At The Barbican

Polly Powell, whose father Geoffry was one of the architects of the Barbican, sent me this short memoir of growing up in the shadow of the design and construction of a Brutalist masterpiece. Inspired by Polly, I took a walk around the Barbican recently with my camera, trying to look with fresh eyes and seek photographs that are not the familiar images.

“The Barbican was never far away in our household. Beneath our feet were those distinctive maroon floor tiles so redolent of the place which my father, Geoffry Powell, had chosen for the entire seamless ground floor of our house, Glen Cottage in Petersham. Presumably he had got a rather good deal on them. But they absolutely epitomised what he liked. They were well-made, robust, richly coloured, with a nod to ancient Roman heritage, but mostly they responded well to polishing, a means by which light could be brought into the house.

But the tiles were not the only reason for the Barbican to loom large in our lives. The entire development, thirty-five years in the making, coincided with the formative years of the family.  We were sheltered from most of the ups and downs of the development’s protracted gestation because my father was by nature a cheerful person and preferred to leave work at the door. I remember an occasion, however, towards the end of the building of the development, when he was required to make an inspection from the top of one of the towers. He described how he had had to do a little jump in order to get into the window-cleaner’s cradle. I was both admiring and terrified by this feat of bravery. In fact, I learned later that the purpose for his inspection had been prompted by the threat of litigation which was perhaps more frightening.

The main office of Chamberlin, Powell and Bon was in Lamont Rd Passage, situated behind the kink in the King’s Rd, Chelsea. The building was a late-Victorian print works which the partners chose because of its large north-facing windows that let in maximum light. The building was divided into two floors: the top floor had one enormous space with cubby-hole offices for each of the partners and a meeting room. It was accessed via a shaky double-height spiral staircase which was always exciting to climb. On the ground floor, where everyone else sat, there was an old parquet floor covered with huge ink splodges from its previous tenants. According to one of the architects who worked there, you could tell if the practice was busy by looking at the angle of the drawing boards. If the boards were flattish (with fewer people in the office), then it was quieter, but if the boards were at a jaunty angle (more people necessitating more squeeze) then business was good. Needless to say, the firm was largely busy throughout its life and was, reportedly, the largest architectural practice in Europe at one point. In due course, the practice opened a second Barbican site office in one of the early flats overlooking the lake.

The three partners – Jo, Geoffry and Christoph – maintained a life-long respect and admiration for each other, enjoying holidays and Sunday lunches together outside the office.  An important ingredient in this was the role of Jean Chamberlin who was married to Jo. Jean was a warm but determined woman who ran the Lamont Rd Passage with a rod of iron and bustled around the place, more often than not with a dash of lipstick on her whiskery face. Christoph Bon lived with Jo and Jean for most of his adult life, the three of them sharing a triumvirate of beautiful homes – South Edwardes Sq in Kensington (including a self-contained flat for Christoph), Mas Gouge in Provence, and The Mill House, Sonning. Mas Gouge was a fortified farm, simple and solid with a large terrace overlooking the valley below.  The main structure was an old farmhouse, the guts of which had been removed to create a soaring three-storey open atrium sitting area with bedrooms and studies overlooking the main space from the floors above. Walls were decorated with contemporary craft pieces, some created by their friends. Here at Mas Gouge, they went to relax and enjoy the local French food – the vast fully-equipped kitchen was Christoph’s domain and was designed with white square tiles and a large tiled island, long before such things became popular. Despite the grandiose nature of the house, it still required a small hand-pump to bring water into the building. Everyone who stayed there was required to spend ten minutes at the pump.

The Mill House in Sonning was set on an island in the Thames, and allowed them to keep an Edwardian launch which was chugged out on special occasions. In the garden, there was a concrete structure surrounding a fire pit, comprising two high-backed semi-circular concrete benches. The idea was that there would be a blazing fire which, once calmed, would comfortably heat the concrete seats. The Mill House was also the setting for the Practice’s retirement party, an occasion at which the partners insisted on serving everyone who had ever worked at the firm. The Mill House is better known now as the home of George and Amil Clooney. When Jo died, Christoph and Jean spent much time travelling with the Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. Christoph personally financed a monograph on Bawa’s home Lunaganga.

My father and Christoph lived long enough to witness a new-found affection for Brutalism in general and the work of the practice in particular. The partners were from a generation that regarded architecture as a profession and as such were not self-promoters – indeed there are very few photographs of them other than holiday snaps. Arguably, their ambivalence towards PR was perhaps a factor behind the Barbican’s negative reception in the early years. So it is particularly gratifying to see the Barbican and other buildings by the firm being appreciated once more by people voting with their feet.” – Polly Powell

Polly Powell’s memoir is included in THE BARBICAN ESTATE by Stefi Orazi & Christoffer Rudquist, published by Pavilion Books to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the estate in 2019

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