New use sought for one of Plymouth's ugliest buildings

-Credit: (Image: William Telford)
-Credit: (Image: William Telford)


A huge building widely considered to be among the ugliest in Plymouth is once again empty and available for rent at £125,000 a year. The former Staples pile at Charles Cross is no longer being used by Jobcentre staff and could become a shop again.

The 19,600sq ft building is mainly open plan and was given a major refurbishment in 2020. It is being marketed by Vickery Holman and a brochure said: “The property comprises a mainly open plan space with toilet and kitchen facilities located along the right hand side of the space.

“To the rear there are a number of meeting rooms. The property has most recently been used as a Jobcentre but prior to this it was a retail unit.

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“Consequently a major refurbishment was undertaken in 2020 to facilitate this use. If an occupier would prefer a standard retail unit with increased ceiling heights, then the fit out can be removed.”

The block was built in the early 2000s and used by office supplies firm Staples until 2019 when the company, by then known as Office Outlet, fell into administration and was wound up. After being vacant for two years the Department of Work and Pensions leased the building and converted it into a Jobcentre Plus.

The building has often been classed as one of the least easy on the eye in the whole of Britain’s Ocean City. On the website Skyscraper City, a discussion on the city’s “worst buildings” includes the former Staples building. It also mentions the Travelodge at Derry’s Cross, shops in upper Cornwall Street, flats in Western Approach, and the Astor House student block in Notte Street.

On the InPlymouth.com website, Lynne Mashhadi, in a piece entitled Ten Things Plymouth Gets Wrong, calls the ex-Staples block a “much complained about addition to Plymouth’s skyline” likening the “concrete monolith” to “a huge Duplo brick, only less colourful”. She said: “Almost everyone in Plymouth is united in detesting it.” And added: “Next to the elegant lines of Charles Cross it looks clumsy, ugly and alien.”

In 2018, the 23-floor Beckley Point tower, the tallest building in the South West, was nominated for the Carbuncle Cup, the nation’s prize for architectural grotesqueness.

But it was Drake Circus Shopping Centre that won the inaugural Carbuncle Cup in 2006. Contest organiser the architecture magazine Building Design called the mall a “crime against architecture” and said it was “an example of how bad architecture and bad planning can combine to produce something truly awful”. The Times then waded in and placed the mall on its “worst new building in Britain” list.

In 2020, the Civic Centre came top in a PlymouthLive poll to find the city’s most hideous building. The Messenger statue, outside Theatre Royal Plymouth, was another popular - or should that be unpopular? - choice. The Barcode also received votes.

What do you think is the worst looking building in Plymouth? And what is the best? Please comment below or email your thoughts to william.telford@reachplc.com


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