Proud lunacy
Sir: Mr Charles Moore's criticism of the Barbican (Diary, 9 August) is welcome. May I suggest that you make a regular feature of it — a sort of agony column about the ghastly place. Not that it's likely to have much effect. Any reasonable per- son would think that the annoyance which must be endured by the Barbican's staff, day after day, as they have to direct lost customers, would long ago have resulted in a revision of the signposting, but it never has: and such imperviousness to inner discomfort suggests that prodding from without is simply not noticed.
Perhaps they have all become proud of the place's lunacy? Not long ago I was unable to find my car after seeing a play there (after parking chaos owing to a breakdown, which had been followed by such a wild rush to catch the rise of the curtain that I had failed to make a careful note of where I had left it). Eventually a kind NCP employee offered to search with me through all the car-parks. We went through Numbers 2, 3 and 4. No car. `So it must be in Number 5,' he said. 'Or perhaps in Number 1?' I suggested. He answered in the patient tone of someone explaining the obvious to an idiot: 'Sir, there is no Number 1.'
Andre Deutsch
105 Great Russell Street, London WC1
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