Barbican Living
Description of Gilbert House
It would be hard to beat Gilbert House (completed in August 1969) for a dramatic location. Right in the centre of the Barbican, it straddles the lake on tall stilts. Underneath it, runs Gilbert Bridge, the marvellous suspended walkway across the lake from the Barbican Arts Centre in the north to the City in the south.
Like nearly all north-south terraces, Gilbert House has a central corridor along each floor and flats are on one or other side of it, with all rooms facing either east or west. Arguably the flats have the best view of any in the Barbican. The west-facing flats have sun most of the day and look out over the lake and the terrace in front of the Barbican Centre. The east-facing flats get sun in the morning only but look out over the more attractive half of the lake with the waterfall.
Above podium level there are 5 storeys of flats and 2 of penthouses. Gilbert House contains 88 flats and penthouses ranging in size from one to five rooms. Flats are numbered 101 - 114, 201 - 214, 301 - 314, 401 - 414, 501 - 514, 601 - 614, 701 - 704.
The house paint colour is a light, mushroomy-green colour, very similar to Mountjoy's. The top floor must contain more important residents: their floor has been re-carpeted.
There are lift and staircase entrances at either end of the building. The north lift entrance and stairs are painted white, the south is exposed concrete. 02 level is St Giles churchyard. 03 is lake side level.
