The Barbican estate, which includes an Arts Centre, is a largely residential area located in the City of London. The estate is dominated by four monstrous towers that reach out of London like a dystopian concrete future.

The history of the Barbican estate area can be traced back to the Romans, who built a fortified outpost there to protect a nearby settlement. More recently the area was destroyed by the Luftwaffe during a fleeting visit one night in December 1940.

In the aftermath of the war, the City of London decided to redevelop the area for commercial use. However it later shifted its focus to building a residential neighbourhood and international arts centre.

Construction of the estate commenced in 1962, but the plans were revised. It has been said that the Barbican estate had the gestation period of an elephant. Planned in the sixties, building finally got under way in seventies, but it wasn’t until 1982 that the Queen opened it, proclaiming it ‘one of the wonders of the Modern World’. Was she being ironic? The brutalistic style of the Barbican raises eyebrows, and some question whether any improvement has been made on the Hitlerian hole.

Despite its ugliness and labyrinthine ‘city in the sky’ features, walking through the estate is calming thanks to the various gardens and water features. It’s also exciting thanks to the various perspectives the walk affords on the post-modern urban landscape which creeps above the Barbican’s modernist horizons.

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