BARBICAN ESTATE

It was built as flats, spent years as offices, and became flats again in 2010.

NAMED AFTER

Sir Martin Frobisher, Elizabethan seaman and privateer. Frobisher was picked to test Humphrey Gilbert's idea of a north-west passage. He also held a privateering licence from Elizabeth I.

WHERE

The crescent lies between Shakespeare Tower and the Barbican Centre. Flats look onto a sculpture court inside the curve.

INSIDE

The studios and one- to three-bed flats all have balconies, and end flats wrap round in terraces. Top-floor flats have barrel-arched roofs with mezzanines.

WAY IN

Linked to the Barbican Centre on the east side