The Barbican Conservatory

A few years ago, I was invited to a party for the photographer, David LaChapelle, at the Barbican Conservatory. Whether LaChappelle’s dynamic, colourful work was on show in the gallery, I can’t recall, so overwhelmed was I by the party’s spectacular venue.

The Barbican Conservatory, opened in 1984, in the heart of the City of London, has over 2,000 sprawling tropical plants and full-height trees and is home to finches and exotic fish. Apparently, the original plan was for residents to be given keys to visit whenever they wished – the privilege was never granted – the governing body decided to rent out the conservatory for conferences and private parties instead (which it continues to do). The general public are allowed access, for free, but only on Sundays from 11am to 5pm; however, due to a complete lack of any sort of publicity (curiously, there is virtually no mention of it on the Barbican website), this quiet, beautiful space receives few visitors. Recently, on the warm, sunny Sunday I returned to photograph it  – and I stayed the full duration – apart from a young couple, plus the two little girls accompanying them and three people in their early twenties, who looked like students, all of whom were there for less than an hour, the woman on reception and one gardener, I was had the place entirely to myself.

As a testament to what we are in danger of losing, I offered my pictures (see a selection at Pedro Silmon Garden Photography) to a major interior/design/architecture magazine, who, quite rightly, turned them down because everything it does must be ‘new’. I offered them to a well-known and respected architecture magazine but, in order to publish them, they needed a topical ‘peg’. The sad fact is that devoid of publicity and the all-important visitors it needs, the Barbican Conservatory will die. I would hate my pictures to become sought after for its obituary.

Please post a comment.

Share this post