Drake Circus Shopping Centre is a 425,000-square-foot covered shopping mall in the centre of Plymouth, England, which opened in October 2006. The building was designed by London-based architects Chapman Taylor and built by Bovis Lend Lease. Situated behind the ruined Charles Church, preserved as the city's civilian war memorial, the building provoked a …Drake Circus Shopping Centre is a 425,000-square-foot covered shopping mall in the centre of Plymouth, England, which opened in October 2006. The building was designed by London-based architects Chapman Taylor and built by Bovis Lend Lease. Situated behind the ruined Charles Church, preserved as the city's civilian war memorial, the building provoked a mixed reception. Just after it opened, the shopping centre won the inaugural Carbuncle Cup "for crimes against architecture", as the worst new building in the United Kingdom. In 2007, it won two retail industry national awards, one of which was the Retail Week magazine's "Shopping Location of the Year".