- 05/Mar/2012 02:13:11 AM PSTanniversary barbican centre facts +
30 Facts about the Barbican
Celebrating our 30th anniversary on 03/03/2012
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It's our 30th anniversary this Saturday and we want to mark it by tweeting a Barbican factoid during the month of March #barbican30 -
To start us off: Flats at the top of all three Barbican towers have gardens, 40 storeys above the ground. #barbican30
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The Concert Hall stalls and stalls foyers sit above an engineering machine room the size of a football pitch #barbican30
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We turn 30 today! At our opening HM The Queen described us as ‘one of the wonders of the modern world’ #barbican30 http://t.co/Kl8nSBTC
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The Barbican contains 130,000 cubic metres of concrete, enough to build over 19 miles of a six-lane motorway #barbican30
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#barbican30 Aphex Twin once gave a silent disco-style performance to a soundless Conservatory packed with fans #surrealmoments
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#barbican30 When works on the building were completed and the lake was filled, all the water drained out and flooded the underground. #oops
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#barbican30 The final cost of building the centre was £156 million; to build it again today would require a staggering £500 million.
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#barbican30 The Conservatory (currently housing our cake http://t.co/yR1kjXtz) was originally designed to hide the Theatre fly tower
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#barbican30 The total floor area of the Centre measures over 20 acres.
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#barbican30 The rough concrete around our building was done by hand-held drills, even on the tower balcony exteriors!
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#barbican30 Les Misérables was first produced by @theRSC at the Barbican in 1985. 26 years later, it is still running in the West End.
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#barbican30 At one stage during construction, it was proposed that the entire Barbican estate be covered in white marble tiles.
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#barbican30 Our name comes from the Saxon words ‘burgh kennin’ meaning ‘postern tower’, or from the Latin ‘barbecana’, a fortification.
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#barbican30 During excavation below the towers, a 3m thick wall was put in to stop the towers falling…it now makes up one side of The Curve
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#barbican30 An acclaimed violinist once fell over after a concert, smashing his $1million Stradivarius violin.
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#barbican30 Did you know that 15 metres below our lakeside, you’ll find the Circle and Hammersmith & City tube lines?
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#barbican30 On our opening night, HM The Queen attended 2 performances, in the Hall & in the Theatre, moving between them at the interval.
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#barbican30 You can walk to the Barbican Exhibition Halls underground.
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#barbican30 In our Conservatory aviary, you’ll find chestnut, green singing & star finches, Java sparrows, diamond doves & Japanese quails.
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#barbican30 Our finches mentioned yesterday played the guitar in The Curve, during the 2010 Céleste Boursier-Mougenot exhibition.
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#barbican30 Our residential towers are among London’s tallest and named after William Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell & the Earls of Lauderdale
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#barbican30 The Barbican’s lorry lift is able to carry up to 40 tonnes down into the bowels of the Theatre.
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#barbican30 There are reports of a Barbican ghost in the The Pit theatre, a former plague pit found during construction of the building.
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#barbican30 The Barbican's deepest point in Cinema 1 lies 73 feet below street level at Silk Street.
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