On my last night in London I decided to go visit a place that I never really had much interest in. The Barbican Centre always seemed to have 'weirdo' art shows on, it is VERY ugly and yeah, not much interest. But, I wanted to give it a chance, so I decided to go and watch a documentary about Beethoven. It was good, very interesting and worth my time.
Here is a description per Wikipedia...
Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe.[1] Located in the north of the City of London, England, in the heart of the Barbican Estate, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory. The London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are based in the Barbican Centre's concert hall.
The Barbican Centre is owned, funded, and managed by the City of London Corporation – the third-largest funder of the arts in the United Kingdom. It was built as the City's gift to the nation, and opened in 1982 at a cost of £161 million (the equivalent to almost £400 million in 2007).
This was my FAVORITE part of the Barbican! Not only does it do film, art, etc., but it also has a conservatory! Beautiful, beautiful...
A fish pond....
One of the residents of the fish pond...
Turtles....
I named her Medusa!
The cacti for the desert-babies in
P-hone-ix!
Purdy....
Another pool with fishies...
The Barbican might be ugly, but I just find the whole idea fantastic! You have arts, theatre, etc., then the high-rises are apartments, then there is a school....what a concept!
It's easy to forget that all of this area was OLD town London. Most of what people think of as London, i.e. Big Ben, is actually in Westminster (Westminster NOW being a part of 'Greater London'), but the City of London was pretty much wiped out during 'the Blitz', so it's interesting to see super-new buildings alongside VERY old churches...
Again...just cool concept....seems 'New Age meets Amsterdam/Venice' to me...but in a VERY ugly way :) (it's just the material...reminds me of some of the stuff we've got in Alaska from the same time period...)
With cafes, restaurants, a school...love the concept!
This is the City of London 'crest'...'Domine Dirige Nos'...I say Amen!
