101 days and nights in the Barbican
Day 1: 25th September 2017. Arrival in our Barbican apartment in Defoe House. A few hours spent finding our way round the concrete maze. We eventually became adept.
Day 2. The Barbican blocks are mostly named after authors and playwrights associated with the City of London. Here's Daniel Defoe's grave in nearby Bunhill Fields.
Day 3. Summer wild flowers still on display in the Barbican's many garden areas. Defoe House on the right. A 'magic key' lets us into all the Barbican private gardens.
Day 4. By foot over the Millennium Bridge to the South Bank. Outside St. Thomas' Hospital is a statue of the previously ignored Crimean War British-Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole. In 2004 she was voted the greatest Black Briton.
Day 5. The encroaching towers of the City of London as seen most effectively at night. High-rise building continues at an alarming rate in the tiniest of spaces. Why do we need so many more offices in London?
Day 6. Tempting to spend even more time in the communal gardens, but of course we could have done that at home. Looks like we were showing off our new home to a visiting photographer.
Day 7. A Sunday, and the Barbican's huge conservatory is open. It's the second largest in London, next to Kew Gardens. Here is the typical fashion photoshoot that takes place all over the Barbican, now that it has become a fashionable Brutalist icon.
Barbican Cinema: Different trains 1947. Should have been premiered in Liverpool but in the end was only to be seen at the Barbican!**.
Day 8. London's Hidden Walks (volumes 1 & 2) by Stephen Millar are invaluable. This first walk took in Hoxton and the East End. We managed to cover nearly all the walks in the time we were there.
Day 9. Here we are in Chelsea at the Physic Garden. This garden has been here since 1673 when it was known as the Apothecaries Garden. It contains endless examples of record plants, e.g. the largest fruiting olive tree in Britain, the northernmost grapefruit growing outdoors. Most of the plants are of medicinal or pharmaceutical interest.
Purcell's King Arthur at the Barbican Hall, with Catrin and Olivia *****.
Day 10. Still in Chelsea (it takes more than a day to do some of these walks). This is the Ranelagh Gardens adjacent to Chelsea Royal Hospital, home of Chelsea Pensioners. In the eighteenth century it was a favourite meeting place for royalty and the aristocracy and allegedly the site of several royal assignations of a shady nature.
Day 11. Back in the East End, in Shoreditch. The Geffrye Musem, housed in the eighteenth century almshouses founded by the Ironmongers' Company, presents a series of period home interiors and gardens to show how they have changed from 1600 to the present day.
Day 12. The bold new architectural developments around Broadgate are a major attraction for workers in the City. Outdoor drinking seems to be the most popular activity, irrespective of the weather.
Day 13. I used to think that the gents' toilets in the Philharmonic Pub Liverpool deserved their reputation but these are in a different class: the Wesley Methodist Chapel and Museum, City Road.
Barbican Cinema: Last Days of the City by Tamar El Said ***.
Rhiannon also got the one return ticket for the sold-out McBeth by Japanese director Ninagawa and rates it the most exciting theatre performance she has seen for many years *****.
Day 14. Another stroll in our sunny commual garden.
London Film Festival Out Time Will Come by Ann Hui **.
Day 15. Getting to know the local bus timetables. The convenient number 4 gets you from the door over to the South Bank at no cost -- if only you could rely on not being stuck in an hour-long traffic jam.
London Film Festival Life Guidance by Ruth Mader *****.
Day 16. Kew Gardens: The Hive. This extraordinary installation reproduces the interior of a bee hive. Lights and sounds are triggered in real time by the activity of bees in a real beehive in the gardens.
Day 17. Gasholder Park, King's Cross. The gasholder guideframes have dominated King’s Cross for over 150 years. The gasworks remained in use until the late 20th century before being decommissioned in 2000. Some of them form the exterior of a garden area, while some have, of course, been converted to luxury apartments. Starting prices (one-bedroom) £810000.
Sir John Soanes Museum, Lincoln's Inn Fields. The architect of the Bank of England; his house is uniquely converted to accommodate all his antiquarian and archaeological acquisitions.
Kings Place with Celia and Steph to see folk group Faustus *****.
Day 18. The residents of the adjacent Golden Lane Estate have gathered national support for their protest at the planned construction of a 10-storey high-rise block of luxury apartments immediately opposite their Grade II-listed building. It is alleged that the planned apartments, starting price £750000, are being advertised first in Hong Kong and that there is no social housing included in the scheme.
London Film Festival Oh Sun by Med Hondo (1970). Interesting reflection on how attitude to race has changed over 40 years ****.
Day 19. Over the bridge again to the South Bank. Perfect day for blowing bubbles.
Met Owain for a drink before his evening performance with English National Opera at the Coliseum.
Day 20. An afternoon in Hampstead. This is Wyldes Farm, Hampstead Heath, which was frequently visited by the painter William Blake in the 1820s. Blake is buried in Bunhill Fields, close to Daniel Defoe (see Day 2).
Lunch with Catrin and Olivia at the Bull and Last.
Day 21. This new mural by Banksy appeared in the Barbican tunnel a week before we arrived. It coincided with the start of the exhibition of the work of the graffiti-inspired New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The City of London authorities were in a dilemma, as all graffiti is normally painted over immediately. They covered it in perspex.
London Film Festival Lucia by Humberto Solas. Strange Cuban film from 1968 ***.
Day 22. A day out in Rochester, Kent. The castle was constructed in the wake of the Norman Conquest in the 11th century. During our visit, a strange orange glow surrounded the sun; this was due to dust from the Sahara being blown over by Hurricane Ophelia.
Day 23. St. Bartholomew the Great, with the Barbican Towers peering over its shoulder. The church, unlike most City churches, escaped the Great Fire of London and so is the oldest surviving church in the City, being founded in 1123. It is in fact only half of its original size as the nave was removed in the 16th century when the adjacent monastery was dissolved. Part of the Farringdon Walk.
Day 24. Revisiting St. Barholomew's for a lunchtime concert. The permanent gilded bronze statue of St. Bartholomew after he was flailed alive is by Damien Hirst.
Day 25. The Barbican's inland lake.
Cristoph Richter (cello) playing Schumann at Kings Place ***.
Day 26. Extreme move from the City to undertake three more days of the Dales Way in Yorkshire.
Day 27. Heavy rainfall near Skelsmergh.
Day 28. A brief dry spell for a group photo.
Day 29. A 30-minute stroll from the apartment takes you to the Tower of London along the Thames embankment.
Day 30. More walking on the North side of the river through Wapping to Canary Wharf.
Day 31. The Thames walks continue, with Tower Bridge always in view.
The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth at the Gielgud Theatre *****. Excellent performance.
Guardian lecture seminar on How to Fix the Housing Crisis. Rare opportunity to attend a Guardiam members' event, which are nearly all held in London.
Day 32. The street art of Spitalfields on the Spitalfields and Whitechapel Walk.
Exhibition of photographs by Thomas Ruff at the Whitechapel Gallery ****.
Day 33. More Thames Path walking. Suprising stretches of sandy beach in the centre of London. Passing the Grapes pub, where Turner used to drink to the dystopian Canary Wharf.
Sakari Oramo and the BBC Philharmonic with Sibelius 3rd Symphony at the Barbican ****.
Day 34. By way of escape, a day and night in Stratford-upon-Avon with Rhiannon's family to see Christopher Marlowe's Dido, Queen of Carthage at the RSC.
Day 35. And while we were in Stratford, we did the tourist thing and visited Anne Hathaway's Cottage.
Day 36. Always on the lookout for good affordable-ish places to eat within walking distance.
Drawn in Colour, pastels by Degas at the National Gallery ****.
Day 37. A visit to the Royal Institute of British Architects exhibition Pseudo-Georgian London by Pablo Bronstein. The brilliant accompanying book, with the same title, highlights the worst of new London volume-built domestic architecture. My idea of fun to spot the buildings shown in the drawings.
Day 38. The newly opened Paddington Basin area. Interesting walks along the Regent's Canal via Little Venice to Westbourne Park.
Visited the Amadeus Chapel in Maida Vale where Rhiannon's grandparents were married in 1916.
Day 39. The walk continues past the tragic Grenfell Tower, still untouched after the fire....
Ironically perhaps, the start of my 20th Century Society (C20) six weekly lecture series on the 20th Century House *****.
Day 40. .....and evidence of the enormous job of making these tower blocks safe to live in, if anyone is willing to pay for it.
Day 41. A south-side-of-the-Thames walk via Bermondsey and Rotherhithe's historic docks. Memorials to the great benefactors the Salters, who started the process of clearing the dockland slums.
Albion by Mike Bartlett at the Almeida Theatre, Islington ***.
Day 42. Farther west on the South side of the river: the factory and showroom of my grandfather's employer, Doulton. The entire facade of the showroom building is decorated in the recognisable style of Doulton pottery. Part of the Lambeth and Vauxhall Walk that took in the site of Blake's Lambeth House and Vauxhall Gardens.
Day 43. Continuing on the South side, past the seat of Government.
Day 44. Another brilliant feature of Barbican life: the library 60 seconds from the door, where you can hire a piano free of charge and select any music you might want from the adjacent shelves.
Day 45. The City of London Museum is part of the Barbican complex. Set aside at least two days to visit it. Although it's one of the finest museums I have been in, it is about to be rebuilt to make way for the new £250 million privately funded concert hall on the site.
This is a map of London before the Great Fire and its complete re-design.
Planning issues never cease to cause controversy. An evening lecture Conservation in the Eye of the Media: Mansion House Square Revisited. A re-screening of the 1985 BBC Omnibus programme on the proposal to erect the Peter Palumbo Mies van der Rohe building in Mansion House Square. Some of the original participants in the discussion were present. Fascinating that the same site is still causing debate.
Day 46. Just round the corner are the remains of the London wall, which surrounded the City until the eighteenth century when it was no longer required. The wall, in turn, used some of the structure of the original Roman wall and forts that existed from the time of the Roman occupation until they left in around 200 AD.
Day 47. Further illustration of the location of the London city wall and the extent of the City. You can walk the entire length of the City, as it was then, in around 20 minutes.
Day 48. Canonbury and the Estorick Gallery, which has permanent and touring exhibitions of Italian art. This is Tony Cragg's Runner from 1985. The works in this exhibition are all inspired by the influential Italian Arte Povera movement that produced artworks from cheap, everyday materials. Great coffee shop too.
Slaves of Solitude by Nicholas Wright at Hampstead Theatre ****.
Day 49. A flying visit by Tom from Hong Kong over in London for a job interview.
Barbican Art Gallery exhibition of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat ***.
Day 50. Coffee by the fountains. Maybe a bit chilly on the windswept concrete 'Lakeside Terrace'.
Gabriela Montero piano recital at Wigmore Hall ***.
Day 51. Outside the Crossbones Burial Yard, Southwark. This was a burial ground for paupers and for the prostitutes and sex workers of Southwark These women were excluded from Chrisian burial, even although their trade was in fact licensed by the Bishop of Winchester, who owned the surrounding land. The railings of the site are permanently decorated with flowers and messages that reflect a sympathy for the forgotten people of that part of the city and also a form of protest that the common man or woman may be overlooked in the frantic commercial development that continues to take place (note the Shard in the background).
Day 52. A day with David and Tricky exploring the new architecture of the City and a superb meal at the Swedish smokehouse restaurant Rok in Shoreditch.
Day 53. London Jazz Festival: Robert Glasper. Great concert in sold-out Barbican Hall. Popped up to the flat for interval drinks. The festival continued all week with free concerts every day in the Barbican foyer.
Day 54. Amid the concrete, St. Giles-without-Cripplegate, one of the few recognisable buildings left on the site after the destruction of the whole area in the Blitz in 1941. Probably its most famous buried resident is the poet John Milton.
Barbican Cinema: Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool ***.
Day 55. New artworks in the Lisson Gallery, The Strand, a disused warehouse converted to an art and sculpture space. This is wallpaper by Ai Weiwei.
One-day course at Bishopsgate Institute on the re-development of London after the Second World War. Interesting to look at original publications of the time **.
Day 56. Our apartment faces South over the Barbican gardens. At its best in the sunshine.
Cello and piano recital by Paul and Huw Watkins at Kings Place: chamber music composed during the First World War, including by Cyril Scott *****.
Day 57. A walk to Tate Modern: John Akomfrah and Ilya and Elena Kabakov well worth the effort.
Lecture seminar on The Protestant Work Ethic and the Changing Nature of Work in St. Paul's Cathedral ****.
Day 58. The nearby Smithfield Meat Market, busy from 10 pm to 5 am. You can shop there (for meat) from 3 am.
Defoe House Christmas party in the local pub; rare chance to meet our neighbours.
Day 59. A further reminder of our Barbican flat, for nostalgia purposes.
Oslo by JT Rogers at Harold Pinter Theatre *****.
Day 60. Serpentine Gallery: works by Wade Guyton and lunch in the smart Zaha Hadid restaurant The Magazine.
Day 61. Winter sun on Southwark Bridge on the way to Borough Market.
The Queen's Six at St. Bartholomew the Great; interesting programme of close harmony singing from 12th to 21st century ****.
Day 62. Supper at Martin's, with homemade pear and chocolate cake.
Day 63. Headed out of town to Merstham in Surrey, with a walk through the Gatton Estate and its contemporary stone circle.
Day 64. The sun sets on the Millennium Bridge.
Day 65. Our local shopping mall One New Change reflecting its famous environment
Day 66. The Shard, still London's tallest building, at least for a few more months.
Sakari Oramo and the BBC Philharmonic with Sibelius 4 & 6 in the Barbican ****.
Day 67. The Westminster and /st. James's Walk. Amazing to find the historic seats of the kings and queens of England -- St. James's Palace -- effectively just up a side street. Where the very rich and very famous hang out in their clubs.
Day 68. Into December. One of the many reminders of the famous visitors to London
Day 69. December 2nd. Islington Town Hall Registry Office for our wedding at 11.30. Apologies sent round later for the fact that we kept it so secret and severely restricted the guest list. Followed by drinks in the flat and lunch in the Osteria restaurant in the Barbican.
Day 70. The morning after.
Visit to the Scythians at the British Museum: intriguing insight into an influential empire stretching from Mongolia to Turkey before the 8th century BC.
Day 71. Second day of married life
Oboe recital by Celine Monet at Wigmore Hall ***.
Day 72. Early dark on the Podium.
Visit from Geraldine, who went with Rhiannon to Tate Modern to see exhibition by Modigliani.
Day 73. A visit to Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham. Earliest Gothic revival domestic architecture in England.
Day 74. Nipped back home. No heating on, so log fire came into its own.
Day 75. Winter in Oxton. Heading back to winter in London.
Day 76. Christmas shopping gets under way in Soho.
Monteverdi's Selve morale e spiratuele by Les Arts Florissants with Catrin and Olivia at the Barbican Hall ***.
Day 77. Winter sets in in Hampstead. One big advantage of London Underground.
Day 78. Charterhouse -- 5 minutes from the flat. A Carthusian monastery founded in the 14th century. A frequent haunt of Queen Elizabeth I. The associated almshouses still house 40 male and, just recently, 1 female pensioners.
Day 79. Dan Colen's eclectic work at Damien Hirst Gallery. Huge exhibition space generously staffed; must return to Pharmacy 2 restaurant for lunch some time.
Antony and Cleopatra by Royal Shakespeare Company at Barbican Theatre *****.
Day 80. First chance to see Simon Rattle and the LSO in the Barbican. Rhiannon was keen on the second half of the concert (Mahler), while I preferred the first half (Strauss); so we shared a ticket and changed over at the interval.
In the afternoon, The Tin Drum and adaptation of the Gunther Grass novel by Kneehigh Theatre at Shoreditch Town Hall * (left at the interval, sorry!).
Day 81. A Scandinavian theme in various galleries. Here we discover the work of Akseli Gallen-Kallela, who obsessively produced images of the Finnish lake Keitele. This was at the National Gallery, but we also came across more of his work and that of his Scandinavian contemporaries in other .galleries in St. James's.
And a lovely lunch, courtesy off Peter Bailey at the Chelsea Arts Club.
Day 82. Fantastic walk with Celia taking in the Temple, the Inns of Court and Royal Courts of Justice. I was oblivious to the enormous space and historic importance of the buildings between the Strand and the river. This is the seat of the English legal profession and hence the Establishment.
Day 82. A visit from Anwen and Ossian.
Portraits by Soutine of working people in the cafes of Paris in early 20th century, at Courtauld Gallery ****.
Goats by Liwaa Yazji at Royal Court Theatre: a play about Syrian youth and their response to the crisis in their country ***.
Day 84. A short walk to Columbia Road flower market as it prepares for Christmas.
Day 85. The only newspaper still left on Fleet Street: DC Thomson, publisher of the Beano, Dandy, People's Friend etc. Part of the Fleet Street Walk.
Day 86. Return to the Temple Church for the Christmas carol service, with Ossian (see Day 82) as the principal boy chorister.
Day 87. Barbican underground station decorated for Christmas.
From Life at the National Gallery ** (but the associated VR exhibition was amazing).
Day 88. The fountains play even on the dullest, windiest, wettest days.
Crazy hands-on exhibiton about pop group ABBA at the Royal Festival Hall ****.
Day 89. Always cosy and warm inside the Barbican foyer, which is permanently busy.
Day 90. 23rd December and here on my own. Completed the contemporary architecture walk; here the contrast between Leadenhall Market and the iconic Lloyd's building.
Day 91. Christmas Eve and the City is deserted. Quick swim at the gym before it closes early, then a solitary pint in the deserted Jugged Hare next door (the only place open as far as I could see).
Day 92. Christmas in the flat with Martin, Celia and Steph beside the makeshift Christmas tree branch (only £2 from the Barbican shop). Venison for Christmas dinner, a brief walk and a game of Who Knows Where?, with Celia the winner.
Day 93. Boxing Day for Rhiannon. Better beaches on the Wirral than in The City.
But I had enjoyed Boxing Day breakfast with the family in Cote Brasserie.
Day 94. The familiar Brutalist stairwell. I managed 101 days without falling and hitting my head on the concrete.
Monochrome exhibition at the National Gallery. Works of art from several centuries in black and white. National Gallery packed, but exhibition almost empty *****.
Day 95. Home alone. Time to reflect.
Day 96. The Mithraeum. The Roman Temple of Mithras (3rd century BC) reconstructed into its original site in the City of London. Now open to the public.
Day 97. Samuel Johnson's house off Fleet Street. Contains facsimiles of his original dictionary and fascinating insight into his life and times.
Day 98. Hogmanay. All quiet in the City until.......
Day 99. ....New Year's Day 2018. It seemed a bit too cold to stand in the 3-hour queue to see the firework display by the river, but opening the door to the balcony was enough to hear it all; and you could see it on televistion after all. This is the river as seen from Hampstead.
Day 100. Both GF Handel and Jimi Hendrix lived in the same apartment two hundred years apart. Both exhibitions equally interesting as an insight into the London of the times.
Farewell supper with Martin and Luca at Vinoteca, Farringdon.
Day 101. Car all packed and last visit to our local, the Hand and Shears. As despondent as I look about leaving London.