Barbican

There’s quite a fun narration accompanying this short feature that takes us from the bold and visionary planning consultation from the absentee aldermen who decided that the City of London needed to replace the population who had been bombed out during WWII with a purpose built concrete Elysium that will breathe life into this famous square mile. The film illustrates just how much work did have to be done to create not just the Barbican towers in or near which up to 7,000 might live but also the creation of supporting facilities like schools, car parks (and a filling station!) and a cinema as well as shops, restaurants and pubs all packed into less that 40 acres of largely derelict and ruined land. We get a slight sense of the engineering and construction effort but for the most part this is really just a feel-good exercise for the City and for central London in general to tell us just how beautiful and diverse a place to live and/or visit these places are. It has a certain engaging quirkiness to it, and passes twenty minutes easily if rather superficially.