ABSTRACT
Always an urbanist, Farrell brought his own agenda to the project and attempted to design the building as a new gateway up onto the Barbican deck — a reinvention of the medieval Cripplegate that had been located slightly north, adjacent to St. Giles Church in the heart of the Barbican development. His intention was that the planners should be persuaded to landscape and pedestrianise Wood Street and he could then provide a sweep of stairs up to the deck level and partially heal the divorce between the Barbican and the rest of the City. It never happened and the resulting diffi culties at the lower levels are an uncomfortable compromise. Where is the front door? At ground level or up on the deck level? (It is at ground level, but around the corner, in Monkwell Street.) It simply doesn’t work, but Farrell might have pulled it off and he should be praised for having had the vision and commitment to attempt a redress of the legacy that 1960’s planners had left to the City.
