The Centre Cumbernauld

The Centre Cumbernauld
The Centre Cumbernauld, 2023
Location within Scotland
General information
Architectural styleBrutalism (formerly)
LocationCumbernauld, Scotland
Current tenants75 tenants
Construction started1963
Opened25 May 1967
OwnerBelgate Estates, Glasgow
LandlordGatehouse Property Management, Glasgow
Technical details
Floor countEight
Floor area270,000 sq ft
Design and construction
Architecture firmLeslie Hugh Wilson, Dudley Roberts Leaker Geoffrey Copcutt, Philip Aitken, Neil Dadge
Main contractorCumbernauld Development Corporation
Website
www.thecentrecumbernauld.com

The Centre Cumbernauld (formerly Cumbernauld town centre) is the commercial centre of the new town of Cumbernauld, Scotland. It was designed in the 1950s—as what became known as a megastructure—to be a town centre consisting of "one huge multi-storey building," according to its preliminary planning report, housing shops, apartments, a hotel, ice rink, police station and other amenities.

Phase 1 was completed between 1963 and 1967, and the centre was opened by Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon in May 1967. It was expanded in 2007 by the addition of the Antonine Centre, a shopping centre that is linked to the older structure by walkways and lifts.

The facility has been subject to harsh criticism over the years. It was voted "Britain's most hated building" in 2005, in a poll organised by Channel 4's programme Demolition, and was twice named Scotland's worst town centre by the Carbuncle Awards. The brutalist structure was called "a rabbit warren on stilts" by the 2001 Carbuncle judging panel. The top section of the building has been dubbed by writers including author Caro Ramsay as the "Alien's Head", due to local people observing a resemblance to fictional character E.T.

In March 2022, North Lanarkshire Council announced plans to demolish the building.