Barbican Living
Description of Brandon Mews
Brandon Mews (completed in November 1969) is a small terrace of two-storey houses at the east end of the lake, with a brown perspex structure on top, which was apparently added in the 1980s. (The Barbican Estate Office classify these dwellings as flats.) Close up, you can see regular pitched roofs sticking up into this rounded perspex structure. It is otherwise quite empty, which is a pity. It would make a very pleasant conservatory.
The inhabitants of Brandon Mews live below podium level and both their living rooms and their bedrooms face west towards the lake. Those nearest Speed House (the north part of the mews) overlook the delightful Speed Garden. Those nearest Andrewes House (the south part of the mews) overlook the ornamental waterfall from which water cascades down in front of Brandon Mews. There are 26 flats (numbered 1 - 26).
There’s no direct access from Brandon Mews to the lakeside. The windows facing onto the lake are dramatic and each one seems to go right up the building, with window boxes in the middle and the distinctively Barbican “U” shape at the bottom. Strange metal rungs go up the wall between the windows, but I don’t think burglars would risk valuable trainers by wading the lake to get to them. Car parking spaces are available for each house near their rear entrance doors.
