Barbican Estate
A housing estate and arts centre on a site bombed to ruins during the war. Three tall towers, lower residential blocks, a lake and walkways on several levels form an entire city in concrete. The rough, bush-hammered concrete is one of the best-known examples of Brutalism.
The area north of London’s old city wall was almost completely destroyed in the bombing of 1940. After the war the City of London decided to build new housing there, to bring people back to live in the City. The architectural practice Chamberlin, Powell and Bon received the commission, and the plans grew to include housing for several thousand people, schools and a large arts centre. The residential part was built from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, and the arts centre opened in 1982. Everything was built of concrete, which was bush-hammered by hand so that the surface became rough and the grey stone aggregate showed through. The architects wanted to create a dense urban environment with quiet courtyards, separated from traffic, and raised the estate on a podium above the streets.
The estate consists of three tall residential towers, which when new were among the tallest residential buildings in London, and of long, lower blocks around courtyards. The blocks stand on columns, with walkways beneath them. A system of walkways and terraces on several levels links the buildings, so that people can move about without coming down to street level. In the middle of the estate lies a lake with fountains, and there are gardens in several places. The medieval church of St Giles Cripplegate and remains of the Roman and medieval city wall have been preserved and incorporated. The arts centre houses a concert hall, theatres, cinemas, an art gallery and a library, and on top of the theatre there is a large conservatory with tropical plants.
The Barbican was long controversial. Many felt that the estate was hard to find one’s way around and that the concrete was cold and forbidding, and the arts centre became known for its confusing routes. Over time attitudes have changed, and the estate has become a sought-after place to live and one of London’s most important cultural centres. It has been listed since the early 2000s. The Barbican shows, with unusual completeness, how post-war architects envisaged a modern city with separated traffic and housing on several levels. Similar ideas of pedestrian decks and traffic separation were also tried out in Sweden, for example in central Stockholm and in several suburbs, but seldom in so coherent and carefully designed a whole as at the Barbican.