, UK


Lets demolish 90% of structures built in any city centre in the 1960s
Nicholas, UK
Lets demolish 90% of structures built in any city centre in the 1960s. Bristol, for example, has some lovely buildings but most of them are now invisible, being overshadowed and encircled by criminally unsympathetic multi-storey car parks and office buildings. Acres without number of crumbling damp stained concrete might be comforting for a cave dweller, but it doesn't do much for me...
Paul Sidnell, UK

The empty and filthy concrete building in the centre of the Addison Road/York Road traffic island near Waterloo Station. To think this the first impression of Britain that many Eurostar travellers must get is disgraceful! Why hasn't this been demolished?
Nicholas, UK

Without a doubt it has to be London. Dirty, rubbish strewn and full of decaying buildings in desperate need of upkeep and a paint job.
Ben Bell, England

Lister Mill, Bradford
New St. Station, Birmingham
Sarah Donnelly, England

I would vote for Didcot Power Station. Not only is it big, grey and dirty-looking, but it has been placed in the middle of an open plane making it visible from up to thirty miles away. Would this be allowed today? I suspect not.
Mark Walker, U.K.

The Gateshead multi storey Car Park. An eyesore amongst an emerging beautiful landscape. Michael Caine would shudder to see it now!
MJ, Tyneside, UK

Elephant and Castle in South London, the Aylesbury Estate, (the biggest in Europe). I don't think I need say anymore, just look for yourself.
Martin, UK

The whole train ride between Middlesbrough and Redcar is an eyesore. Steelworks, chemical works, scrap yards, disused/rotting machinery. And just to add to the beauty of the area they've just approved a massive wind farm.
Mike, Middlesbrough, England

The Hilton Hotel in Bath. How town planners could have allowed such a disgrace of a building to be erected in a city with such a beautiful architectural tradition defies belief.
Ed Thompson, UK

Clacton-On-Sea.
The highlights include dirty grey concrete, garish neon and crumbling brickwork. Lovely.
Paul, UK

For me it's got to be the Superdrug building in central Canterbury. It's listed - apparently a fine example of 50s or 60s architecture. Fair enough, but central Canterbury?!
Rich, UK

Electricity Pylons are the worst eyesore across the UK, being closely caught by telecommunications masts (although at least there is some attempt to disguise the more recent designs).
Jon Beeson, U.K.


If you want to see an eye sore - drive into Didcot Centre!
Goldie, UK
Didcot Power Station is not an eye sore. I used to be intrigued by the large towers in my youth. They are an interesting shape and look clean enough. If you want to see an eye sore - drive into Didcot Centre!
Goldie, UK

1970's built-concrete multi-storey car parks.
kate, England

The dome and the approach to Portsmouth
Ray Brown, UK

Is the answer conjunctivitis?
Tim Hamilton-Miller, UK

It just has to be the IKEA store near the M5 M6 interchange that can be viewed from the motorway. I hate it simply because it reminds me of shopping for cheap flat-pack furniture!
Michael, UK

Windfarms are definitely more preferable than the new Sage computing building at Newcastle great park in Tyneside. It has no redeeming features at all and the architects should hang their heads in shame.
Andrew Preston, UK

I'd rather look at a wind farm than a nuclear power station.
Mark, England


Anfield - Liverpool Football Club
Derek Rothwell, England
Anfield - Liverpool Football Club.
This place has developed without ANY consideration to anything other that the amount of money the place will generate the football club. The proposed new stadium is exactly the same - rip up a public park in order to generate more money for a private company, and plonk a concrete, glass and steel eyesore on what was a magnificent Victorian public park that has been allowed to deteriorate by the council - why? Because the football club will need it...
Derek Rothwell, England

I'd like to nominate St Catherine's College, Oxford as the worst eyesore in Britain. It's just hideous.
Andrew Mitchell, UK

The concrete Post Office building that defaces Kettering's skyline. It's hideousness can be best appreciated when approaching the town from the A14. To make matters worse it replaced a beautiful Victorian brick building which was demolished in the 1970's - the decade that taste forgot.
Ian, UK

I cannot understand people saying that wind turbines are an eye sore. I think they are just as elegant as architectural structures such as "The Angel of the North" and they have a good purpose as well.
Richard, UK

I can't believe people think wind farms are a blot on the landscape. I think they look very graceful! I think most concrete buildings look dull and boring myself!
Dave, England

Street litter is a far worse eyesore than any building.
Martin, England


The cinema on Bournemouth seafront,
Nick, UK
Has to be the cinema on Bournemouth seafront, previously you could drive past and watch the sun rise over the ocean. Now you can just catch a glimpse of some water between the big grey slab and the pier.
Nick, UK

It's got to be 'The Trafford Centre' near Manchester - it's completely over the top and out of place. Give me Manchester's Victorian Buildings with their superb architectural appeal any day!
Lesley Lee, UK

Birmingham
Mark, London, UK

Basingstoke.
Dave, UK

Dundee
John Ballantyne, UK

The biggest eyesore in this country must be ELECTRICITY PYLONS. They look terrible and they are not just restricted to one area but spread across virgin landscape like a plague.
Jeremy Goldberg, Scotland