People who enjoy the Barbican should also like SFU campus in Burnaby in metro Vancouver, and the well known concrete waffle on West Georgia St. The concrete waffle office tower was also CGIed into american nazi party headquarters in "The Man in the High Castle".
The Barbican
181–190 of 263 posts
Re: The Barbican
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tate Modern: 10 mins by bike https://maps.app.goo.gl/sdW7h8zMb7qj42Nd8?g_st=ic But if you really care about art then you aren’t going to limit yourself to “major” art galleries (again, speaking from experience here). This whole argument is absurd. I dont understand why you find it so controversial to claim that a flat in central London would be near pretty much anything you could want. Business district or not, I sta…
Tate Modern (yes, it is definitely a major art gallery) is around half an hour from the Barbican center by foot, and around half an hour from the Barbican center by public transport. Read my comment again: > It's the business district. If not for the Barbican, the nearest serious art gallery, repertory cinema, music auditorium, are all around half an hour away . Your single 'counter-example' is a serious art gallery,…
It’s actually closer to 20mins by mass transit. As that link I shared demonstrated
Also I’d argue the Santander Cycles are a form of public transport (just not mass transit like buses or the tube)
https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/cycling/Santander-cycles
But honestly, you’re the first Londoner I’ve spoken to who considers 30 minutes by foot a long way away. Even by London standards, that’s close. For suburban dwellers, 30 minutes by foot wouldn’t even get them close to their nearest art gallery (and I don’t even mean “major” galleries either).
And your insistence on limiting things by “major” instances is odd. London has a strong culture of smaller independent amenities. Many of which are a lot closer than Soho and Southbank.
This is honestly the first time I’ve ever heard anyone complain about a zone one apartment being a long way from stuff.
Re: The Barbican
#183I did my music postgrad at the Guildhall school of music and drama, which is in the Barbican. Fun facts:
1) Orlando Bloom did the drama course when we were there. Famous music students there include Bryn Terfel, Jaqueline du pre and tons of others.
2) I say we because my wife did a music postgrad there at the same time but we didn’t meet until we left even though we were once on the same openday concert program together. (My composition was chosen to represent the jazz courses so I was in a group that played that - my wife won a chamber music award so she was playing later in the concert with a guitarist, but us jazzers didn’t get to see that).
3) We didn’t meet because she did early music whereas I did the jazz course and all the lessons on the jazz course were underground. You may think I am joking but literally all our lessons were in the basement except for if we had a visiting musician do a masterclass (then they used to use one of the nice airy and bright above-ground rooms, some of which have a lovely view of the lake).
4) As well as the concert hall which people have mentioned, there is a theatre and at least 2 cinemas as part of the Barbican complex. If you know where to look there are parts of the old roman wall and at least 2 ruined medieval churches. You are also not far at all from one of London’s real hidden gems, the cathedral of St Bartholomew the great, a medieval cathedral down a little side alley near Smithfield market that tons of people in London don’t even know exists. Oh and for Americans, Benjamin Franklin once worked there as a typesetter[1]
My wife now teaches at the Guildhall. It’s a pretty special place especially this time of year when it’s nice. You can go sit out by the lake in the sunshine, watch the ducks etc. It’s really peaceful even though you are yards from old street, moorgate, liverpool street etc some of the busiest parts of london.
Re: The Barbican
#184I'm surprised the article doesn't mention the concert hall. It's one of London's most famous, with almost 2000 seats, and it's the London Symphony Orchestra's main home. Until last lear, The Lead Developer conference ( https://leaddev.com/ ) was held there, but it's moved to a larger venue for this year (I don't think the size of the main hall was the problem, it was the areas for break out etc.) They had a great tal…
Worth pointing out that, as a concert hall, it's extremely mediocre acoustically ( same as the Royal Fesitval Hall) - albeit pretty and I love it dearly. There was a plan to build a new, proper concert hall but it got scotched. Probably deservedly but it would've been wonderful to have a concert hall worthy of our musicians and enesembles.
Re: The Barbican
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
I lived there for three years, rented a flat. Living in the Barbican was fantastic, livign in my flat was not fantastic. I used to joke it was a time machine to 1965. There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher. Day one that seems funny, a few days later less so. I was spending a fortune in rent to spend 30 minutes every day handwashing my dishes. I did know people who had bought a…
> There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher. This is quite common for older places in the UK. Some places might have been updated to allow for a dishwasher, but there are probably rules against that in the Barbican.
To my knowledge there are no rules against it, it is just a major and expensive plumbing project requiring redoing the whole kitchen. And so as a landlord why bother, you will always find someone willing to rent, no matter how unlivable the place. This dynamic was hardly unique to the Barbican, it was the reality of being a tenant in London, and ultimately one of the reasons I left. London's housing stock is just terrible compared to every other city I've lived in.
Re: The Barbican
#186So strange to talk about the Barbican Centre as a curiousity and to not mention the greenhouse! I used to work around the area and would take 'short cuts' from the Barbican tube station through the Barbican Centre to the City. I got lost many, many times, would end up in dead ends, or the other side of lakes to where I wanted to be. Or stuck behind a metal gate I could not open. The place often taunts you with a view…
Like walking around Venice - I spent more time retracing my steps than moving forward :)
Re: The Barbican
#187"There’s an underground parking garage for the residents, but half of it is empty and filled with 20-30-year-old cars whose owners are no longer known." Years ago I bought a flat and it came with an underground parking garage. Once we were settled in I break the garage lock and inside was an old Peugot, cans of old motor oil, and all sorts of junk shoved in between the garage door cracks. It was hell to get rid of th…
As a total noob about the cars or buying flats or the location you are from, my first though was that why didn't you get it fixed and drive it away. But you won't have the papers then. Do the scrap yards not accept it for the same reason?
Basically yes. However I'm sure the management company (roughly what americans would call a "condo association"?) responsible could change the terms given sufficient notice to allow them to remove and auction abandoned vehicles. I'm surprised they don't given how valuable a London car park is. Maybe they're not actually abandoned?
Re: The Barbican
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
These became less popular over time due to cost and safety reasons. Interbuilding passageways complicate future renovation and redevelopment, and spreading eyes on the street thinly makes all walking areas harder to secure.
> Interbuilding passageways complicate future renovation and redevelopment They are also incredibly inconvenient. London had many walkways because they wanted to give cars priority, and they largely became unused and became a source for litter.
They can be done well but it has to be thoughtful.
Passageways in Hong Kong are popular, but that’s because the pedestrian density is so high they manage to fill both the skywalk and street level. The passageways provide shelter from tropical sun and rain, sometimes even air conditioning. And it’s a very hilly city anyways, so often you are picking between walking uphill on a plain sidewalk vs. doing it on a skywalk with escalators and elevators.
Re: The Barbican
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's very, very expensive to bring something back to operational after decades of neglect. Spend thousands of euros on a car worth at most 1000€ Also, we already have a car. Why would I want someone else's scraps?
Another card noon here, especially in urban motor driving so please excuse my ignorance. In that desperate situation isn’t it cheaper to call a friend to seat on the car and handle the steering wheel while you attach the car to yours with those rods, then pull it to a metal scrapper shop that buy metal by the weight? Without plate, isn’t that car basically a non car but a pile of metal?
If you are irresponsible human being you can simply tow junk car to any other public location so it is a new problem for someone else.
In our city there is a separate service where you can report abandoned car. They check, leave a note and one month later tow it to the special parking lot. Later it is sold at the auction or scrapped.
Re: The Barbican
#190"There’s an underground parking garage for the residents, but half of it is empty and filled with 20-30-year-old cars whose owners are no longer known." Years ago I bought a flat and it came with an underground parking garage. Once we were settled in I break the garage lock and inside was an old Peugot, cans of old motor oil, and all sorts of junk shoved in between the garage door cracks. It was hell to get rid of th…
There's a whole subculture among car people of "barn finds", well represented on YouTube but also long predating that.
I bet someone would have been absolutely delighted to have that old Peugeot!