London is having a sprouting of tall residential buildings like Vermilion.
As someone, who with his late wife, brought their children up in one of the tallest building in Europe in Cromwell Tower, I can’t say I am against this trend.
One of my sons, still talks with affection about living there.
Provided of course, that they are well-designed and built.
January 16, 2013
Posted by AnonW |
World | Architecture, Barbican |
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This notion is put forward today in Caitlin Moran’s piece in The Times.
It also contains the piece of information that Manchester has just one public toilet. That can’t be true can it?
I rarely get caught short, but if I am, I usually go into a betting shop as many have very good toilets All you need to do, if you feel guilty is to watch a race before or after doing the necessary.
Last night though in the Barbican, I went into one of the worst toilets for some time. The door had been spray painted by a vandal and the pan was slightly blocked and didn’t pull too well either. For one of Europe’s largest arts centre it was a disgrace and very inferior to the immaculate ones inside Ipswich Town’s ground at Portman Road. In fact on the whole football clubs do seem to try to get good facilities. I can’t think of a bad one and I’ve used toilets in perhaps thirty grounds in the last few years.
January 5, 2013
Posted by AnonW |
World | Barbican, Betting, Coffee, Ipswich Town, Starbucks, Toilets |
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I saw this film last night in the Barbican, but this time in the original screen in the main complex.
As when I saw Safety Not Guaranteed a few days earlier, I watched most of the film without my glasses. What is happening to my eyesight? It’s certainly not getting worse, which you might expect as I get older.
As to the film, I found it a bit disappointing, although, if like me, you are an older person and like your stars to be stars, it is a good film. I note too, that it was a BBC film and it certainly isn’t wasting my licence fee.
January 5, 2013
Posted by AnonW |
World | Barbican, BBC, Eyesight, Films |
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I say mine, although, of course, I have had nothing to do in any way with its creation. Except perhaps some of my taxes have helped to build it.
Opposite, where we used to live in Cromwell Tower in the Barbican, was a space that was originally to be used for an exhibition centre. The Barbican Centre was still being built in those days and I hardly ever remember us going to the cinema at the time.
The Barbican Centre has had a cinema for some time, but now part of the exhibition centre has been converted into a delightful two screen cinema. I say delightful, as I’ve never been to a cinema with such a well-designed foyer/bar/restaurant, where I had a bottle of Aspall cyder before going into a cinema with such a great feeling. Sight lines were superb, seats were extremely comfortable and small things like lighting and the low-angled stairs, made it so very easy to get to your seat.
The film I saw was I, Anna, which as part of it was shot in the Barbican, was a very appropriate film for an introduction to the new cinema.
The film has it faults with dialogue and some of the continuity, but overall I’d give it four out of five.
It was however rather strange to see the end of the film in part of the Barbican, that C, myself and our children would have known extremely well. But the film brought back memories of very happy times for the years around 1970.
As to the cinema, I’d give a massive ten out of ten.
I also of course got two Suffolk beauties in an enjoyable evening; the sultrily beautiful Charlotte Rampling and the delicious cyder.
The evening was only spoilt by coming home to hear the terrible news from Connecticut.
December 15, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
Food, World | Barbican, Cider, Entertainment, Films, Suffolk |
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I took this picture of Cromwell Tower from where I took the picture of The Heron and CityPoint.
Cromwell Tower
We used to live on the eleventh floor, which is just about the lowest floor visible in the picture.
Considering this tower was built at the end of the 1960s, it is still an iconic and distinct building.
November 20, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
World | Architecture, Barbican, Building, London |
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This picture was taken from the Barbican.
The Heron And CItyPoint
CityPoint used to be known as Britannic House and it was a much plainer and brutal building, when we lived in Cromwell Tower. It has since been rebuilt. The Heron is a new residential block, yet to be completed.
November 20, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
World | Architecture, Barbican, Building, London |
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C, myself and our three boys, were the first occupants of 111, Cromwell Tower in the Barbican. It was a good place to live and we all enjoyed it.
So I was very surprised to see a similar flat featured in yesterday’s Times comic. It is in the middle tower;Shakespeare, with a picture showing Cromwell in the background.
Our’s was a three-bedroomed flat and they say that the one shown is two, but they may have been a similar layout.
It’s funny how you notice things, but we were mandated by the lease to have carpets everywhere to cut down the noise. The flat shown has got wood block floors.
But otherwise they are surprisingly like the flat we knew.
If I walk to the end of my road, I can see Cromwell Tower, in all its crenellated glory.
I may have gone many miles in the forty years since we left, but all I’ve done is take a short run up the road to where my ancestors lived.
September 30, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
World | Architecture, Barbican, Building, Good Design |
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If you look south from the river, you’ll see a curious building with what look like three clock faces. The building is called Strata London and today I went to Elephant and Castle to have a closer look at it.
Unfortunately the sun was in the wrong direction and the pictures aren’t the best.
The clocks are actually wind turbines. Although there are doubts about their effectiveness. Wikipedia says this.
Strata SE1 is one of the first buildings in the world to incorporate wind turbines within its structure. The three nine-metre wind turbines at the top of the building are rated at 19 kW each and are anticipated to produce 50MWh of electricity per year. They are expected to generate sufficient energy to provide power for the common areas of the building (8% of the energy needs of the building), although questions about their real efficiency will remain unanswered until the completion of two years of comprehensive wind data analysis.
Having lived on the 11th floor of one of the towers in the Barbican, I’m not sure that this building would be as nice a place to live.
January 13, 2012
Posted by AnonW |
World | Barbican, Building |
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Sometimes it is wrong to go back. But I’m thinking of going back to the Barbican to live.
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I lived there, with my late wife and our three sons from about 1974 to 1980, on the 11th floor of Cromwell Tower.
It was a good place to be and we enjoyed it. My middle son has said since that he did too and he has encouraged me to think about going back.
The one thing we avoided whilst in the Barbican was seeing the tragedy of the Moorgate Tube Disaster. We were away with friends in Edinburgh.
This accident, which killed 43, has never been satisfactorially explained. I don’t have my own theories, except to say that we may learn more in the next few years about how the brain works and this may provide a clue. Wikipedia says this.
The autopsy found no evidence of a medical problem such as a stroke or heart attack that could have incapacitated Newson; he did not appear to have taken alcohol, although post mortem testing for this was hampered by the 4½ days it took to retrieve his body from the wreckage. Dr P A B Raffle, the Chief Medical Officer of London Transport, gave evidence to the inquest and the official enquiry that Newson might have been temporarily paralysed by a rare kind of brain seizure (known as “akinesis with mutism” or “transient global amnesia”). In this situation, the brain continues to function and the individual remains aware although they cannot physically move. This would certainly go some way towards explaining why Newson held down the dead man’s handle right up until the point of impact and made no attempt to shield his face. This explanation also supports witness statements that Newson was sitting upright in his seat and looking straight ahead as the train passed through the station.
Even if they did find more, it would all be too late. Remember though, that now we have MRI scans and the one I had at Addenbrooke’s showed I’d had a previous small stroke.
But I did travel back to Whittlesford from Tottenham Hale once with a very experienced London Underground driver/supervisor, who gave me a very plausible theory. Nothing I have heard or saw in the last twenty years, conflicts with what I was told.
So has the Barbican changed?
When we were in Cromwell Tower nearly forty years ago, we were rather cut off from the main part of the estate, by the construction work for the Barbican Centre. Now that is complete and forms an integral part of life in the Barbican.
And they’ve now got a Waitrose in Whitecross Street!
Whether I do return is open to question, but it is a fascinating area in which to live, work and explore.
But in some respects it is more than going back to somewhere that I lived. Many of my mother’s family were born just north of the Barbican in St. Luke’s. This was because her father, an engraver, had had his business in the area of the Barbican. The premises and all of the family’s records were destroyed in the bombing of World War II.
52.245212
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April 11, 2010
Posted by AnonW |
World | Barbican, London, Second World War |
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The Anonymous Widower 