please empty your brain below

St Giles was the patron saint of cripples. His church would have attracted a lot of people praying for relief from their impairment.
Excellent - I spent several months living in Ben Jonson house and loved every minute. Still get excited when I go to visit my family there. It’s amazing how much more life the Barbican and area around it has compared to 20 years ago. I think in the past the flats were much more likely to accommodate execs who used it as a city bolt hole to stay during the week while now it’s a wider range of residents.
Although I have been to the Barbican before, this post makes me realise how much I didn't see.
Pity about the weather, drizzle always makes for dull photos.
Armed with this post I will be visiting the Barbican again on the next trip to London.
Thank you DG you really know how to bring a subject to life. This series about the Wards of London has been just fantastic.
The Barbican is an amazing place to walk around.

I wouldn't want ALL of London to be like it, but as a one off, it's magnificent
Even when all the various currently-locked gates and blocked-off routes are open, it’s surprisingly hard to get North-South across the Barbican Estate. The lake works as a very effective and surprisingly wide barrier, and the only crossing point (the Gilbert House bridge) is at the highwalk level (Level 2 of the Arts Centre).

Which is why in the before-times you used to see crowds of besuited City workers from London Wall and beyond traipsing through the Barbican Centre’s reception (just inside the Silk Street entrance) to get to the Whitecross Street food market.

I've always been fond of the Golden Lane ramp DG mentions as a way of avoiding the main drag. It has a even more twisty counterpart on the corner of Beech Street and Whitecross Street.
I know I went there to hunt down St Giles Church in the 1980s, as being one where a large swathe of my Dad's ancestors were hatched, matched & dispatched, but somehow failed to find the lake and was left with the general impression that it was all rather grim round there, and that I was somehow trespassing!

Definitely time for a second and proper look around.
Back in the 1990s, our daughter went to the Guildhall School of Music Saturday School for children, so while she had her various lessons and rehearsals, we spent many a Saturday passing the time exploring the Barbican and its environs. To start with, 'the City' was mostly closed and deserted at the weekend, but as each year passed, more cafes and restaurants, and even shops, began to open to keep us occupied.
I was a bridesmaid to a school friend when she married at St Giles Cripplegate as she lived on the Golden Lane estate. My friend and her husband have just celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary.
Nice post DG. I love a wander through, across and around the Barbican estate, to spend time beside the lake, to sit and read in the many quieter spots, and take photos of the pleasing architectural geometric shapes. Please STOP telling everyone else about how wonderful it is, otherwise it might cease to be a (relatively) peaceful oasis of calm away from the noise and the traffic!
I worked at Moorgate for over 20 years, while others used to take their meal break within the vicinity of the workplace, I always made the 4 minute walk to get some quiet from the hustle and bustle of the city. The spot I frequented was next to the lake behind St. Giles Cripplegate Church. I only go there occasionally now when I use the Barbican Library, but brings back reminiscences.

I thought I knew the whole area like the back of my hand but never noticed Cripplegate Free Library , just goes to show you can walk around an area for 20 years and not notice everthing !
Thanks DG. I do love this place.

What a fabulous reminder of what needs to happen to all those currently-and-probably-permanently-empty office blocks in central London.










TridentScan | Privacy Policy