Dorset's ugliest buildings past and present – do you agree?

We have many buildings to feel proud of across the county. However, those are a little more prepossessing than others.

The following short list includes buildings that are still standing as well as those that have (thankfully) disappeared from the skyline in recent decades.

Of course, it's all subjective, so we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Do you agree with this list? Are there other buildings you would include?

Waterfront - Bournemouth

We couldn’t make a list of the area’s ugliest buildings without having Waterfront at the top - it even won a national award for being the most hated building in England.

Work began in 1998 on the Waterfront complex – a chapter of the site’s history most people would sooner forget.

Murmurings of an IMAX began to bubble in 1988, originally causing excitement that such cutting-edge cinema technology could be coming to the town.

Outline planning permission was given in 1996 for leisure facilities to include a casino, bars and rides as well as the IMAX cinema.

The Waterfront building went up in the winter of 1998-99 – but as soon as the bare bones of the structure were put in place, the complaints began coming in.

Locals were outraged that the view of Poole Bay, as seen from a car heading down Bath Hill towards the Pier Approach, had been blocked.

For more than a decade, people had enjoyed the fabulous and unobstructed view, and thousands were unhappy with the development.

The building was widely disliked before it had even been completed.

The scheduled opening date of July 1999 came and went. Fast food restaurants KFC, Jumpin’ Jaks nightclub, and a small number of businesses opened later that year.

The public finally had a chance to see the cinema’s 62ft by 82ft screen and hear its incredible sound system in March 2002.

Running the IMAX was expensive. Films had to be purchased rather than rented and Hollywood movies hadn’t begun shooting in the format with any kind of regularity.

Films on offer were more demonstrative pieces that included breathtaking shots of mountain climbs or space missions.

Each of the films were under an hour long and were not changed particularly frequently.

From January 2003 the IMAX would remain shut for four days a week out of season, until it closed down altogether in March 2005.

In the wake of IMAX closing and many other businesses in the building flowing suit, Bournemouth council bought the Waterfront for £ 7.5 million in 2010 and evicted the remaining tenants.

When the building was razed to the ground in 2013, it was swept away to make room for an outdoor performance area.

The first performance that summer was given by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra which, somewhat ironically, consisted of film music.

The Spire community hub - Poole

Waterfront in Bournemouth may have picked up a national award for being the most hated building, but an old church building in Poole gained a Carbuncle Award nomination for its hideous extension.

Spire, built at the rear of Poole Methodist Church on Poole High Street, replaced a Georgian chapel and later extension.

In the words of the anonymous person who submitted it for the design booby prize, it appears to be similar to "a series of site huts."

It looks quite different from the original design, which was given the green light in late 2010, which had an elevated glass entrance set back from the street.

The nominator added: "The completed building looks more like a set of construction site huts rather than a positive addition to the character of the conservation area. It sends a poor message that a scheme can be significantly weakened in quality from its original aims by continual design erosion and amendment."

West Central complex - Bournemouth

An anonymous reader was far from complimentary about the West Central complex when it was built in 2016.

“It is a dismal display of the typically unimaginative type of construction we see erected everywhere in Bournemouth today where nothing harmonises.” Said the reader.

They continued: “Everywhere architecture is out of scale, is totally devoid of character, has ruined the skyline, makes people look anonymous yet plans seem to get the green light and we are expected to take the old and new together and praise the artistically inelegant type of constructions with limited shelf life.

“It must be built on the cheap though there is nothing cheerful that greets the eye. It is an ugly conglomeration lacking vision, a mish-mash of poorly constructed, uninspiring, trendy, inconsequential money-spinning jumble of pre-cast concrete.

“The height of the construction has had a drastic impact upon the lower gardens whose beauty has been enjoyed for decades so this part will never look as good.

“In short it was not needed but what was needed was a bus station. Bournemouth already has plenty of retail trade and, when it opens, it is likely to have a negative impact on the retailers in Commercial Road.

“We are fast moving from an age of elegance and character, when the architecture was thoughtful, worthy of praise and lent residents and visitors a certain status, to a seaside town with no idea where it’s going.

“At least the seafront and most of the gardens remain unspoiled.”