Made a quick, unanticipated visit to Pompey yesterday and was smackgobbed by the new Americas Cup carbuncle at Point.

I knew about it, in fact a distant cousin works there - just yards from where our ancestors lived in the 19th century. But what a repulsive blot on that historic landscape! And that two-story speed-boat parking lot! And the grey railings! The Bridge Tavern looks incongruous dominated as it is by this monstrosity.

It's as though the City planners have been determined to outdo the Tricorn as one of the most unsympathetic anf ghastly buildings in Western Europe.

Even Madame Pompidou would find it hard to extol the beauties of this monstrosity!