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The Barbican

(arslan.io)
728 points farslan | 6 comments | 12 May 25 15:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.894s | 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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1. 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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2. 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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3. 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.. ;-)
4. Lio ◴[13 May 25 14:48 UTC] No.43973588[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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5. randomcarbloke ◴[14 May 25 12:55 UTC] No.43983963{3}[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.

6. fennecfoxy ◴[22 May 25 09:56 UTC] No.44060472[source]▶
Certainly, the denser population doesn't help. But on average I think British people tend to litter more, destroy public property etc.

I had never heard of the term "anti-social behaviour" until I moved here.

Don't get me wrong, there are many, many brilliant things about the British and the UK as well. I just wish more people cared - like how does the public not react with outright fury when a company yet again dumps sewerage into waterways, as they have done several times before - and that company is given a slap on the wrist (fine) rather than obliterated & replaced with a scorched Earth policy as it's completely unacceptable.

And those same people who are apathetic to such things say stuff like "oh I wouldn't do that...the canals and rivers are gross and filled with bacteria and rubbish" when I tell them I'm going kayaking or canoeing. Like...be proud of your country! Be swift & decisive when companies pollute the water, or members of the public break something or cause public disorder.