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The Barbican

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723 points farslan | 6 comments | 12 May 25 15:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.588s | source | bottom
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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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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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1. 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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2. freyfogle ◴[13 May 25 08:20 UTC] No.43970713[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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3. pledg ◴[13 May 25 09:03 UTC] No.43970966[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)
4. djtango ◴[13 May 25 10:01 UTC] No.43971308[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

5. pbhjpbhj ◴[13 May 25 12:09 UTC] No.43972001[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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6. freyfogle ◴[13 May 25 20:44 UTC] No.43977494{3}[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?