| Barbican Estate |
Article Index for Barbican |
Website Links For Estate |
Information AboutBarbican Estate |
|
The Barbican Estate is a housing complex in the City Of London . Built on a site that was bombed in WWII, the complex was designed by architects Chamberlain Powell and Bonn. The complex is architecturally important as it is one of London's principal examples of concrete Brutalist Architecture and considered a landmark. The estate also contains three of London's Tallest Buildings ( Cromwell Tower , Shakespeare Tower , and Lauderdale Tower , at 42 stories and 123 metres/403 feet each) and it is a rare residential site in an area densely packed with Commerce and Finance . The Barbican Estate also contains the Barbican Centre (an Art s, Drama and Business venue), the City Of London School For Girls the Museum Of London , and the Guildhall School Of Music And Drama . The idea to build a residential site in the Cripplegate area, as it was previously known, arose out of the ashes of World War II . Following almost complete destruction in The Blitz , only around 5,000 people lived in the City in 1950 of whom only 50 lived in Cripplegate. The decision to build new residential properties on the site was finally taken by the Court of Common Council on 19 September 1957 . The estate was officially opened in 1969 and is now home to around 4,000 people living in 2,013 flats. The flats reflect the widespread use in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s of Concrete as the visible face of the Building . This has led some commentators to denounce the Flat s as clumsy in comparison with their newer, more Glass y surroundings, though a contrasting opinion sees the area as maturing into a place with some character and charm of its own. NEARBY RAIL AND TUBE
EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|