The Barbican Centre and other complicated buildings you get lost in

[Whiskeyinthejar]

Does anyone else find the Barbican Centre absolutely infuriating? I can't remember the last time I was walking round and round in circles so much! I swear these unnecessarily complicated brutalist hellholes were built deliberately to get people lost.

Bank station. It's a complete nightmare.

I go to Barbican all the time but if I venture from the path of a couple of memorised routes I get hopelessly lost. Doesn’t help that they’ve been knocking down and rebuilding it for the past few years. They’d better paint a full rainbow set of coloured lines to help people when they’ve finished.

Kings cross - nightmare!

Getting from Kings X tube to the domestic high speed part of St P. I am certain the fuckers change things around at night like those moving corridors in Harry Potter.

Westfield. I absolutely loathe the place.

@madisonavenue hednesford spoons?

Birmingham New Street station. I always have to ask for directions on how to get out of there.

I remember my brother being really pissed off that he had found the quickest route to the best exit for him at Bank, and almost immediately he was transferred to Paris. I got off at Bank for work, but I don't remember it being as bad as the Barbican, possibly because I used the DLR so wasn't that deep down.

I haven't been to the Barbican for thirty years and I still remember being lost in it.
Leeds town hall feels like it's designed intentionally to have you walk 80% of the way around the building to get from anywhere to anywhere.

I've never been lost in Bank Station but I'm agog that people actually have to endure its caverns just to change trains

ooooh I’m good at bank station. I know a few little short cuts :-)

Also good at Canary Wharf. The difficulty is matching up your above ground map with your below ground map. I’ve worked there for 6 years and have it nailed now but for the first 3 It was awful.

Leeds LOOP road.
Took me 7 years of living in Leeds before I could confidently navigate from anywhere to anywhere in Leeds city centre by car using the loop road.

@BlackAmericanoNoSugar
Sticks and sushi. Cross rail place. By water 😂 (like you say everywhere is by water)

Donkey's years ago there used to be a branch of John Lewis on Streatham High Road called Pratts (I believe it's long gone now). What was the original store had expanded into smaller shops either side, so it was an absolute rabbit warren of little passages, short flights of steps up/down in unexpected places and odd turn-offs into separate departments. I don't think I ever got lost in there, but it wasn't easy to find your way round.

Hospital Street, in Kings Hospital on Denmark Hill seems to go on for ever, especially if you are on crutches!

Thanks serbska, I don't get back there much anymore (used to live on the island) but at least I'll know where to find sushi if I do.

I feel inspired to visit the Barbican at half term just to see what you are all talking about.

This thread is making me laugh so much. The police officers playing hide and seek kings cross being reorganised overnight the Japanese market

I used to start work in high street ken at 6am and used to get to kings cross about 5. It’s the weirdest place in the early hours, like being in a neo noir film

I like the idea of police playing hide and seek. I often wondered how they could chase baddies around the place when I cant even find the exit.

Just had a glance on Rightmove- a 2bed flat in the Barbican costs >£900k. Quite a few over £1million. Holy fucksticks!

I feel inspired to visit the Barbican at half term just to see what you are all talking about

Farewell, fair OYBBK, we shall never see you again

I’ve never been to Harrods without passing through the perfume department at least 3 times whilst trying to get out

I've worked at the Barbican a lot over the years (in two different jobs involving visits there) and while I feel I know my way around, there's always a lurking feeling of imminent lostness being just around the corner

Then I visited Japan and had to navigate Shinjuku station. It's like 2,000 Barbican centres all rolled into one, with about 4 million possible exits

Definitely waxy O’Connor’s in Glasgow; I’ve never come out the same door I went in

Take a ball of string with you.

oh don't say that! I am going to a concert at the Barbican in a couple of weeks and am now worried that I'll get hopelessly lost :S Is there anywhere that I can find a map of the actual building?

Don't worry Britnay if you are still there at half term I may bump into you. I'll bring extra provisions for us both