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The Barbican

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723 points farslan | 8 comments | 12 May 25 15:28 UTC | HN request time: 1.143s | 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. 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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2. distances ◴[13 May 25 12:48 UTC] No.43972345[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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3. TechDebtDevin ◴[13 May 25 13:32 UTC] No.43972784[source]▶
Seems wasteful to me... I've never used them. But to each their own.
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4. distances ◴[13 May 25 13:50 UTC] No.43972997{3}[source]▶
Dishwashers save greatly both energy and water when compared to hand washing!
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5. Analemma_ ◴[13 May 25 14:22 UTC] No.43973317{4}[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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6. DamonHD ◴[13 May 25 16:26 UTC] No.43974665{5}[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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7. nativeit ◴[13 May 25 18:07 UTC] No.43975872[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.

8. Sammi ◴[13 May 25 18:50 UTC] No.43976298{6}[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.