Barbican Living
Description of Bunyan Court
Bunyan Court (completed in December 1972) is a terrace block which runs east to west on the north podium of the estate. It forms the middle of a 'U' with Bryer Court and John Trundle Court, which are north to south terrace blocks. Bunyan Court and John Trundle Court are connected, but Bryer Court stands slightly apart on its own. This group of buildings enclose Beech Gardens.
Bunyan Court has 7 storeys above the podium, containing 18 two-room flats, 33 three-room flats and maisonettes, 2 four-room maisonettes, 15 four-room and 1 five-room penthouse maisonettes. There are no flats below podium level. The flats are numbered 201-223, 301-323, and 501-523.
In many other blocks, there is a central corridor running along each floor like a spine. As a result, flats can only be quite shallow (from the corridor to the front or to the back of the building). But here as in Ben Jonson House, they solved the problem by not having a corridor on every floor. Instead, there is an entrance floor for each row of flats - the second, third and fifth floors - which does have a central corridor. On one side of the corridor there are traditionally designed single-storey flats which just run to the outside wall (Type F2C flats for the most part). But on the other side of the corridor, there are two-storey maisonettes, which run to the other outside wall, but have internal stairs up (or down) to the non-corridored floor, where they can then take up the whole depth of the floor from front to back (Type M2A and M2B flats).
The house motif is red doors and blue carpet. At 03 level there is a slightly awkward entrance into the car park, halfway up a ramp. There is just one entrance and lift section at the east end of the block.
This has interestingly shaped gardens set in the brick surface, which is itself at different levels. The bricks have been laid in patterns to lead you through bushes to stepped areas where there are seats. The bushes are larger here than almost anywhere else. Beech Gardens becomes John Trundle Highwalk near the bridge over Aldersgate Street to the Barbican Station. On one side of Beech Gardens there is a mini-lake in front of Bryer Court, with little fountains and lots of plant life. At the back, Bunyan Court faces north towards the YMCA. You can get to Bunyan Court from Fann Street, past the launderette and up the ramp, which runs underneath Bunyan Court.
