Barbican Turret

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Good architecture is as much about what happens on the building site as it is about what’s on the drawing board. By working alongside contractors as well as clients we can ring-fence the ideas and details that matter, championing quality and sustainability throughout construction.

Barbican Turret

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Work

Barbican Turret
Grade II Listed
Barbican Estate, City of London

Client

Barbican Estates

The John Wesley Turret is a glazed brick service tower on the Grade II Listed Barbican Estate in the City of London. Wayne Head and Marianne Christiansen worked with Barbican Estates looking at a number of spaces where additional residential accommodation could be provided, developing the Turret to planning and winning planning appeal.

Located along the John Wesley Highwalk, the upper levels of the turret were gated and inaccessible to the public – a wet, windy and unfriendly wedge shaped space in which to provide residential accommodation. Wayne and Marianne worked closely with the City of London Conservation Officers and Barbican Estates to provide a high quality home in the unused upper levels, maintaining passive surveillance across the high walk. The home is designed as an outpost looking across little Britain, a gatehouse in the location of the former Roman city walls.