Photograph of Barbican Bomb Site Overlooking RailwayBarbican Centre
Before the Barbican
The Barbican is built on a World War II bombsite. The City of London came under fire from German bombers on 29 December 1940 and few buildings survived.
Architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon designed the Barbican to transform an area devastated by war. This photograph shows the early stages of the Barbican build.
Elements of the bombsite are still visible here.
Here we can see the regular shapes of the foundations, driven into the ground and reinforced with steel and concrete to take the weight of the building.
Here’s a crane for lifting material around the site.
This structure is probably a water tower or concrete hopper.
The exposed tracks of the London Underground can also be seen here.
Photograph of Barbican Lakeside (1979/1979) by Peter BloomfieldBarbican Centre
Today, the Circle Line runs under the Barbican’s Lakeside Terrace, with a system of shock absorbers to dampen the rattling of the passing trains.
Barbican Construction Workers On SiteBarbican Centre
The construction site was vast and the build took decades. The first residential flats opened in 1969 and the arts centre opened in 1982.
Barbican Centre Construction Photograph (1974) by John MaltbyBarbican Centre
Building site blues
In 1965, British pop group Unit 4 + 2 filmed the music video for their song Concrete and Clay on the Barbican construction site. Watch the video, thanks to the British Pathé Youtube channel, below:
Concrete and Clay
by Unit 2 + 4 (1965)
