The Tricorn Centre was a shopping, nightclub and car park complex in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England.

It was designed in the Brutalist style by Owen Luder and Rodney Gordon[1] and took its name from the site's shape which from the air resembled a tricorn hat.

[2] In 2001, BBC Radio 4 listeners voted it the most hated building in the UK, and Charles, Prince of Wales described it as "a mildewed lump of elephant droppings".

[4] Originally called 'the Casbah' by its creators, it was deliberately designed with vast amounts of blank surfaces with the expectation that tenants would provide the colour and character via their signage and store frontages.

There was also a club for live music – originally named the Tricorn Club, later renamed Granny's and subsequently Basins – which hosted live performances by Marc Bolan, Slade, Mud, The Sweet, Status Quo, Mary Wells, Edwin Starr, 10,000 Maniacs, and Vinegar Joe, as well as local acts.

The centre's car park was also the scene of many suicide attempts, being amongst the tallest publicly accessible buildings on the south coast.

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.

"[14] 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.