The great debate - is CentrePoint a triumphant celebration of mid 60s phallic architecture or is it an eye-sore dominating the intersection of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street? Personally (and unsurprisingly given I am writing about it) I love it. Even before its recent renaissance I loved it - when it was mostly unoccupied and had a bleak, grey aura around it. I do admit that the combination of the urine-scented tunnels leading from Tottenham Court Road tube (now closed due to the Crossrail development), the "past its best" shabbiness and the ever-present druggies around its base made CentrePoint hard to love at one time. I still did though and I always really liked the fountain out the front, which seems to have also fallen victim to the CrossRail juggernaut. Then suddenly CentrePoint became cool again - a swanky new members' club Paramount opened up top (if you can get up there the views across London are really spectacular), companies like EA Games moved in and there seemed to be a shift in people's opinions. Suddenly CentrePoint was cool. Which is great - but I just want to be on record saying that I loved it even when no-one else did!
Thursday, 15 October 2009
CentrePoint W1
The great debate - is CentrePoint a triumphant celebration of mid 60s phallic architecture or is it an eye-sore dominating the intersection of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street? Personally (and unsurprisingly given I am writing about it) I love it. Even before its recent renaissance I loved it - when it was mostly unoccupied and had a bleak, grey aura around it. I do admit that the combination of the urine-scented tunnels leading from Tottenham Court Road tube (now closed due to the Crossrail development), the "past its best" shabbiness and the ever-present druggies around its base made CentrePoint hard to love at one time. I still did though and I always really liked the fountain out the front, which seems to have also fallen victim to the CrossRail juggernaut. Then suddenly CentrePoint became cool again - a swanky new members' club Paramount opened up top (if you can get up there the views across London are really spectacular), companies like EA Games moved in and there seemed to be a shift in people's opinions. Suddenly CentrePoint was cool. Which is great - but I just want to be on record saying that I loved it even when no-one else did!
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Spotify moved in recently too. I also loved it before it was cool, particularly because of the convenience of a needle-exchange that operates from an unmarked white van on the east side.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip!
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