Barbican Arts Centre

Summary

Europe’s largest multi-arts centre in a 1980s brutalist complex — a self-contained urban world of lakes, walkways, and performance spaces available for production hire.

About this location

The Barbican Centre is the arts hub of the Barbican Estate, Europe’s largest brutalist residential complex, built in the City of London between 1965 and 1976. The arts centre itself — opened in 1982 — contains a concert hall, theatre, two cinemas, art galleries, a conservatory, and extensive public foyer spaces connected by the estate’s elevated walkway system. The physical environment is distinctive: concrete walkways and bridges over a lake, mature trees in an enclosed urban landscape, and the residential towers visible from multiple angles within the complex.

The Barbican’s exterior — the lake, the walkways, the towers — has appeared in productions from Michael Moorcock novels to dystopian science fiction films that need a fully designed modern city environment without building one. The conservatory (a glass-roofed tropical garden on the upper levels) is a hire-able event space with a specific visual character. The performance spaces have production infrastructure for touring shows that translates to film-crew support.

The Barbican Estate is managed by the City of London Corporation; the arts centre commercial team manages hire for the arts building. The estate residential areas are private. City of London Corporation filming permits cover public areas of the estate including the lakeside. Barbican tube station is immediately adjacent.