Architectural historian Elain Harwood described the Barbican arts and housing complex as “the greatest piece of combined urban planning and architecture in Britain in the 21st century”. Designed by architects Peter Chamberlin, Geoffry Powell and Christof Bon in the 1950s and 1960s, it once drew flak for its Brutalist finishes and impregnability to visitors but is now loved by critics and residents alike.
Filmmakers Laura Cade and Duncan Brown moved into their three-bedroom, two-storey Chamberlin, Powell and Bon-designed property three years ago and could not be happier. “The sun comes shining through the skylights and hits different parts of the hall,” says Cade. “It’s just beautiful.”
But the couple do not live in the Barbican. Their house is on the Vanbrugh Park Estate, five miles along the Thames beside Greenwich Park. They paid ￡493,000 and the houses now fetch around ￡600,000. An equivalent-sized duplex in the Barbican was listed for ￡1.195mn in April.