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‘The old rubs along with the new quite happily here, always has.’
The square mile of the City of London is the geographical, historical and financial centre of the UK’s capital. After a portion of it was destroyed in the Second World War, local authorities and architects hatched a plan to reinvent the area into a flourishing neighbourhood for urban professionals. Today, both the Barbican Estate housing complex and the Barbican Centre arts venue still seem forward-looking, with an identity that’s either an architectural landmark or an urban eyesore, depending on your taste for Brutalism. Released in 1969, when the Barbican was still very much a work in progress, this film explores – with a good bit of charm, cheese and Union Flag-waving – how the innovative project helped to reimagine the modern city.
Director: Robin Cantelon
Website: London Metropolitan Archives
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War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
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Nature and landscape
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Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
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Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
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Virtues and vices
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History of technology
Curious singles and tech sceptics – what ‘computer dating’ looked like in 1966
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Animals and humans
Join seabirds as they migrate, encountering human communities along the way
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
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Technology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes