i was working at morgate about 6 years ago we use to go to barbican to eat our lunch there.... 6 years on and no matter what season or time it is, i always find myself going here to relax and chill! its one of my favorite places me and my friends describe these places as londons secrets from the outside it looks like an eccentric tower block but on the inside its an urban paradise... for some reason it reminds me of the film logans run....

it is very beaitiful.. such a shame all the other modern/brutalist estates they put up around the country weren't so well conceived and maintained.

Love the Barbican, still dream of living there!!

I adore the Barbican. I remember as a child my grandparents took me there....now at 45 I still get that exciting first time seen feeling

Wonderful place and space - just returned from photographing the estate. Spent ages getting lost in it's paths and walkways.

Thank you! We'll be sure to pass your feedback onto Cathy.

Waffle slabs, baby! This estate has it ALL going on when it comes to top-flight concrete structural techniques, and, consequently, half a century on, there's zero cracking, zero "settling", NONE of the serious issues plaguing residential high-rise towers in Australia of late.

As harsh as the lines and blocks of the estate might look, there is a kind of practical elegance to the way the raised walkways intersect and the residential blocks are raised above the ground.

Thanks for introducing me to this! Paris has the “Grands Ensembles”, and now this, wonderful places to hope to visit some day.

Great video, lots of interesting facts! I visited London earlier this year and saw the high residential towers from a distance (and found them really 'cool' looking). Now I see it's a gigantic estate. I really like it, it looks very good and well maintained in my opinion.

Wowww is beautiful

Remember it well from when I lived in London. No one I knew at the time who lived in London liked it and I still find it hard to take. I believe it was meant to attract people who worked in the area but it is a place for only the wealthy now. I suppose the people that it was intended for cannot afford to live there. It can be pleasant when the sun is shining but I think it is a draughty and unpleasant place at all other times.

I think it looks awful. HOWEVER... I've been there so many times. It's the feel of the place (not the look) that pulled me back in. There's a calm in there, a "safe haven". You forget that you're in the middle of London. If there was no school or cultural centre you'd be forgiven for thinking the place is abandoned, and on rainy days that's exactly what it feels like. Dead quiet. Like a relic of a golden era, with a plaque on a wall stating that some royalty was there once and you wonder what on Earth brought them there. But it must've been a big deal once upon a time. Not for everyone though. I can see why some feel anxiety by the thought of going there. It's a special place for sure.

Brutalism is so back In fashion ! Love it!

Love Brutalism!

Um grande empreendimento. Brutalismo mostrava um vida além. Agora as pessoas acha que viver e ostentar é a coisa.

Those "flying" balconies on the 3 towers are friggin' *epic* ... hard to believe they haven't been cribbed by other architects on other towers... all you see for the past 2 decades is "look, LOOK! it's a transparent *glass* balcony wall! How cool are we?..." _yawn_

What does the average flat cost there? This is where I'd like to live! Been considering moving to london for a while now. This would definitely be the place!

I recently visited the Barbican area and I have to say that the area is lovely, except for that monstocity of a building and the building next to it, which I assume is student accommodation, which is vile.

Some times Silent movies are best for contemplation.

On a gloomy day, this place looks absolutely grim and sunlight doesn't improve it much. It has a frightening oppressiveness to it. The towers loom, the landscaping and water features are dismal, and the layout seems a mess.

Destruction of the old world, for the ‘brave new world’

That and Habitat in Montreal are my brutalist buildings.

"picturesque..." Hardly. Take away the plants and water features and its just another set of brutal tower blocks. That said it does illustrate the importance of greenery and communal spaces, something that was completely ignored in most other schemes of the era. It's almost as if they considered community when designing it, not just individuals.

The people of the Barbican do like to talk up their concrete carbunkle, it's hideous.

No form of architecture I legitimately that awful, money makes it look better.

Its too forward thinking for London/England.

I hate Brutalism.