Neighbours moaned when the West Pier was built in 1866 and complained about Embassy Court in the Thirties.

Although both structures are decrepit, they are generally regarded as among the finest listed buildings in the city of Brighton and Hove.

Those objections will be minor compared with the uproar there will be tomorrow afternoon when plans for the King Alfred leisure centre in Hove are unveiled.

Sadly we cannot show them in The Argus until the evening edition because councillors must see them first but I have had a preview. They are astonishing and amazing.

Almost everyone interested in the appearance of the city agrees that there have been few buildings of merit erected in the last half century and plenty that have been harmful.

That is why environment councillor Chris Morley has done his best to attract architects of the highest calibre to Brighton and Hove.

It has certainly worked with the King Alfred. The architects include Frank Gehry, who designed the Guggenheim Museum at Bilbao in Spain; Lord (Richard) Rodgers, who created the Pompidou Centre in Paris; and Wilkinson Eyre, the firm that created the new winking eye bridge in Newcastle.

Each has looked at the brief to create a spanking new sports centre on the King Alfred site with about 400 flats to fund it and come up with different solutions.

They will be on general view from the weekend so that everyone can have a look and voice an opinion.

Most architects in the city, faced with this site in the past, would have been prepared to plonk down either a single ugly block such as Sussex Heights in Brighton or unimaginative slabs of flats of the type that have disfigured much of Hove.

These three have eschewed this approach to produce something much more radical.

I can't reveal more without breaking the embargo and in any case I shall want to see the schemes in more detail before making my own judgement on which, if any, is best for this site. But there are a few general points to make about the King Alfred.

The existing buildings, put up between the Thirties and the Eighties, are almost uniformly hideous and for the most part are in a poor state.

Much of the site is underused with features such as a surface car park and an uninspired children's playground.

Doing nothing or revamping the existing building are not options for this prime seafront site. Yet there is no doubt that is what many of the neighbours want.

They would simply rather not be bothered by change even if that means running the King Alfred into the ground.

There will be others who will be appalled at the sheer effrontery of the new proposals for it is clear that if any one scheme is selected, it will be what councillors like to call a landmark building in an area of Hove sadly starved of them.

What I would ask all these people to do is simply not to oppose the new buildings because they are big, bold and brash.

Brighton was often brave in the past and when it was timid, we got the buildings that lack of vision deserved such as the Prince Regent swimming pools and the Brighton Centre.

This is the first time such distinguished architects have competed for a site in the city since it was a tiny fishing village a couple of centuries ago.

Take a look at the schemes in The Argus tomorrow afternoon, see the exhibition and put aside all prejudices and preconceptions before making a judgment.

Then compare the schemes with what has gone before, look at this site with new eyes and see if councillors can distinguish between the good, the bad and the ugly.