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The Barbican

(arslan.io)
723 points farslan | 43 comments | 12 May 25 15:28 UTC | HN request time: 1.87s | source | bottom
1. petercooper ◴[12 May 25 16:12 UTC] No.43964628[source]▶
It's one of my favorite places to spend time when in London. It's comfortable, clean, quiet, aesthetically striking, easy to loaf around at, and there's high brow art in numerous forms to enjoy – it's kinda like BBC Radio 3 if it were a neighborhood. It's also five minutes from the Elizabeth Line and the parking is good which is unusual for the City. It's strikingly non-commercial - there are no chains or even convenience stores there, though there is a fantastic music shop. It's one of those rare places you can feel more intelligent and cultured by merely being there.

I'd love to retire there when the kids are gone, although there are a lot of oddities about Barbican living to contend with that are probably more fun to read about than deal with for real.

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2. simonw ◴[12 May 25 17:52 UTC] No.43965735[source]▶
"kinda like BBC Radio 3 if it were a neighborhood"

Thanks for that, put a smile on my face.

3. philipwhiuk ◴[12 May 25 20:15 UTC] No.43967029[source]▶
> It's also five minutes from the Elizabeth Line

And about 200ft. Such is the maze-like nature of the Barbican.

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4. zeristor ◴[12 May 25 20:57 UTC] No.43967387[source]▶
Actually the Barbican station has a lift that goes to the Elizabeth line at the far end.
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5. freyfogle ◴[12 May 25 22:32 UTC] No.43968067[source]▶
I lived there for three years, rented a flat. Living in the Barbican was fantastic, livign in my flat was not fantastic. I used to joke it was a time machine to 1965. There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher. Day one that seems funny, a few days later less so. I was spending a fortune in rent to spend 30 minutes every day handwashing my dishes. I did know people who had bought and renovated, they had amazing places. Oddly on my hall of 10 there were 10 flats of which 4 were empty. I don't mean someone just came occasionally I mean 100% empty with no furniture, with rich people just using it as an investment. Overall though was a greart experience, it's a fantasic place.
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6. pbalau ◴[12 May 25 23:51 UTC] No.43968526[source]▶
> I was spending a fortune in rent to spend 30 minutes every day handwashing my dishes.

Did you used to cook for the seven dwarves and their extended families, every day?

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7. pledg ◴[13 May 25 01:27 UTC] No.43968949{3}[source]▶
It also depends where you are in the Barbican. It spans between the Barbican station and Moorgate. If you are at the latter you can enter Elizabeth line from there too.
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8. talldan ◴[13 May 25 04:56 UTC] No.43969724[source]▶
> There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher.

This is quite common for older places in the UK. Some places might have been updated to allow for a dishwasher, but there are probably rules against that in the Barbican.

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9. ◴[13 May 25 05:44 UTC] No.43969900[source]▶
10. tshanmu ◴[13 May 25 06:42 UTC] No.43970146[source]▶
nice analogy comparing it to BBC Radio 3- if you/someone knows which neighbourhood would be like BBC Radio 4? I find R3 too high brow for me - Radio 4 seems more accessible :)
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11. freyfogle ◴[13 May 25 06:50 UTC] No.43970196{3}[source]▶
not seven, but yes, I had two small children at the time
12. rowanajmarshall ◴[13 May 25 07:44 UTC] No.43970517[source]▶
> There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher.

This is just London, out of the 8 years I've spent here, 3 of them were spent with a dishwasher. Tbh I've got a dishwasher now and barely use it.

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13. freyfogle ◴[13 May 25 08:20 UTC] No.43970713{3}[source]▶
To my knowledge there are no rules against it, it is just a major and expensive plumbing project requiring redoing the whole kitchen. And so as a landlord why bother, you will always find someone willing to rent, no matter how unlivable the place. This dynamic was hardly unique to the Barbican, it was the reality of being a tenant in London, and ultimately one of the reasons I left. London's housing stock is just terrible compared to every other city I've lived in.
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14. fennecfoxy ◴[13 May 25 08:53 UTC] No.43970916[source]▶
Idk I find the area dirty & busy/litter everywhere, etc. But then many parts of London are like that compared to NZ (where we generally take care of the place better).

It's not so bad once you head out into the counties either I suppose.

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15. pledg ◴[13 May 25 09:03 UTC] No.43970966{4}[source]▶
I’ve lived in 4 different flats in the Barbican and they all had a dishwasher. I think only the studios you’d have a problem finding space for one. Of course in the others it is a preference whether you want to lose space for other things or not. It is not a lot of extra plumbing. It is usually when they want to preserve the original kitchen (or a cheap landlord as you suggest - although all the ones I had there were great)
16. randomcarbloke ◴[13 May 25 09:25 UTC] No.43971111[source]▶
your largest city is 9 times smaller than London, admittedly it has some dirtiness as all cities do but I'd say it's cleaner than Berlin (having worked there) which is a quarter the size, certainly cleaner than Paris (although Paris is larger of course), and cleaner than New York (also having worked there) which is fairly close in population.
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17. randomcarbloke ◴[13 May 25 09:26 UTC] No.43971114[source]▶
I don't think you're really supposed to go into the communal area without being a resident :) hence the quietness.
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18. bryanrasmussen ◴[13 May 25 09:53 UTC] No.43971269[source]▶
buy a cheap used dishwasher and move it into one of the unused flats.
19. darrenf ◴[13 May 25 09:53 UTC] No.43971270[source]▶
I spent the first 46 years of my life living in properties in London with no dishwasher. Honestly never thought they were particularly common. In fact the one in my current house was recently out of action for 6 weeks and I tried to convince my partner we should take the opportunity to get rid of it and fill the space with something more useful!
20. djtango ◴[13 May 25 10:01 UTC] No.43971308{4}[source]▶
In my last apartment, I installed a tabletop dishwasher on the balcony and had it share the water inlet with the washing machine using a y splitter.

It would probably be an eyesore and a huge space killer to use indoor on the kitchentop but thought I'd share a non-invasive solution I used.

The size of the dishwasher was decent, and with some tiny concessions around placement it was perfectly fine for daily washing although I generally prefer to wash pots and pans by hand regardless of dishwasher space fwiw

21. djtango ◴[13 May 25 10:02 UTC] No.43971315[source]▶
There are plenty of public spaces which are also really nice and calm considering you're pretty much in the thick of it. You can sometimes even hear the Guildhall students practising which is a lovely treat
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22. ◴[13 May 25 11:00 UTC] No.43971595{4}[source]▶
23. petercooper ◴[13 May 25 11:11 UTC] No.43971638[source]▶
First place that jumps to mind is Richmond! Radio 4 is certainly more "chatty" while still being posh and Richmond is both posh and full of that street/café life.

If we're going to fill out the roster, let's say Radio 1 is Camden, 1xtra is Brixton, Radio 2 is Bromley, Radio 5 is Dagenham, and 6music is eh.. I dunno, Shoreditch?

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24. petercooper ◴[13 May 25 11:12 UTC] No.43971645[source]▶
I live far out of London, so I sympathise, but due to my family's pursuits, I mostly spend time in London in either Soho or the City, and compared to Soho, the City is a an immaculate paradise.. ;-)
25. pbhjpbhj ◴[13 May 25 12:09 UTC] No.43972001{4}[source]▶
You can get a dishwasher that sits on the counter, filled from a tap connector. Space might be tight though.
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26. codeulike ◴[13 May 25 12:17 UTC] No.43972065[source]▶
Lived in London for 20 years, rented 7 or 8 different flats in that time, none of them had a dishwasher and most of them didn't have space for one. Didn't know what I was missing. Moving out of London and finally using a dishwasher was a lifechanging experience.
27. distances ◴[13 May 25 12:48 UTC] No.43972345{3}[source]▶
> This is just London, out of the 8 years I've spent here, 3 of them were spent with a dishwasher. Tbh I've got a dishwasher now and barely use it.

Do you wash by hand then? I'm curious why someone would opt to not use a dishwasher if they have one. In my ranking it's the third most essential appliance, after a washing machine and a fridge. I probably would rather give up warm water than my dishwasher.

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28. MisterTea ◴[13 May 25 13:00 UTC] No.43972462[source]▶
> There was not only no dishwasher, there was literally no space for a dishwasher.

30 minutes? Either you're cleaning up a sink full of dishes you neglected for a week or cleaning up after cooking a dinner for four or more. If you immediately clean your dishes after use its takes almost no time at all, maybe a minute or two.

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29. nicr_22 ◴[13 May 25 13:22 UTC] No.43972659{3}[source]▶
Radio 4 has to be Westminster, surely? And Bloomsbury in the evenings.

Richmond teeters over into Classic FM to my taste - ostensibly cultured, but basically posh-pop.

And LBC is a diffuse torroidal agglomeration of zone 3+ greasy spoons known only to White Van Men and black cab drivers.

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30. petercooper ◴[13 May 25 13:27 UTC] No.43972715{4}[source]▶
Maybe! I am not really an R4 listener and when I am, it's for the twee comedy stuff rather than the news and politics. If LBC is as you describe, though, I dread to imagine where Talk Radio is :-D
31. TechDebtDevin ◴[13 May 25 13:32 UTC] No.43972784{4}[source]▶
Seems wasteful to me... I've never used them. But to each their own.
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32. distances ◴[13 May 25 13:50 UTC] No.43972997{5}[source]▶
Dishwashers save greatly both energy and water when compared to hand washing!
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33. Analemma_ ◴[13 May 25 14:22 UTC] No.43973317{6}[source]▶
On a per-dish basis, yes. But dishwashers are a classic Jevons paradox: once you factor in that the convenience of having one increases your dish usage versus the counterfactual of having to hand wash everything you use, the comparison is less straightforward.
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34. Lio ◴[13 May 25 14:31 UTC] No.43973404[source]▶

    Withnail: Have you got soup? Why don't I get any soup?
    Marwood: Coffee.
    Withnail: Why don't you use a cup like any other human being?
    Marwood: Why don't you wash up occasionally like any other human being?
    Withnail: (Appalled) How dare you! How dare you! How dare you call me inhumane?!
I haven't lived without a dishwasher since I was a student. I am not keen on repeating the experience.
35. Lio ◴[13 May 25 14:48 UTC] No.43973588{3}[source]▶
> although Paris is larger of course

That surprises me, I was under the impression that Greater London was a bit bigger than Greater Paris on most metrics.

Unless you mean the City of London (The Square Mile) itself, which is definitely much smaller than Paris proper.

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36. DamonHD ◴[13 May 25 16:26 UTC] No.43974665{7}[source]▶
My family does not, so far as I can tell, use a different number of dishes because of the presence of a dishwasher. The kids almost never wash(ed) up, so it makes/made no difference to them for example. And I loathe washing up, but I always use as few dishes etc as I reasonably can simply from a sustainability point of view. And I ensure that the dishwasher is as full as reasonably possible before being run, and run at the best time from a carbon/cost point of view.
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37. nativeit ◴[13 May 25 18:07 UTC] No.43975872{4}[source]▶
In my house it’s just my father and I, and we don’t really generate enough dishes to justify using an automatic dishwasher. It only takes 5-10 minutes to clean up after most meals, and it would take a few days to get it full enough to run a cycle, after which putting the dishes away seems more burdensome.

When we visit family (or have visitors at home), the utility of a dishwasher becomes much more apparent when serving 4-6 people.

38. Sammi ◴[13 May 25 18:50 UTC] No.43976298{8}[source]▶
If you're a single person living in a flat in a city, then you can get in the habit of rinsing your tableware right after using when stuff still easily comes off, and therefore not use much effort at all on washing, and you just reuse the same tableware over and over. This is common and the reason why dishwashers aren't much needed for some.
39. freyfogle ◴[13 May 25 20:44 UTC] No.43977494{5}[source]▶
you can do a lot of things. You can live as a hunter/gatherer. The question is do you want to live like that?
40. freyfogle ◴[13 May 25 21:08 UTC] No.43977758{3}[source]▶
Thanks, amigo. If you want to come by and show me how it's done, you are more than welcome. As it happens, yes, we were a family fo four.
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41. randomcarbloke ◴[14 May 25 12:55 UTC] No.43983963{4}[source]▶
no I mean greater paris (ile de france) and greater london, I think london is about a million shy of paris.

But it is actually closer than I thought, closer in size to paris than new york which surprises me.

I could be wrong though, maybe London is actually bigger than most estimates.

42. randomcarbloke ◴[14 May 25 12:56 UTC] No.43983975{3}[source]▶
it is amazing there, I agree, it's surprising how organic it can feel when you're surrounded by brown stone and slabs.
43. MisterTea ◴[14 May 25 18:55 UTC] No.43988024{4}[source]▶
> As it happens, yes, we were a family fo four.

Then say that, amigo.