Ballymore helps celebrate Britain’s beautiful new buildings

Tintagel Castle Footbridge in Cornwall – the legendary home of King Arthur - was crowned the overall winner of the inaugural Building Beauty Awards hosted by the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust and sponsored by Ballymore.  

Launched this year, the awards celebrate buildings, engineering structures and urban landscaping schemes that ‘add beauty to Britain’s built environment’.

Stephen Bayley, the awards’ founder, judge and acclaimed architecture critic, set out his ambition for the awards last year, saying “It is my hope that these awards will capture the public’s imagination and celebrate creative excellence in a way that has never been done before, but which has never been more relevant.”

Ballymore's Chairman and Chief Executive Sean Mulryan, who also sits on the Trust’s advisory panel, was among the guests at the prestigious awards ceremony which was held at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in the City of London. 

The overall award, Tintagel Castle Footbridge, was designed by William Matthews Associates and Ney & Partners.  The 70-metre-long bridge was opened by King Charles in 2020 and links the two separate halves of the Castle for the first time in more than 500 years.  It won the praise from the judges who applauded the architects’ response to the site’s challenging location. 

Other winners included Manchester’s Tower of Light, the Illuminated River project in London and McGrath Road in Stratford.

The awards were judged by a prominent panel of design names including the Trust’s president, Lord Foster who presented the awards and programme director of the World Architecture Festival, Paul Finch.  

The Royal Fine Art Commission Trust was established in 2017 and seeks to promote visual awareness and public appreciation of high-quality design. Find out more about the Building Beauty Awards here.