Climbing Moss

The Barbican Conservatory is advertised as;

‘A lush oasis nestled in the heart of the Barbican Centre in London’.

This indoors green space has been talked about and advertised like crazy and we had been trying to get tickets for ages. Well long story short we finally got to go…..

Long before Covid stole a huge chunk of time we had planned to go to Barbican Conservatory but due to the pandemic the Conservatory was closed. Then once it reopened you had to go through a massive mission to try and book tickets – with them only being released on a Friday in very limited numbers – Then only being open once every now and then when the moon is full and when someone called Dimity did a backflip on a trampoline (or some random event).

Well apparently this has happened because all of a sudden on a Tuesday at 3am tickets were released, so we didn’t hesitate. But we still had to book a minimum of 3 tickets, for unknown reasons, but that didn’t stop us! With tickets finally booked we saved the day for last Friday and with Bruffin in tow we set off for EC1 and the Barbican Centre.

The whole estate, theatres, gallery and watercourses are a massive Grade 2 listing (that’s part of the National Heritage and can’t be knocked down or majorly changed) and is a unique Brutalist Architecture site.

The entrance to the Conservatory is hidden – as in there are no signs anywhere – but on the third floor is a pair of doors marked Garden Room – it’s like there don’t want you there. But given the limited ticket availability and and the hidden entrance, we entered to find it filled with about 200 people, all who seemed to have found the secret tickets and access or as it turned out just turned up and didn’t bother booking!

Once inside we wandered around what clearly used to be reception area and foyer for the theatre, then it got left to over-grow and plants were planted. It’s almost like one of the numerous films, filmed there, left their set and the Barbican just let it be and claimed it as their own.

There are varies levels to walk around, where large leafed plants climb and hang from balconies and platforms, walkways around the foyer floor are traversed to find a limited variety of plants, but in large numbers. The areas of access are like the plants, limited but with a few open areas where you can sit and enjoy the large fauna. There is a bar in the open grounds, but at those prices were figured we were better finding something else. In all the Conservatory seemed tired and outdated, large beds filled with the same Lilies and Pallidas filled the space.

One major disappointment was the Cactus Room, or Arid House as the sign called it, which was locked and clearly shut for good, even though the room was still filled with numerous Cacti within, growing and waiting to be viewed, probably not viewable because some idiot tried to pick them up and got spiked!

There was also visible signs that the plants weren’t often tended to – lots of dead leaves, pests (weevils and other plant pests) which was rather disappointing.

The highlights though were to be found at the back and they weren’t flowers, but fish, a pond of large Koi and Mirror Carp swam lazily around, eating the Boilie Food and floating under the water pipe that sprayed them with fresh cascades into the pool.

Within 20 minutes we had walked around the entire open area and seen all it had to offer.

So we headed instead for the first floor and the Burger Restaurant. The Bonfire is a large open space, much like everything in the Barbican, clearly when it was bring built space conservation was never mentioned. We headed for the terrace to overlook the ponds and the Modernist Architecture of the Estate, but quickly realised it’s England in the Summer – i.e. it was going to rain. So we took a table inside instead and perused the menu,

The wait staff made a good first impression, asking for a list of all alergies we had, wanting the full list and then checking with the chefs before even taking our orders and confirming that nothing was going to be a problem in anything on the menu.

We made our selection and waited. Talking about the Girl’s School, the flats and the various TV Shows and Movies Filmed in the futuristic housing project over the years. (From Dr. Who to Andor…

The food arrived with a little wait, but nothing overly painful and a good range it was, a Basic 6oz Beef Burger, a Spicy Chilli Burger and a Veggie Halloumi Burger, plus Cajun Fries and standard Fries, were all good. The drinks however were a little disappointing, the choice of beers was limited at best and the only IPA/Craft Beer was not IPA, but simply a Blonde ale (Ash is not Lager drinkers and to him it tasted too largery/too fizzy).

But the food went down well and quickly! and we left, hunting for the way out through the grey concrete foyers and wide passageways to find ourselves out in the grey, wet London.

Overall, we think the Barbican Conservatory is a little flat and outdated and there are plenty more, lively, lovely and exotic Green Spaces in London to seek out and enjoy and we don’t see what all the fuss about this one is!

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Come back next week for another review of something else!