Barbican Living
The different types of flats in Thomas More House
Garden Flats
There are 2 floors of flats below the podium level which are known as garden flats. The ones you can look into as you walk round the garden are called lower garden flats and they are all bedsits. They have one window for the living/sleeping area, and there is a kitchen and a bathroom at the back. Entrance is from the back (Types 12, 13 and 14). There are 2 levels of flats above garden level, but still below the podium, which are called upper garden level flats. They run right through the building so that there are windows at the front and back. You enter them in the middle from a central lift and entrance lobby. The kitchen and the bathroom are straight ahead of you. The living area is at the front, overlooking the garden. The bedroom is at the back. (Type 16). These flats come down at garden level to a passage with a metal gate into the garden. The higher flats have window boxes at two levels and the bottom window is the usual Barbican inverted arch. At the back, the upper garden level flats look out over across a cobbled way towards tiered banks of concrete window boxes set in the side of the car park, in which ivy and other bushes and shrubs grow. It’s how the Hanging Gardens of Babylon would have looked if they had been built underground.
Regular Flats
Once you get above the podium, the flats are very similar to flats in Defoe House. There are 2 flats per lift entrance per floor. Each flat has a living area at the front, overlooking the gardens, and bedroom accommodation at the back, overlooking the tennis courts, joined by a corridor off which you find the kitchen, the WC and the bathroom. The differences are in the shape of the living and bathroom areas, which are dictated by the lift shaft, emergency exits and stairs. Some flats have a larger living room (more window), like an L-shape, and a smaller bedroom (Type 20). Some have a narrower living room, and space for one L-shaped bedroom or (just) for two bedrooms (Type 21). There is also a layout not found in Defoe House, which has L-shapes at both ends, giving a large living room area at the front and 2 bedrooms at the back (Type 19).
Penthouse Flats
The penthouses are all of the same sort. They all have a living area and a bedroom, without the L-shape extension at either end. They are all on one level. (Type 23).
Flat Types
Thomas More House |
|||
Type |
Total |
Rooms |
Accommodation |
1 |
1 |
Bedsit |
|
11 |
1 |
Bedsit |
|
1 |
1 |
Bedsit |
|
24 |
2 |
1 bedroom, living room |
|
12 |
4 |
2 bedrooms, living room, study |
|
48 |
3 |
1 bedroom, living room, study |
|
48 |
3 |
2 bedrooms, living room |
|
2 |
2 |
1 bedroom, living room |
|
16 |
2 |
1 bedroom, living room |
|
TOTAL |
163 |
|
|
