Editing Tricorn Centre (section)

==Demolition==
{{more citations needed|section|date=August 2014}}
[[File:Tricorn Centre, Portsmouth - Demolition - geograph.org.uk - 26041.jpg|thumb|right|Demolition of the Tricorn Centre, July 2004]]
During the 1980s, the centre became increasingly seedy and the nightclub was developed into a [[casino]].  The shops slowly left, with the last ones quietly departing in March 2002. The centre's car park was also the scene of many suicide attempts, being amongst the tallest publicly accessible buildings on the south coast.  For this reason, a plaque offering support from [[The Samaritans]] was positioned at this infamous point.<ref>{{cite news|date=22 August 2008|title=Victim of brutalism's fall from grace|first=Edwin|last=Heathcote|author-link=Edwin Heathcote|work=[[Financial Times]]|location=London|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2eef43c2-7078-11dd-b514-0000779fd18c.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2eef43c2-7078-11dd-b514-0000779fd18c.html |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=19 February 2015}}</ref>

Numerous attempts to get the building listed as amongst the best examples of [[Brutalist]] architecture failed throughout the 1990s, and neglect, in addition to Portsmouth's wet coastal climate, caused the building to fall beyond the scope of easy repair. Structural steel within the concrete began to rust causing expansion of the concrete, and in some sections, small [[stalactite]]s began to grow off ledges. [[Portsmouth City Council]] deliberated the demolition of the centre for many years; however, the uniquely designed car-parking block, which provided 400 parking spaces, was too useful for the city to destroy until 2004. The site is now occupied by a ground-level open-air car park.

Opponents of demolition argued that the structure, while sadly undermaintained, was still salvageable with the work of ingenious designers and a long-term city plan.<ref name="Tricorn PS">{{Cite web|title=The Tricorn|url=http://www.portsmouthsociety.org.uk/nl2003/nlsep03doc04.htm|publisher=The Portsmouth Society|date=September 2003|access-date=24 August 2014}}</ref> Essayist [[Jonathan Meades]] commented:  "You don't go knocking down Stonehenge or Lincoln Cathedral. I think buildings like the Tricorn were as good as that. They were great monuments of an age."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/death-brutalism-and-pre-pubertal-sex-jonathan-meades-embraces-some-difficult-subjects-in-his-tv-9144497.html|title=Death, Brutalism and pre-pubertal sex: Jonathan Meades embraces some difficult subjects in his TV series and memoir|author=James Kidd|date=22 February 2014|work=The Independent}}</ref> However, government and public opinion was that the building had decayed too far and had attracted such a bad reputation that the only option was to replace it.

The Tricorn was the subject of such strength and diversity of public feeling that opinion boards were placed around its boarding for the public to write on.<ref>{{Cite report|url=http://www.scansite.org/cmsfiles/2966d060c3899f6cccf74a25cc57b4ce.pdf|title=Brute Ugly: heritage, memory and decorated boards|first1=Jeannie |last1=Kerswell |first2=Valerie |last2=Swales|work=SCAN|date=10 January 2005<!--from PDF source-->}}
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