INNER CITY OASIS in LONDON? | Discover the Barbican Conservatory Post-Lockdown

Intro [Music] welcome back to my channel if you're new here hello this is romy required here we talk about all things life travel or food and of course london and today i'm taking you to the barbican conservatory let's go Barbican Estate this is the barbican estate an unsightly concrete complex of striking brutalist architecture this weirdly shaped estate is either loved or hated by most londoners its conception was the result of a utopian vision for high density inner city living to transform a site that suffered devastating destruction from bombing during the second world war the basis for the vision was for a car-free community raised up over the city's busy streets to allow visitors and residents to explore the site on foot on elevated brick pathways known as high walks which can be rather convoluted to navigate for the uninitiated located on the third floor sandwiched between residential housing and the art center is the leafy barbican conservatory a lush tropical jungle Barbican Conservatory of green plants which opened in 1984. the conservatory closed its doors in march 2020 following the coronavirus pandemic however it recently reopened welcoming visitors to wander this verdant paradise once more today it houses 1500 species of plants and trees some of which are rare and endangered in their native habitat the species are a vibrant mix of tempered and arid types a varied assortment of flora from around the world all under one roof so what's it like right now in Pandemic precautions the bbq conservatory in the middle of a pandemic i'm sure that's something that you're probably asking right about now so so far so good uh masks are at this very moment in time are optional for guests there are staff all wearing a face covering so you can feel pretty comfortable at the moment everybody keeps their distance there's plenty of floor markers on the ground to give you an indication of where you should be standing and giving some distance between you and the next person in front there is a one-way walking system in place certain sections are closed off this section here this is glass so it's a glass partition so you can only enter this particular section from that side which is great so it means that no one's crossing in front of everyone and everyone's keeping their distance which is you know it's really important right about now there are hand sanitizing stations scattered throughout the conservatory there is one at the entry point and there's a couple more upstairs Woodland walk here are some highlights from my visit so there's this really cute little like woodland walk where i've got bark ships underneath my feet and the ground is a little bit uneven but it does have a rain foresty feel to it it's quite humid you've got the water dripping in the ponds so it sounds like you're in a rain forest wow the humidity though that's that's that's real so there's this really a super cute little bridge here that crosses the pond i think would make a really cute picture Ponds the conservatory has three ponds which are home to koi and ghost cup from japan and america there's also another pool isolating and providing safe haven for terrapins an aggressive non-native species of turtle that was relocated here after terrorising london residents and wildlife in the swanky suburb of hampstead Tickets overall i think that they've done a really good job in terms of reopening tickets are timed so if you do want to come you do need to book online for a specific day and time and then you will get emailed a free ticket with a qr code that you can then scan upon entry pre-lockdown the conservatory PostLockdown was only open to the public on saturdays sundays and on bank holidays post lockdown and for the first time the conservatory will now be open to the public seven days a week throughout the summer Outro so this video was obviously filmed in july 2020 any of the social distancing measures that we've talked about in this video are obviously relevant at this moment in time but are subject to change so if you are interested in visiting the bbq conservatory you should check any questions you have with the barbican directly drop me a comment below and i'll see if i can answer it for you if you've enjoyed my video about the barbican conservatory don't forget to give it a thumbs up subscribe to our channel and turn on the notification bell so you get an alert when our next video goes live thanks for joining until next time