The vilest building you have ever been in

[Jaded]

For me, the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

Viler than the gas chamber building at Sachsenhausen.

Why the Olympic Stadium? Because of its symbolism. Its brutalism. And the pure evil that I felt, as we stood where Hitler did.

[Mr Larrington]

Went to what’s left of Belsen once but I was a very small Mr Larrington and couldn’t take it all in.  Likewise Hitler’s mountain lair above Berchtesgaden, which had a really cool lift.

For sheer soul-destroying awfulness Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta takes some beating and not just because it was the end of my holidays and employed a git who made my hobble the entire length of the terminal to get a replacement boarding card with my full name – rather than just an initial – on it and had then gone off-duty by the time I got back.  The bookshop was a Rubbish too.

[Hot Flatus]

S21

[Preston Gubbals]

For me, the Berlin Olympic Stadium.

Viler than the gas chamber building at Sachsenhausen.

Why the Olympic Stadium? Because of its symbolism. Its brutalism. And the pure evil that I felt, as we stood where Hitler did.

If I remember correctly, and it was over 40 years ago, we used to have our schools sports day in the Berlin Olympic Stadium. I think the symbolism was lost on 6 year old me.

[ElyDave]

Not because of any connotations of previous use, but just such a horrible building is the former BEIS / OPRED building in Aberdeen on Guild Street

And then, for airports, I give you Scatsta air/heliport on Shetland, a tin shed on a wind and rainswept hillock where people sit despondently waiting for fog to clear or listening to the rain on the roof.

[CAMRAMan]

The doctor's room at Mauthausen concentration camp. Not especially brutal, but evil nonetheless, as the height gauge that slid up and down the measuring rule had a gun built into it, so that the unsuspecting victim would think s/he was being measured, but in reality was being despatched.

The thought that had gone into that was pure evil...

[rogerzilla]

The bar at the Gatwick Travelodge is something special.  It's absolutely massive and you can buy booze 24/7.  And people do, in their droves.  It's like the ante-room to hell.

[hellymedic]

Not because of any connotations of previous use, but just such a horrible building is the former BEIS / OPRED building in Aberdeen on Guild Street

And then, for airports, I give you Scatsta air/heliport on Shetland, a tin shed on a wind and rainswept hillock where people sit despondently waiting for fog to clear or listening to the rain on the roof.

Desolate travel halts are universal.

Bristol Parkway Station prior to improvements, must have been one of my most miserable travelling experiences. Waiting area with walls stopping 6 inches above the ground sure improved the ambience on a cold, windswept evening...

[ElyDave]

Not because of any connotations of previous use, but just such a horrible building is the former BEIS / OPRED building in Aberdeen on Guild Street

And then, for airports, I give you Scatsta air/heliport on Shetland, a tin shed on a wind and rainswept hillock where people sit despondently waiting for fog to clear or listening to the rain on the roof.

Desolate travel halts are universal.

Bristol Parkway Station prior to improvements, must have been one of my most miserable travelling experiences. Waiting area with walls stopping 6 inches above the ground sure improved the ambience on a cold, windswept evening...

Yes, I have "done" Bristol parkway, several Fen stations have the same ambience

[Jaded]

Bristol Parkway is great now!!

It has a Multi-story car park (like Didcot), but more importantly, it has a shapeshifting lizard drop-off area. Every time you visit, it is different…

[Kim]

Your all spelling Bristol Partway wrong!

[bobb]

Wetherspoons.

[Andy W]

The Clinic, Baldock. Now demolished.  This was a prefab built in the early 20th century. Its where  infants had their  inoculations, and where the school dentist lurked. As a child attending therein there in the  60s,  this place was hell on earth for me. Either a blunt needle in the arm or tetanus in the buttock. I had fillings there as a child, giant syringes filled with lignocaine that would be forcibly injected into my gums followed by the slow blunt drill. Eventually I outgrew this hellish building. It was demolished in the 80s and replaced with 3 detached houses.
Before commenting here I spoke to one of my friends about this place and it held a similar hellish place in his memory too.

[Clare]

LAX.

Huge, soulless and staffed by scared, angry idiots with guns.

[Mr Larrington]

Mercifully, in my travels in Leftpondia I have yet to come within ten miles of LAX.  I fully intend to keep this run of good fortune going indefinitely.

[Moleman76]

Continuing on the transportation theme, I will suggest the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Bus Terminal (near times Square) in the 70s, or Chicago's Midway Airport Terminal around Y2k.  The latter makes LAX look nice

[ElyDave]

Continuing on the transportation theme, I will suggest the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Bus Terminal (near times Square) in the 70s, or Chicago's Midway Airport Terminal around Y2k.  The latter makes LAX look nice

I fully concur on Midway, though I'm surprised Charles de Gaulle or Schipol have not been mentioned yet

[robgul]

Continuing on the transportation theme, I will suggest the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Bus Terminal (near times Square) in the 70s, or Chicago's Midway Airport Terminal around Y2k.  The latter makes LAX look nice

I fully concur on Midway, though I'm surprised Charles de Gaulle or Schipol have not been mentioned yet

I was about to mention CdeG with its concrete doughnut - although Chicago O'Hare in the late 1980s was grim with the ambience of an underground car park.

[Rod Marton]

The late, unlamented Greyfriars shopping centre in Ipswich.

Someone must have thought that halfway between the town centre and the station was a good place to put a shopping centre. Instead it just meant it was in the middle of nowhere, particularly as it was only accessible via dingy underpasses beneath a dual carriageway. Add to this the architecture, which I can only describe as poorly-executed sixties brutalism. Words cannot convey just how bad it looked, I can only hope that heads up the "How not to do it" section of any architecture syllabus.

Unsurprisingly, every retailer in the vicinity gave it a wide berth, and it was almost completely untenanted. I seem to remember that there was a shop there for a few years, but that was it. One. In fact the only reason to go there was to park your car in the multi-storey car park, and it was very much a car park of last resort, to be used only when all the others were full. Even the underground car park was nicer.

It was demolished sometime in the eighties. I moved away from Ipswich then, so I've no idea what it was replaced with. It can only have been an improvement, though.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Your all spelling Bristol Partway wrong!

We're getting a Porkway Partway now!
https://fosbr.org.uk/progress-at-portway-park-and-ride-station/

Also: https://youtu.be/46bhGEMFdJQ

[Jaded]

Ah, on the Severe Beach line.

[Cudzoziemiec]

ITYM the Severed Beech line.

[rafletcher]

Not so much a building, but the settlement of Killingworth, Tyne & Wear sometime in the early '80's, with special mention for the central tower Amberley, with it's shuttered and vandalised shops at ground level, and the offices of Merz & McLellan above. Long since demolished.

At the time it was isolated, although now it's becoming part of the urban sprawl of Newcastle.  Built, apparently, to represent a castle keep - you entered across the bridge over the "moat" via a raod named "Southgate", surrounded by a curtain wall of flats, also demolished.

I didn't know the term "driech" until I got to Aberdeen some years later, but Killingworth epitomised it.

https://co-curate.ncl.ac.uk/killingworth-towers/

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F65535%2F50097060012_764d8fb79f_w.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fmaraid%2F425597085&tbnid=N8xLwXIm2ADXKM&vet=12ahUKEwiu0PLP5bj3AhVQEGMBHUzACIsQMygCegQIARBE..i&docid=zmEshi1rPn3w8M&w=400&h=285&q=Tower%20block%20Amberley%20killingworth&ved=2ahUKEwiu0PLP5bj3AhVQEGMBHUzACIsQMygCegQIARBE

[Salvatore]

The doctor's room at Mauthausen concentration camp. Not especially brutal, but evil nonetheless, as the height gauge that slid up and down the measuring rule had a gun built into it, so that the unsuspecting victim would think s/he was being measured, but in reality was being despatched.

The thought that had gone into that was pure evil...

There was an identical arrangement at Buchenwald. 45 years later I still recall the shiver I felt while it was explained to us.

[Polar Bear]

I do not recall exactly where but a sentry box on the north cost of France.  It remained there as an austere reminder of the vile horrors of WWII and I was curious to look inside.  As I descended the steps I was met wish a wash of fear and despair which really did overwhelm me.  I never reached the foot of those steps and never saw what it was like inside.