Strange choices

Of course, living in a big city, not everything is beautiful and pretty. But, as with most historic cities (and, I am sure, several modern ones as well), there are areas of the city that are post card pretty/monumental. London is, of course, heavily associated with Houses of Parliament/Big Ben - and rightly so.

And Parliament square is quite amazing to visit. A little further away from the river you find, on one corner, Westminster Abbey (well worth a visit, in my humble opinion):


Then, there's the Middlesex guildhall:

And the Methodist central hall:

All very grand and beautiful buildings. But then, all of a sudden, opposite the Abbey, you find the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre:

What??? Where did that come from??? Which architect thought it was a brilliant idea to put an alien spaceship among all the historical (more or less) buildings that surround it? I realize that mixing styles from different eras always is a tricky job, but come on?! It is one of the worst cases of architectural clashes I have ever seen - and I have to pass it every time I take the bus in to town...

(All photos from wonderful Wikipedia.)