LondonistIn Pictures: The Lucky Few Who Live In The Barbican
Nils and Georgina connected over their love of architecture and beautiful design. The couple travel frequently, planning itineraries around buildings or spaces they want to see, such as Le Corbusier's Couvent de la Tourette near Lyon or Geoffrey Bawa's works in Sri Lanka, and documenting their trips in their Substack newsletter. They have lived in the Barbican for three years. Their flat, though small, benefits from daylight throughout the space due to the generous windows. The thick concrete walls ensure the estate is always peaceful, and they enjoy watching the seasons change in the spectacular gardens.
Ever wondered what it'd be like to live on the Barbican Estate?
We visited one family at their Barbican home a few years back, and such is the envy-tinged intrigue of those who wish they had an apartment in the iconic brutalist complex, an entire book now hops from door to door, meeting the lucky so-and-sos who call the Barbican home.
Barbican Residents: Inside the Iconic Brutalist Estate does what it says on the tin; a glossy, magazine-style glimpse into these gold-dust apartments, with their chunky concrete balconies, vintage quirks and flourish of mid-century furniture.
This is more than a mere peek through the keyhole from photographer Anton Rodriguez; it lets us see how so many more people could have been living right now, had all post-war estates been built with the passion — and subsequently cherished over the decades — as the Barbican has.
Lynn and Terry have lived in the Barbican for six years. A graphic designer and architect respectively, they met working for a large London design group in the 1960s and eventually ran their own design practices from a shared Bloomsbury office for 40 years. They have three grown children and six grandchildren. Most people downsize on retirement and move to the country but Lynn and Terry wanted to do the opposite, moving from the tall, thin Georgian house in St John's Wood that they had lived in for 37 years even closer to the centre of London. Terry had always wanted to move to the Barbican, which to him was an architectural 'work of genius'. Lynn was less certain, but was sold on the idea after their first visit, when she fell in love with the back wall of original grid-like shelves — a collectors' paradise.
As Olivia Laing writes in the foreword to this book, "I love how everything is designed with a kind of elegant, Heath Robinson-ish efficiency, from the rubbish cupboard to the shipshape Brooke Marine kitchen, originally created for a yacht. But more than that, I love the way the Barbican embodies a kind of vision of public generosity that is becoming vanishingly rare."
Just 4,000 Londoners have the fortune to call the Barbican home, and a handful of these fling open the doors, windows and kitchen hatches to show you a snippet of their lives in this book, as well as discussing all the unique little traits of living on the estate, from the Garchey waste disposal system to the 'universal key'.
Says one resident, Max: "The Barbican key, known as the 'Magic Key', is entrusted only to those who live here. It takes you beyond the estate's public realm into the areas where the daily lives of the Barbican community traverse, convene and unwind in private." The rest of us can only dream of possessing such a passport.
Melissa, a graphic designer and chef, lives in the Barbican with her husband Shahnan and their three children. Melissa and Shahnan spent a decade living in southeast London before moving to the Barbican six years ago. The couple met in their final year at City of London Girls and Boys school, and so the Barbican had a feeling of nostalgia about it, with the flat overlooking their old school. It felt like returning home. Melissa and Shahnan's home proudly hosts the flags of Sri Lanka, Trinidad, Bangladesh and the UK – a nod to the couple's multicultural heritage. With ancestry in cultures known for their close-knit communities, the most wonderful feature of the Barbican is its residents and the community it offers.
"Sometimes it reminds me of a university or a monastery," writes Olivia Laing about the Barbican, "but more often of a beehive, a place where the communal is still prized. It's made to be shared, built to be delighted in – from the reading pods in the lake, festooned with jasmine, to the sofas in the concourse, where I have often seen a weary person permit themselves a private sleep.
"I'd like the whole world to be built on these terms, but for now, let's cherish the Barbican and what it means."
Writer and broadcaster Robert has lived in London all his life – but this is the first time there has been an 'E' in his postcode. Robert and his wife were moving from a handsome Georgian house they had lived in for almost 30 years and wanted to be somewhere different — a bit smaller, but just as emblematic of London. They have lived in the Barbican for three years. The estate is both buzzy and quiet at the same time. The arts centre draws lots of people, and there are tourists taking photos and kids filming dance routines, but it still feels like a tranquil oasis in the centre of the City. The flats are superbly designed — especially up in the towers where there is so much light and calm. They have kept much of the original feel of their apartment while making it fit for purpose in the 21st century.As a student in her hometown of Athens, Aphrodite learned about the Barbican as part of her studies and visited for the first time as an aspiring architect. After graduating, she lived in the US and Switzerland, before moving to London — and straight to the Barbican — five years ago. The estate was initially designed to be intentionally hard to navigate, to keep the residential space private. Nowadays, it means that Deliveroo almost never gets it right and Aphrodite's parents still get lost whenever they visit. But it's an 'urban retreat', centrally located and yet sheltered.Marianne has lived in the Barbican for 14 years and owns and runs the estate's local food and flower shop. She shares her home with her husband Wayne, a director at an architect firm, and their two children, Elvi and Rasmus. Having lived in three different types of flat across the site, Marianne has honed a keen appreciation of the functional layout and attention to detail of the design. She is a particular admirer of the block-length fire balconies, full of plants, and the four-in-a-row hot plates in the original kitchens.
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