Barbican Centre

London


You'll get as lost in the astounding programme as you will in the labyrinthine brutalist building. Home to the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Barbican Centre is the City's premier cultural venue. It hosts concerts, theatre and dance performances, and screens indie films and Hollywood blockbusters at the cinema on Beech St.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby London attractions

1. Barbican Conservatory

0.02 MILES

The definition of a concrete jungle, this glass-topped conservatory is a surprisingly lush urban rainforest inside the brutalist Barbican, London’s second…

2. Curve

0.02 MILES

Specially commissioned shows and provocative temporary retrospectives fill this interesting arced gallery in the Barbican.

3. Barbican Art Gallery

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Spread over two levels, the larger of the two art galleries at the Barbican hosts thoughtful temporary exhibitions that change a few times a year. Entry…

4. Barbican

0.03 MILES

The architectural value of this sprawling post-WWII brutalist housing estate divides Londoners, but the Barbican remains a sought-after living space as…

5. St Giles' Cripplegate

0.1 MILES

St Giles' is one of the few medieval churches to survive both the Great Fire in 1666 and the Blitz, although it was badly damaged in the latter and by…

6. City Wall

0.18 MILES

Discovered after a WWII bomb razed a 19th-century warehouse, this crumbling collection of brickwork is the remains of a Roman city wall and bastion with…

7. Museum of London

0.2 MILES

Romp through 450,000 years of London history at this entertaining and educational museum, one of the capital's finest. Exhibiting everything from a…

8. Roman Fort & City Wall

0.23 MILES

London’s roots lie in the walled Roman settlement of Londinium, established in 43 CE on the northern bank of the River Thames. Few traces of the 3rd…