Barbican Living
Description of Breton House
Breton House (completed in November 1972) is a terrace block on the northern boundary of the estate. It runs out at right angles from the middle of Ben Jonson House. Flats either face east (and overlook Whitecross Street) or west (and overlook the beautiful Cripplegate Free Library building and Golden Lane).
Breton Highwalk (the section of podium surrounding Breton House) has quite extensive flower beds built into the surface, with raised bricked walls. On the west side of Breton House, the bushes have grown into a virtual jungle. On the east side, the flower beds are more orderly but they seem to surround anti-tank pillboxes.
In may ways, Breton House is a mirror image of John Trundle Court. They share virtually the same basic structure, from raised entrances to the buildings up flights of stairs, to virtually identical flat types once you get inside. The stairs lead to lobbies which serve a cluster of flats. The entrances have door mats designed to stop farm workers in hobnail boots bringing the fields into the home. I can't see why they are necessary now that Goswell Road is almost civilized.
There are 99 studio flats on 6 storeys, and 12 two-room penthouse maisonettes on the 7th and roof-top storeys. Flats are numbered 1 - 111. As in John Trundle Court, the flats are almost exclusively studio flats of Type F1A or F2A, with equally dinky two-room penthouses of Type P2A.
There is a sub-podium level but no flats. Instead if you look down, you peer through sub-basement windows into what looks like the super-villain’s command centre in a James Bond film.
