Is Woolwich Tesco the worst new building in Britain? Judges of a prize for the country's worst architecture seem to think so.
The Woolwich Central project designed by architect Sheppard Robson was likened to a "1948 Berlin blockade" as it received this year's Carbuncle Cup - a prize for 2014's worst building run by magazine Building Design.
Unite Stratford City was also nominated
Described by the judges as "oppressive, defensive, arrogant and inept", the supermarket topped with flats and lined with "diabolical cladding" which looms over General Gordon Square was even recently slammed by a former councillor who gave it permission when he chaired Greenwich Council's planning board.
Alex Grant wrote on his blog: "No matter how you dress it up, Woolwich Central is a huge two-storey car park with a supermarket above and some flats on top: a type of development completely alien to London town centres like Woolwich and one which struggles to integrate well.
"Woolwich Central is at best a red herring and at worst an obstacle on Woolwich’s road to recovery. It may not be a carbuncle but it is a flawed project and I regret my role as its midwife."
Another Tesco in Gateshead was also nominated
And the Carbuncle Cup citation went even further with its criticism, saying: "Woolwich might have thought that its days as a military outpost were over. Wrong. Somehow what looks like the world's largest shooting range gained planning permission right in the middle of the town centre, presumably after masquerading as housing above a Tesco supermarket.
"Camouflage comes in the way of some truly diabolical cladding and a massing strategy that seems to have been directly inspired by the 1948 Berlin blockade; we can only hope that residential leases come with free airlift."
Vauxhall Tower
Woolwich saw off competition from five projects, including another Tesco development in Gateshead built on a car park where Michael Caine classic Get Garter was filmed.
Other buildings which missed out were the 50-storey Vauxhall Tower block of riverside flats and a student accommodation block near the Olympic Park in Stratford
This is the second time a Greenwich development has won the dreaded prize - back in 2012, the new look Cutty Sark got the cup, with judges saying it "tragically defiled the very thing it sets out to save".
However, the story was rather different earlier this year when the Woolwich transformation was judged best town centre project at the London Planning Awards.
A spokesman for Tesco subsidiary Spenhill, which developed Woolwich Central, said: "We worked and consulted with local communities at Woolwich and Trinity Square and both developments have had a positive effect.
"We've created more than 1,000 jobs and built much needed homes in an area of London untouched by investment for many years, while three million people have visited Trinity Square in its first year."
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