The Centre Cumbernauld

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. The building was designed to be expanded upon after its initial construction. Each time the building floorplan was modified the building was said to be in a new "phase", with Phase 1 being the original floorplan. 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 several times, including in 2007 by the addition of the Antonine Centre, a shopping centre that is linked to the older structure by walkways and lifts. The development, promotion, and management of The Centre Cumbernauld was undertaken by the Cumbernauld Development Corporation (CDC), until the dissolution of the CDC by government order in 1996. 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.