Past ones have included a visit to St Pancras and the area around the new development with a blue badge guide (above), a visit to the new Olympic park, one ‘behind the scenes’ at Smithfield Market; a tour of the Lord Mayor’s Mansion House; a visit to Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament and a sought after tour of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. 

There are still some spaces left on the wildlife gardens walk on 22 June. Partners are welcome. If you would like to go please get in touch with Francis Pugh (francis@pugh-serota.co.uk). 

This is a guided tour around the wildlife bits of the Barbican (including the Fann Street Garden). Francis Pugh will be leading this and has offered the evening of 22 June. There's a limit of about 20 people, but if there is more demand, he's offered to do another evening that week. 

Click here for our membership form.

St Alphage's House

Resident Workshops with the Architects: June 16-18 

Hammerson, the developer, is inviting all Barbican residents to attend a workshop in which their appointed architect, Ian Lomax of Make, and other member of the project team will present his firm's latest proposals for the scheme and be able to answer any questions. (for full details see the St Alphage's page)

Venue - City Marketing Suite, Basinghall Street 

• Wednesday 16 June at 6.30pm

• Thursday 17 June at 6.30pm

• Friday 18 June at 10am and again at 12 noon.

Environmental sustainability

The BA has set up an environmental sustainability group, which is busy talking to the estate office about ways of improving the Barbican's energy profile. It has also produced a set of top tips for saving energy that Barbican residents can do themselves.

Cinemas 2 and 3

As most residents will know, the Barbican Arts Centre is planning to shut cinemas 2 and 3 and relocate them in exhibition hall 1, under Ben Jonson. This has understandably raised concerns about noise leakage from the new cinemas to residents above and about new traffic flows of people two and from the cinemas. The Arts Centre has undertaken to consult residents and has so far held one open meeting in February 2010 – together with more informal meetings with residents and the BA. It has promised to hold further open meetings when it has firm proposals to discuss.

The Arts Centre has posted its answers to questions raised at the February meeting on its own website [http://www.barbican.org.uk/about-barbican/residents] 

Update on the cinemas  

At a public meeting on 29 June the Arts Centre team (project team plus architects of external facades) presented their latest thinking (see summary below). The BA cinemas group (including representatives from Ben Jonson, Breton, and Cromwell) will respond formally (and swiftly). We’d like the views of residents. So please do email me on chairBA@btinternet.com

In brief, for the design, they are proposing

• A glass façade on Beech Street, with translucent glass panels on the upper level and transparent glass at the lower level (emulating the existing metal panels but without frames)
• The main door to the cinema in roughly the middle of the façade on Beech Street, recessed. Full height doors – nature of door undetermined. Light black surround
• Coffee shop with separate entrance on Beech Street to the west of the site
• Restaurant on Beech Street/Whitecross Street corner, with separate entrance on Whitecross Street
• Retain ramp, but options for smartening up façade by residents’ entrance to Ben Jonson
• Brick façade to replace metal façade in service yard behind
• Brick flooring on Whitecross Street corner, to match brick floor of ramp
• A “wayfinding”  device on edge of site at Whitecross Street corner, to point to main centre in Silk Street: exact form not determined yet – a pillar, a monolith, and arrow

Sound

They are using Arup as their sound consultant and have already done some mock testing of airborne and structure borne sound. They invited residents to take part in the successive tests that they plan. We will take them up on this. 

Other matters

Operation of cinemas: they plan to stagger showings, so not everyone exits at once. They propose 11 pm close, but want ability to close at 11.30 up to 30 times a year (to made staggering possible).  They plan to have door ambassadors to ensure good behaviour of exiting patrons.  One licence for whole premises, so they would control the licence for the restaurant

Issues for discussion

Sound monitoring
The overall design
How it fits with the listed building
Light spillage
Main entrance – recess, nature of doors
Hours of operation

Crossrail   (new update on Crossrail page)

Crossrail is moving fast on its stations, as the closure of Boots and other shops in Moorfields illustrates.  We now have a specific Crossrail page, button on the left.

The City and Crossrail have set up a consultation forum specifically to cover the Barbican area, so it covers all the area from the east side of the Farringdon Station to the west side of the Liverpool Street station (in effect from east Smithfield to Moorgate) and all the area in between, under which the tracks will run. The first forum takes place on 25 February, so if any resident has any questions they would like raised please let me know. (chairBA@btinternet.com). We’ve already submitted a long list of questions. 

Milton Court

As local residents will know, work on demolishing the ground floor and basement of the old Milton Court site has started, and will be followed by construction in the spring. A regular monthly meeting has been set up between the developer, the contractor, and representatives of the nearby house groups. If residents have issues they would like raised at that meeting, please do contact your house group chair. If residents need to make any immediate direct complaints, the numbers are: Michael Sharkey, community liaison officer: 07903 184057, mike.sharkey@mcgee.co.uk, or the project manager, David Makey 07903 183138, dave.makey@mcgee.co.uk

Hotels

Developers have been consulting on two proposals for hotels nearby. The first, which we heard about before Christmas, is a proposal to turn the old telephone exchange in Moor Lane into two hotels – an “apartment” hotel on the Willoughby side of the site, with a taller four star hotel behind it, with the two linked by a courtyard. This proposal has not yet been formally submitted as a planning application.

The more recent proposal is to turn Roman House, on the corner of Wood Street and Fore Street, into a Premier Inn hotel. The developers are consulting about that on 25 February in St Giles’s Church from late afternoon to early evening, with the architects presenting at 4 pm and 6pm. The nearby houses have been leafleted about this. At its March meeting the Barbican Association decided to object to the planning application when it is made. The concerns are about noise and disturbance at unsocial hours, particularly at weekends.

From the chair, Jane Smith (chairBA@btinternet.com)