Barbican

The Barbican Conservatory

Photographs: Luke Hayes

Words: Sarah Simpkin

Built to repopulate the post-war City of London, the Barbican Estate, with its bulbous concrete forms, has become a byword for the architectural idealism of the 1960s. Though a later addition, nowhere is its particular vision of utopia more evident than in the conservatory, which was built in 1980 to disguise the theatre’s 100-foot fly tower and improve views for the residents. The tent-shaped enclosure houses an exotic collection of tree ferns, succulents, hanging gardens, cacti, ponds and creatures and is a fitting extension to Chamberlin, Powell and Bon’s great metropolis.

The space has the climate of a London summer, managing to be both sweaty and draughty at the same time, but the bird noises, water pumps and dripping water combine with the occasional splash of a fish to create an authentically tropical ambience. It isn’t a purpose built conservatory, but an adaptation of the existing building. Its balconies form part of the flytower and it can be difficult to move around the plants that have taken it over.

While the Barbican complex is far from being one of London’s great forgotten spaces – its labyrinthine walkways have been trodden by every budding social architect and anyone with even a passing interest in design – the quiet and artfully overgrown greenhouse feels like a secret.

The conservatory features in a series of images of the capital’s hidden rooms taken by architectural photographer, Luke Hayes. He says, “Walking around the Barbican, the boundaries between public and private, between the arts centre and the residential spaces are invisible. When you find yourself climbing an abandoned staircase that ends up on the roof, there’s the feeling that perhaps you’re not supposed to be there, and that it might be someone’s penthouse. It’s that sense of the unexpected that makes these spaces so interesting to document.”