Today I went to the Barbican Centre to see the National Youth Orchestra perform Holst's orchestral suite The Planets. Whilst there was healthy disagreement about whether Mars or Jupiter is the best piece (clearly it's Mars) we could easily agree that they played beautifuly. The design of the centre itself is quite controversial; it tends to divide people. It was completed in 1982 and is surrounded by the Barbican Housing Estate, all completed in the Brutalist style. Some people love it, others hate it; it has been Grade II listed and also voted the ugliest building in London. It's certainly quite unlike anything I've seen before and on a vast scale. The interior is no less unusual and seems to have been based on an NCP car park combined with a 1970s disco with bare concrete and brightly coloured lights being the order of the day. Today's picture is a shot of one of these sections from the roof of the cafeteria as pointed out by Sue. Not as beautiful as Holst's masterpiece, but colourful nevertheless.
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