Beautiful Barbican flat

Last week I went to the advance screening of I, Anna, a new thriller due out next month starring Gabriel Byrne and Charlotte Rampling. It was almost brilliant (great cast, shame about the shoe-horned in subplot) but what was brilliant was the setting. Much of the movie was set in London's Grade II listed Barbican, as the guy that gets bumped off (and that's in no way a spoiler, as you'll see in the trailer below) lives there. His flat is incredible. As is the concrete-heavy late-sixties building around it – brooding, brutal and crazy fabric-lined lifts. 

I spent much of my teenage youth hanging around these flats, where one of my best friend's forward thinking parents had a flat just like the one in the film (though then it hadn't yet become cool then). And it brought back memories of how brilliantly built they are. The Modern House has sold a few of them over the years, so here – thanks to them – is a showcase, via a couple of their sold properties. You can also read a bit about what it's like to live in the development in a piece by my colleague at the Independent, Caroline Kamp, here.

Read about this two-bedroom (sold) penthouse, above (and see more images) at the Modern House.

I also wanted to share the flat below, even though it isn't actually part of the Barbican. Because a) it is AMAZING (that shelving in the kitchen is spectacular; the windows are immense, I love how neatly the bedroom is enclosed and isn't that hard, shiny floor strangely compelling?) and b) it was built in almost identical style by the architects Chamberlain, Powell and Bon, who later went on to build the Barbican flats.

Read about this (sold) studio flat, above, in the 1950s Golden Lane estate, at the Modern House.

You can nose around another Barbican flat here; this one is very similar stylistically to the one in I, Anna. And here is a trailer for the film. As well as the incredible shots of the Barbican, I love how it makes London look very different to how we often see it in films; very European and strangely futuristic.