#12. Barbican Complex, Silk St
I often go to work at the Barbican. The buildings are dark and brooding; rendered in bleak concrete and linked together by a series of tunnels and passageways. It’s held up as late brutalism (depending on who you speak to – an architectural tour guide at the Southbank called it faux-brutalism) and was built in the late 60s and 70s. Whilst there are flashes of orange in the centre’s interior, its predominantly sombre, creating a great environment to stop and focus and think. There are green spaces and beautiful water fountains outside. And whilst it was voted one of London’s ugliest buildings in the early 2000s, I think public taste has changed and it would now be voted one of the prettiest.