London Long Weekend: The Barbican

After spending the earlier part of the day in Brighton, I then headed back to London in the afternoon, and as I still have some time on my hands, I wanted to explore a neighbourhood I haven't been to before, the Barbican Complex.

The Barbican is an area in central London, within the City of London. It was an area that was devastated in World War II, and nowadays has quite a lot of buildings that function as upmarket residential estates. It was designed back then as rental housing for middle- and upper-middle-class professionals. Architecturally, it is a prime example of British Brutalist architecture, and is now listed as an area of historical significance. I wanted to explore it so I spent some time this afternoon wandering around its various areas.

This area was vast: there are various different residential buildings, in terraces and in skyscrapers. The buildings are named after famous historical people from England. And when it was completed, it was considered as one of the most prestigious places to live in London.

I wished there was an interior tour I could have visited, in order to see what the living quarters are like in these buildings. Alas, I was not aware of any such tours running when I was there, so I had to content myself with seeing the exterior for the time being.