What do you do if you move to the Barbican, loving the architecture but finding yourself isolated? How do you go about creating a community?
You start a WhatsApp group for people who, like you, have stuff they want to sell or give away.
That’s exactly what Nicolas Franck Pauly did when he launched Barbican Bazaar on April 3rd this year. As at now it has over 400 members and continues to grow. Membership spans all ages and types of resident. “There’s a basic need to buy and sell – maybe because you’re Spring cleaning or you want make some money by getting rid of unused items cluttering your flat”, says Nicolas, “but there’s also an interest in having contact with others in the community”.
Nicolas was born in a village close to Vichy, France and moved to London 10 years ago. He led a full on London life but in 2020 he decided on a complete change to a quieter, more peaceful life. He loved the Barbican and moved here. After lockdown ended he felt a need to have greater contact with the Barbican community, which led to the launch of Barbican Bazaar
The site is easy to use. You simply post a photo of the item you want to sell with a brief description. If someone is interested they reply with a banana emoji and then communicate by direct message to the seller. Once the item has been sold the listing is deleted, and in any case disappears after seven days. With popular items there’s a race to get your banana logged rapidly and occasionally there’s more than one person trying to banana at the same time. But the tone is always upbeat. There are no politics. And if you don’t want to be disturbed by notifications each time someone posts something new, it’s not difficult to turn off the notifications.
Sarah Gaventa, a design historian, who joined the group from the start, confesses she’s now addicted to using it: I’m a bit of hoarder and like all residents with small flats I need to declutter. BB is an efficient way to sell things fast compared to EBay, which can be a pain.
Nicolas takes pride in the way the WhatsApp group has brought people together. Says Sarah: “ I’ve met lots of nice people via buying and selling and had some lovely conversations. I even spotted someone in the lift wearing a pair of shoes I sold. Nick is a great doer: he has an idea and has the insight and provides the support to make things happen”
Articles that appear on Barbican Bazaar are many and various: fashion clothing and shoes from affordable to designer; crockery and glassware; rugs; beauty products; bottles of wine, books, jewellery, furniture. Sarah notes that the popularity of mid-century design classics and books on architecture isn’t surprising, given that residents have often chosen to live here because of the architecture and like to furnish their flats with appropriate furniture and tableware.
Ida May, originally from Finland and having lived in London for 20 years, moved to the Barbican two years ago. She was very familiar with the Barbican having visited often for concerts, theatre and exhibitions. “I also already knew some people here, and it was really easy to make friends and meet neighbours. I’ve always felt the Barbican has a great vibe, and there’s this sense of connection because we all love the architecture”. Barbican Bazaar has just added to her connections. “ I love that the items listed can range from an opened bottle of an obscure spirit listed for £10 alongside a designer jacket at £200”. She listed quite a range of items and has found, not surprisingly, that inexpensive items go quickly. She likes the trust people show in sometimes hanging the sold item on their door handle and allowing the purchaser to post payment through the letter box if they’re not at home.
While Ida restricts her own Bazaar purchases to items she genuinely needs or loves, I’m afraid that personally I’m in danger of re-cluttering, rather than decluttering. Fortunately most of the designer fashion is too small for me.
So enthusiastic were the new users of Barbican Bazaar that they hatched a plan to have a joint sale in St Giles church and were allowed to share the space with the Book Fair one Sunday in June. The sale went quite well but could have been better publicised. There was some criticism of the ‘money-changers-in-the-temple’ variety, but each stall holder had to pay for their pitch so the church benefitted from their presence. Whether the sale will be repeated is up for discussion.
Nicholas is passionate about upcycling and recycling to avoid waste. He has also subsequently launched Barbican Swap, where residents can lend (or rent out) items they rarely use – a rice cooker and a baby’s cot are examples. Barbican Skills followed, which attempts to match those in need of particular skill with those who possess it. Two broken necklaces of mine are currently being mended by a kind soul who only wants a charitable donation in recompense.
When not on Bazaar, which he admits he uses too frequently, Nicolas is a graphic designer and a keen photographer and is training to be a yoga instructor.
For the present, membership of the WhatsApp group is restricted to Barbican residents and, for safety reasons, is likely to remain that way.
