One of the county's most familiar landmarks is to be demolished.

The 'golf ball' building, on the side of the Westgate car park in Oxford city centre, will be removed when work is carried out to realign Old Greyfriars Street early next year.

The giant dome, made from aluminium triangles and tinted glass, was hailed as the height of modern architecture when it was unveiled as part of the new multi-storey in 1974.

Since then it has often been criticised along with much late sixties and early seventies architecture in the city.

In a survey by the Oxford Mail earlier this year, several members of the public named the space age bubble as among the most unsightly buildings in Oxford.

Deborah Dance, secretary of the Oxford Preservation Trust, said: "I think some people will be sad to see it go but there will be no great campaign to save it."

The dome houses the main control room for monitoring the car park - but has been out of use for some time.

The control room will now be moved permanently to new ground floor offices as part of £254,000 refurbishment of the car park.

The golf ball is expected to be demolished in February.

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