Price increase in the cost of ASSA keys

From the BEO:

Dear Residents
Please note there has been a price increase in the cost of ASSA keys for the Barbican flats.

The cost of the keys is now £9.30 - the first increase in 2 years.

When ordering keys, can residents please note that only Long Leaseholders are allowed to order keys unless we have had prior authority. Payment is to be made by cash or cheque at the time of ordering.  Delivery time is up to ten working days and the BEO Reception team will contact you when the keys are ready for collection.  Identification, such as a passport or driving license, will be needed when collecting the keys.

With regards

Barbican Estate Office

Planning applications this week

The person with the planning portfolio for the Barbican keeps an eye on planning applications which may affect residents, and send out an update each week. Here is this week's batch:

The roof extension to St Bartholomew House (12/01145/FULL & 12/01146/LBC) is a single storey, and far enough away that I don't think it need concern us.

The extension to the refuse facility below Willoughby House on Moor Lane (13/01179/LBC) looks very acceptable to me: an exact match to the existing store.

The Girls School plan to extend the gym by creating a new mezzanine floor over the end of the swimming pool that is currently double-height (13/01197/FULL & 13/01198/LBC). The plans appear not to affect the external appearance of the building, but I think we should consider commenting (objecting?) on hours of use, light spillage, plant noise... anything else? The BA and House Groups are meeting the School on 30 January, but we may need to submit comments before this, if the application timetable remains as at present.

Not one for the BA, but residents may be interested in the application from Save Britain's Heritage to widen the permitted uses of Smithfield's General Market Building to a "hub of independent food, creative and cultural enterprise" (13/01151/FULL).

Secondary glazing in Lauderdale Tower (13/01231/LBC) needs no comment.

An extensive internal rearrangement in a maisonette at the top of the south-east corner of Mountjoy House (13/01212/LBC) also involves replacing a top-floor fixed window with a sliding window. The design and access statement (enclosed) says: "Listed Building Consent is sought to replace a fixed glazed panel at 7th floor level with a sliding glass panel to exactly match other sliding glass panels used throughout the Barbican. This change to the fenestration is set back behind the large roof terrace and will have no impact on the appearance of the building."

Schroders moving in next door

Schroders, the asset management firm, are moving into the new One London Wall building in 2017.

From City AM Issue 2,036,  Mon. 6th Jan 2014

The cinemas lake continues to grow

If this lake is not a problem for the cinemas can we have the water supply to the flower beds restored please?

The growing lake

Big puddle over the cinemas

The sound insulation in the cinemas uses nested boxes of plasterboard.  If the plasterboard gets wet and soggy the so-called-box-in box system breaks down, and sound could then break out of the cinemas into flats above.  Sound experts hired by the BA while the cinemas were being built told us that they had been called out to a soggy box-in-box in another cinema complex in the UK, so this is more than just a theoretical risk.

The City were so worried about water dripping onto their plasterboard box-in-box structure that when the cinemas were being built they chose to turn off the automatic sprinkler system in the flower beds, which now have to be watered by hand*.  You can see one of the flower beds in this photo behind the puddle.

And of course we don't have an automated system measuring sound breakout from the cinemas because the City effectively blocked having one, even though we won that as a planning condition for the cinemas at the planning committee.

All this makes this particular puddle very worrying.  If a moist flower bed is a risk, what about this much water?

A new cinema experience:  just add water

* Much to the frustration of the gardeners who have to spend their time hand watering the beds around Ben Jonson & Breton houses rather than getting on with more useful work.

Mystery drip

There is quite a bit of water dripping from the lower north facing balcony shown here.  See the wet area on the highwalk and look above; you can see quite a large wet area and even falling drips of water.  I couldn't work out where the water was coming from, but it looks like it's been happening for a while as there is permanent stain where the water is.

An old drip?

Yet another lake

Another big puddle has formed under Ben Jonson House ... and we're still waiting for the drainage plan we were promised months ago.

Another blocked drain

Thanks to Tom for the photo.  Let me know by the email form (at the bottom of the page) if you have a photo which you think others may be interested in.