Fascinating rarely-seen footage shows Portsmouth's famous Tricorn being demolished

The infamous Portsmouth landmark was opened in the 1960s and won design awards – but later was voted one of Britain’s ugliest buildings.

Many of Portsmouth’s residents have their own memories of shopping and working in the Tricorn, which was in its pomp in its early years.

In 2004 Portsmouth City Council made the decision to demolish the building, to make way for the planned Northern Quarter scheme – a 500m transformation of the city centre.

Steven Tate captured some fascinating footage of the Tricorn being demolished, and you can watch a 10-minute clip at the top of this page.

The video shows the building been torn down, before a final shot of the Spinnaker Tower which had recently been built next to the seafront.

Despite falling victim to the bulldozers the building still won awards even after it was gone.

In 2009 it was named the country’s ‘best demolished building’ by the Rubble Club – a group of architects who have seen buildings they designed demolished. 

Six years later we asked our readers for their memories of the Tricorn before it was torn down – you can see our list here.