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Barbican Centre

The City's concrete arts centre of 1982, concert hall, theatres, cinemas, a gallery and a tropical conservatory, inside an estate worth getting lost in.

Public gallery

The lakeside terrace in winter: rows of white benches on brick paving, round brick planters with fountains at the water's edge, a long terrace block on stilts across the lake, and a church tower among the towers of the City behind. — The Lakeside Terrace, St Giles Cripplegate's tower at the far end.

The Barbican's lake seen from under a concrete walkway: a long block of flats with rows of balconies curving round the green water, a waterfall spilling from a raised platform, benches on the brick terrace and glass towers beyond. — The lake from the high walk.

Stepping stones of brick crossing the green lake to a platform where someone sits at a small table, tall reeds along the bank, a long terrace block on stilts with balconies of plants beyond, and the dark brick school building on the right.

Looking down on the lake: a round brick platform at the edge of a weir in front, a brick walkway leading out to planted islands of reeds and shrubs under iron domes, and the terrace blocks with their curved balconies around the water.

The lake from under the high walk: planted islands and reeds in green water, a brick terrace with benches, a long block of flats with rows of balconies enclosing the far side, and glass towers rising behind it.

Also in Museums and Performance venues and Architecture.

The Barbican was the City of London's gift to the nation, built for £161 million on acres flattened by the bombs of 1940 and opened by the Queen on 3 March 1982, at the heart of the estate of towers and terraces that Chamberlin, Powell and Bon had spent twenty years building around it. It is the largest arts centre in Europe: a concert hall the London Symphony Orchestra calls home, two theatres, three cinemas, a library, an art gallery and the Curve, the free gallery that bends round the back of the hall, all in the same board-marked concrete, with a lake and fountains on the terrace outside. On the roof is the Conservatory, the second-largest in London, where tropical trees, ferns and fish live under glass above the theatre's fly tower, open on set days. The estate around it is the reason to come even with nothing booked: high walks, courtyards, a church of 1390 and a stretch of Roman wall that survived what the bombs and the planners did to everything else.

Where: Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
Nearest station: Barbican · 4 min walk

Google Maps @barbicancentre barbican.org.uk

Step-free access

On here now

Coming up

Hours

Monday	Closed
Tuesday	10:00 – 18:00
Wednesday	10:00 – 18:00
Thursday	10:00 – 20:00
Friday	10:00 – 20:00
Saturday	10:00 – 18:00
Sunday	10:00 – 18:00

Hours from the page that lists them, checked 5 September 2026.

Art Gallery hours; The Curve keeps longer ones and the building is open 08:00–23:00.

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.