The car park that set a vision for a 1960s city

The Lee Circle car park in Leicester has been hailed as both a fine example of 1960s Brutalist architecture - and an ugly blot on the city landscape.

The six-storey "love-it-or-loathe-it" concrete landmark ceased operating as a car park in March, and has recently been boarded up by Leicester City Council after reports of crime and anti-social behaviour.

The authority said it hoped a new operator would be found to take over running the site from National Car Parks (NCP), which has gone into administration.

However, the three-month closure order has reignited discussion about the building's future, but has also shined a light on its unusual past.

The Auto-Magic Car Park, as it was originally known, was designed by London architects Fitzroy Robinson & Partners.

It was part of the popular post-World War Two Brutalist architectural style - displaying raw, exposed concrete.

It had 1,050 spaces, a number maximised by the use of a new interleaved spiral or double-helix system, and was one of the first multi-storey car parks to be built in the UK.

It was also among the first automated public car parks, using coin-operated barriers.

Below the parking decks, Tesco opened its first store in the UK outside of London.

A crowd of some 2,000 people gathered to see Sid James, comedian and star of the Carry On film series, officially open the store along with Tesco founder Sir Jack Cohen, who helped pack bags at the checkouts.

For a number of years, the Guinness Book of World Records listed the store as Europe's largest by floor area.

While some now view Lee Circle as a relic of the past, when it was built in 1961, it was seen as a vision of the future of city centres.

"A lot of people would have been pleased to see that car park," Leicester historian Ned Newitt said.

"It was built in an area that had been 19th Century slum housing, cleared in the 1930s, and some of the poorest people in the city lived there.

"That car park was a symbol of modernity, the concept of Leicester in the 1960s.

"It was going to be a car-friendly city. The new idea was you could drive into the city centre, park your car, do your shopping and drive out."

Next to the Lee Circle car park, in Wharf Street, was the UK's first drive-in post office, served by a private road, where people could drive up to a counter to buy stamps and complete other transactions from their vehicle.

The post office initially served between 60 and 70 customers a day when it opened in 1959, but that dwindled to a handful by 1963 and the experiment was deemed impractical and ultimately judged a failure.

Lee Circle car park has been listed by Leicester City Council as a local heritage asset, because of its historic and architectural interest.

However, other similar Brutalist car parks from the era have faced the wrecking ball, notably the Trinity Square car park in Gateshead.

Built between 1964 and 1969, the car park became a cultural landmark after it featured in the 1970s gangster film Get Carter, when actor Sir Michael Caine's character threw an enemy off it to his death.

Its elevated status, however, did not save it, and it was closed in 2008 and later flattened as part of a £150m regeneration scheme.

Leicester City councillor Patrick Kitterick said he would like to see the Lee Circle car park face the same end.

"It's disused and boarded up now, but Lee Circle has always been a problem," the Green Party councillor said.

"If the price is right, I think Leicester City Council should acquire the car park and then knock it down.

"There has been some regeneration in the area, but that's despite the Lee Circle car park. It attracts a lot of anti-social behaviour.

"I'm nowhere near being on the fence with this. It would be better to get rid of it and have a good quality piece of public open space.

"I know people say it's an important piece of Brutalist architecture, but it's actually not a very good example of the style and I don't think it would be missed."

The city council has said there are no plans to acquire Lee Circle car park but that it was hopeful a new operator would be found for the site.

PwC, administrators for NCP, said it did not wish to comment.

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