Feedback regarding the Yellow Shed

The City are seeking comments on the idea of removing The Yellow Shed. The City do this from time to time just to get our hopes up.

If you'd like to give your feedback just email info@barbicanprojects.co.uk (and copy the house group at ben.jonson.hg@gmail.com while you're at it).

Here is what I sent in:

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The Yellow Shed (aka "exhibition hall walkway")

While the Yellow Shed is very occasionally used as a walkway between the centre and the exhibition halls it is more often used as a shed, and indeed it is being used as a shed right now as I type. I can understand why it gets used as a shed; it sits there unused almost all of the time, so why not use it to "temporarily" stash building materials, or chairs and tables, or even waste?

Aesthetically the Yellow Shed clashes with the surrounding Barbican structures, not least because it is bright yellow but also because of the relatively cheap materials used in it's construction. It was not a part of the original Barbican design or build. Just as the removal of the awful (60's?) shed-like frontage of Kings Cross station vastly improved the look of that area, so the removal of the Yellow Shed would improve the Barbican highwalk.

Some people seem to feel that the Yellow Shed adds value as a windbreak. I doubt this, but if a windbreak is needed there surely a planted area with shrubs and trees would do a better job and look so much better and be in keeping with the rest of the estate.

The City has used the Yellow Shed as a bargaining chip in the planning process many times over the years I have been living in the Barbican.  Each time it was dangled as a carrot; oh (said the City), if residents will only approve this project (Victors seats / the film school / etc) then the Yellow Shed *could* be removed as part of the project. And yet somehow the Yellow Shed remains ... why throw away a perfectly good bargaining chip (and handy shed for those building supplies etc.)?

As you may have guessed, I am very much in favour of the removal of the awful Yellow Shed. The sooner the better.

Having said that, I would put fixing the drains ahead of any other highwalk works. 

We have seen on the western part of the highwalk (Beech Gardens) that just slapping down a new membrane and some new surface works (tiles, beds etc.) is wasted if the basics have not been addressed first. The new tiles are being spoiled by lime leaching and there are numerous long-lived puddles (lakes) on the highwalk which hang around long after rain ... and these lakes typically have a guilty looking drain grating right in the middle which sits above one of the many blocked drains.

Maintenance of the drains has been poor over the years, though the individuals on the ground really do the best they can given the budgets and the tools available to them. The appalling systemic lack of maintenance has led to the current problems. So, before any new shiny bling projects, before even demolishing the awful Yellow Shed, there should be a concerted effort, a "project" perhaps, to FIX THE DRAINS.