Explanation of flat types for Original Barbican
1A 1B 1C 2A 2B 2C 3A 3B 3C 4A 4B 4C 5A 6B 7C 8A 8B 8C 9A 9B 9C 10 12 13 14 16 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 49 50 51 52 53 54 56 57 58 60 61 63/64 67/68 70 71 72 73 74 76 78 79 80 81 84 85 86 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 118 119 120 121 F1A F1D F1E F2A F2B F2C F3C M2A M2B M2C M3A M3B M3C M3D M3E M4A P1D P2A P2B
Studios | 1 bed | 2 beds | 3+ beds | Towers | Maisonettes | Penthouses | Garden
Explanation of flat types for Frobisher Crescent
7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 7.11 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 8.10 8.11 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.10
Studios | 1 bed | 2 beds | 3+ beds | Maisonettes | Penthouses
Explanation of flat types for Blake Tower
Flat Types 42 45 46 47 48 49 50 52 54 60 61 65 66 67 70 71 72 76 77 78 82 84 88 93 100 102 108 137 Pen1 Pen 2
Flats LG21 LG22 LG11 LG12 LG13 1 2 3 11 12 13 14 21 22 23 24 25 31 32 33 34 35 41 42 43 44 45 51 52 53 54 55 61 62 63 64 65 71 72 73 74 75 81 82 83 84 91 92 93 94 101 102 103 104 111 112 113 114 121 122 123 124 131 132 133 134 141 142 143 151 152 153 161 162
Floors LG2 LG1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16-17
Studios | One-bed flats | Two-bed flats | Three-bed flats | Bathrooms | Kitchens | Winter Gardens | Balconies
‘Blake Tower’ was built at the same time as the rest of the Barbican Estate in the 1970s. But it was a hostel for the YMCA. Now it has been converted by Redrow, in conjuction with the City, into 74 flats, and renamed Blake Tower.
Redrow have not analysed the flats into groups of flat types. Their brochures simply give an address number to each flat. But many of the flats are the same as each other. So I have invented my own flat ‘types’ so that there is the same general system right across the estate.
I have based my flat types for Blake Tower on the sizes of the flats in square meters (as given by Redrow in their selling brochures). For example, flats numbered 81, 84, 91, 94, 101, 104, 121, 124, 131, and 134 are all the same; and they are 48 square meters in area. So I am calling them Type 48. The advantage of my system over, say, a ‘1, 2, 3 …’ system is that, when you see my flat ‘type’, it instantly tells you something useful – how big the flat is.
The measurements in the brochures are to one decimal place. I didn’t want decimals. So I have rounded the measurements. If the number after the decimal is 5 or higher, I rounded it up; if lower, I rounded it down.
For the most part this has worked fine. But I have had to make some small compromises. For example, there are two flats, both one-bedroom, both on the second floor, and one is 46.5 sq. m. and the other is 46.1 sq. m. I have called the smaller one ‘Type 46’ and the larger one ‘Type 47’. And I have had to round ‘65.8’ down to ’65’ because ’66’ was already occupied. Where I have done that, I am declaring my crime in that flat type’s page, so that flat owners will not feel I am blighting their flat in any way. The occasions are very few. My system does work.
Some of my numbers coincidentally have the same numbers as flat types in use on the Original Barbican Estate. I could have avoided any risk of confusion by putting ‘BT’ in front of the Blake Tower flat types. But that seems like overkill to me, and I honestly can’t imagine that anyone will actually be confused in practice.