Museum of London: Move progress

 Here is an item from the BBC about how the packing is going in the Museum of London's move from London Wall to Smithfield:

Click to read the article

Barbican at Fifty: your comments for the next fifty please

The chair of the Ben Jonson House Group, Helen Hulson, writes ...

Barbican at Fifty, Blueprint for the next Fifty 

Adam Hogg and Sandy Wilson have prepared a document with suggestions about matters Barbican residents may wish to consider for the Estate in changing times, with reference to the next fifty years:

Click here to read the paper

Although the City of London says it is committed to the enhancement and protection of the Barbican Estate, under current arrangements there is provision only for maintenance, through the service charge, and not improvement. The Barbican was designed to environmental standards of the fifties and sixties and needs a thorough review to ensure its continued appeal to residents in the 21st century and its proper maintenance as a heritage site.

Sandy Wilson joined our House Group meeting last month to talk about the vision behind the paper and is keen to gather together ideas from residents about improvements they would like to see, so that an estate wide list of priorities can be drawn up. These can be as general or particular as you wish.

If you have any suggestions please comment on this post (the comment form is at the bottom of this page) or email the house group at ben.jonson.hg@gmail.com.
The closing date for submitting ideas is 30th October 2019. Many thanks, Helen Hulson Chair BJHG

Tales of Cripplegate

Tales of Cripplegate is a community history project around the Barbican and Golden Lane.  To get involved go to the web site at www.talesof cripplegate.com.

Here is A Journey in Time with Tales of Cripplegate:

Click to read the whole document

Barbican @ 50 - on the BBC

Look ma, we're on the telly

When the Yellow Shed was the Tin Shed

I have been sent a photograph of Ben Jonson Highwalk dated 27th February 1982 which shows the newly installed corrugated iron + bits of wood and concrete predecessor of the current Yellow Shed:

The temporary shed

A Chronology of the Roofs, dated Jan 2001

From the archive here is a view of the history of the roof works on the Barbican Estate from construction through to 2001 when the big roofs project was about to start.

An interesting read, e.g. in 1995 "... the BRC acknowledged the existence of structural defects ...".

Click to read the document

Barbican in a BBC article

Here is an article by the BBC with some impressive pictures of London, including the Barbican:

Click to go to the article.

Norwegian Airlines Magazine: Article about the Barbican

There is an article in the September edition of the Norwegian Airlines in-flight magazine:

The cover.

Turn to page 36:

The story.  Click this image to read.

2006 Golden Lane Listed Building Guidelines

Just for interest's sake, here is a copy of the listed building management guidelines for the Golden Lane estate.  Click on the image to see the document, which is a 2006 draft of the final document.

Click the image to read this 2006 draft

Historical view to the east

A post on Barbican Talk shows two painted views looking east across the site of the Barbican Estate before building even started:

A later post in the same thread links to an interesting article about how London Wall has changed from how it appeared in the 60s and today.  Here is just one of the many images from that article:

Pre-Barbican in pop video

A posting to Barbican Talk alerted me to this video.  Note the buildings in the background.

Concrete & Clay - click to see the video

Dezeen Article on the Barbican

From the article:

Brutalism: described by Queen Elizabeth as "one of the modern wonders of the world", the Barbican Estate in London is one of the largest examples of the Brutalist style and represents a utopian ideal for inner-city living.

pre Ben Jonson House from above

A post on Barbican Talk pointed out the remarkable Britain From Above project and web site.  The site describes itself like this:

"Britain from Above presents the unique Aerofilms collection of aerial photographs from 1919-1953 ..."

Here is one picture from the site.  I've added an orange line to show where (I think) Ben Jonson House is now.  Click on the picture to see the photo on the Britain from Above web site.

Orange line ~ Ben Jonson House

Parcels: How it used to be

One of the house group committee members recalls how parcel deliveries used to happen:

Barbican flats were built with two hatches by each front door - one for garbage collection (still in use) and the other for milk and package deliveries, now disused. The postman borrowed a barrow and hatch key from the CPA, and post was individually delivered to each flat. Where an item required a signature of receipt or was too large for the hatch, but the tenant was not at home, undeliverable items were received by the CPA when returning the barrow and key. 

This sensible practise saved the postman time by not having to fill out non-delivery cards nor take the item back to the sorting office, and saved the tenants from a tedious followup trip there.

Prince Consort returns to Holborn Circus: 11:15am Sat. 26th April

The City, via the BA, tell us that the cleaned up Prince Consort statue will be craned back into place at Holborn Circus.  Be there at 11:15am Saturday 26th April to see it happen.

I hope you don't mind me contacting you - as someone who lives in the City with an interest in City culture.  As we have had some interest in the statue restoration, so I thought you might be interested to come and see the Prince Consort statue being returned by crane to its relocated position the weekend after next, at 11:15am on Saturday 26th April.

This is part of the completion of the Holborn Circus highway works scheme.

I was 'fortunate' to front a video about the statue restoration:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVgMoZW3Gdg

I will be attending with some Members and a photographer, so if you are interested in seeing something different on a Saturday morning, see you there! 

Kind regards, Bron Claridge.

Call for old photographs of Barbican Landscape

Message from the BA Planning Committee:

Dear Residents, 

The City of London is preparing guidelines for managing the Barbican Landscape. To help the working party assess which features are significant for the character and special interest of the Estate, we would appreciate any photographs of the Barbican Landscape that you are able to provide. 

We are interested in seeing how the Barbican Landscape has changed from its creation in the late 1960s until recent years, including the growth of trees and other plants around the Estate, and the impact of infill buildings such as the 'yellow shed' on Beech Gardens. The project covers the whole of the outdoor areas of the Barbican Estate including the lakes, gardens, paved areas, walkways, the lakeside terrace outside the Arts Centre and GSMD, and the roof of the GSMD (outside the conservatory), and also includes the Fann Street Wildlife Garden. 

Please provide any suitable photos either to barbican.estate@cityoflondon.gov.uk or by taking prints to the Estate Office, who will scan and return them. 

Best regards,
Dr Garth Leder
Chair, BA Planning Committee

Mr. Scargill and the Barbican

The BBC have an article (here) about a past resident of the Barbican (described as "prestigious"*), one Mr. Arthur Scargill, and his experiences trying to buy a flat here:

des res

* The Barbican Estate, not Arthur

A Typographic Survey of the City of London

Click the image to watch a film about type in the City

Barbican: Microcosm Of London

A micro history of the Barbican in film:

How it really was

Barbican. The movie.

Roots ...