Barbican Centre

#38

A concrete citadel for culture: the Barbican folds concert halls, theatres, galleries and a tropical conservatory into a raised ‘city within a city’ built on a Blitz-cleared site. Brutalist outside, warm timber and coppery light within, it’s a place to get lost—then rewarded—with hidden vistas of water, fins of raw concrete, and sudden gardens. Do a slow lap of the podium (Level G) to read the architecture, then dip inside for the art gallery or a concert; finish in the conservatory where 1,500+ plants turn the geometry lush.

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Opening Hours

Sunday: 09:00 – 23:00

Monday: 08:00 – 23:00

Tuesday: 08:00 – 23:00

Wednesday: 08:00 – 23:00

Thursday: 08:00 – 23:00

Friday: 08:00 – 23:00

Saturday: 09:00 – 23:00

What's not to miss inside?

Barbican Conservatory

A rainforest tucked in a theatre’s roof

More than 1,500 species soften the brutalist grid—ferns, palms and koi pooled among catwalks and concrete.

Stand on the bridge and frame fronds against the raw columns; the contrast is the Barbican in one shot.

📍 Level 3, above the theatre fly-tower (Sun & selected dates)

Lakeside Terrace

Water, brick and concrete in quiet choreography

Rills and fountains stitch the estate to the arts centre; in summer, planters turn the podium into a garden square.

Follow the water from the cascade to the main pool, noticing how sound drowns the city traffic.

📍 Level G, south side

Barbican Art Gallery & The Curve

Flagship shows + a 90-metre arc

Museum-scale exhibitions upstairs; downstairs a single sinuous gallery invites installations that unfold as you walk.

Do The Curve slowly with no phone—let the piece ‘time’ your pace.

📍 Level 3 (Gallery); Level G (Curve)

Concert Hall Warmth

Brutalism outside, teak and glow within

The hall’s copper hues and timber baffles make a surprise: intimacy inside a megastructure.

Arrive early and sit for a minute before the house lights dim—listen to the room breathe.

📍 Level -1 to Level 4, Hall

St Giles-without-Cripplegate

A medieval survivor in a modern fortress

Bombed area, intact church: Perpendicular Gothic stones set among tower blocks—London time travel in 30 steps.

Face the church, then pivot to the towers: two Londons in one turn.

📍 Podium, east of the lake

🤓 Fun Facts

The Barbican stands on the former Cripplegate ward—so heavily bombed in WWII that planners could design an entire raised city from scratch.

Its conservatory is London’s second-largest after Kew—built to cloak the theatre’s backstage fly-tower in greenery.

Queen Elizabeth II opened the centre in 1982 and called it “one of the wonders of the modern world.”

The estate and arts centre are knitted by ‘highwalks’—pedestrian routes one level up—so you can cross a big chunk of the City without touching a road.

Those rough vertical lines in the concrete are deliberate: bush-hammered finishes that catch light and give scale to the megastructure.