Barbican Living
Description of Speed House
Speed House (completed in July 1969) was the first Barbican terrace block to be built. It is a terrace block tucked into the north-east corner of the estate, running east to west between the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Willoughby House.
I think it is probably a very attractive house to live in. It is more private than most. Most of the building receives good evening sun in the living rooms. At the front, Speed House overlooks its own very attractive little garden with swings and a slide for children. There are large bushes and shrubs in beds next to the Guildhall School, and very lush grass and flowers. In front of Speed Garden is a covered bower which leads to the School and then to the Arts Centre. Beyond is the lake. At the back of Speed House is Speed Highwalk, with round concrete tubs full of low flowering plants and some wooden benches. Otherwise, the outlook at the back is over the office buildings in Silk Street.
There are 4 very similar terrace blocks: Andrewes House and Speed House which face each other over the lake; and Thomas More House and Defoe House, which face each other over Thomas More Gardens. Each block runs from east to west and their flats generally go the whole depth of the block from the front to the back (so residents look out of their windows north and south). Since each flat takes up the depth of the building, there is no central corridor. Instead, there are separate stairwells (with lifts, of course) at regular intervals along the block, and each stairwell has two flats on each floor. It's just like a series of terraced houses, each converted into flats. They each have penthouse flats at the top, 'garden' flats below the Podium level, and 6 floors of flats in between.
Speed House has 114 flats, maisonettes and penthouses with accommodation varying from two to five rooms. There are five floors of flats starting one level above the podium, with penthouse flats on the top floor. In addition, there are maisonette flats below podium level. Flats are numbered 1 - 114.
Most of the flats are Type 20 or Type 21. On the top floor the penthouses are mainly Type 23. This is virtually the same layout as in the other three similar blocks. Living rooms overlooks the garden and the lake.
The garden flats differ from those in the similar blocks. Instead of two levels of single-storey flats below the Podium, the garden flats in Speed House are two-floor maisonettes, mainly of Type 84, with both living room and bedroom windows looking north over the gardens and lake.
