The story
From the bombing of Cripplegate in 1940 to the first residents in 1969.
- 1940
A single night of bombing on 29 December burns out most of the district.
- 1955
The City asks Chamberlin, Powell and Bon to plan the bombed land to the south.
- 1959
The architects' report sets out the scheme that gets built: a raised deck, terraces, a lake and towers.
- 1969
The first tenants move into Speed House.
- 1976
Shakespeare Tower, the last block, is finished. The estate took seven years to build.
- 1982
The Queen opens the Barbican Centre on 3 March. There are fireworks over the lake.
- 2001
The whole estate is listed Grade II. Two years later its gardens are listed Grade II*.
Above street level
The full timeline
- AD 90
The Romans build a fort here. A barbican is a watchtower on a city wall, and the name stuck.
- 1940
A single night of bombing on 29 December burns out most of the district.
- 1951
Only 48 people still live in Cripplegate.
- 1951
Three young architects enter a competition for the Golden Lane estate next door. They agree that whoever wins will bring in the other two. Geoffry Powell wins.
- 1955
The City asks Chamberlin, Powell and Bon to plan the bombed land to the south.
- 1957
The City decides the site will be homes for people who work in the City, not offices.
- 1959
The architects' report sets out the scheme that gets built: a raised deck, terraces, a lake and towers.
- 1965
The Underground moves into a new tunnel that sits on rubber pads, so trains don't shake the flats.
- 1969
The first tenants move into Speed House.
- 1973
Cromwell Tower is finished.
- 1974
Lauderdale Tower is finished.
- 1976
Shakespeare Tower, the last block, is finished. The estate took seven years to build.
- 1980
Right to Buy reaches the estate. Tenants can buy 125-year leases, most starting in 1981.
- 1982
The Queen opens the Barbican Centre on 3 March. There are fireworks over the lake.
- 1999
All but about 300 flats now belong to the people who live in them.
- 2001
The whole estate is listed Grade II. Two years later its gardens are listed Grade II*.
- 2010
The top floors of Frobisher Crescent, offices for decades, become 69 flats.
- 2016
The YMCA on Fann Street becomes Blake Tower, 74 flats.
- 2026
Plans to renew the Barbican Centre are approved. Work starts in 2027.
How it was built
- The deck
- People walk on a raised deck one to three floors up. Cars, deliveries and parking stay underneath, out of sight.
- The concrete
- Builders poured the concrete, let it cure for four weeks, then attacked it by hand with picks and hammers. That exposes the granite chips inside and gives the walls their rough grey grain.
- The towers
- Each tower is a triangle with three flats a floor and a lift in the middle. The plans grew from 30 floors in 1956 to more than 40 by 1961.
- The sinks
- Most kitchens had a Garchey sink. You put wet rubbish, tins and bottles down the plughole. It travelled through two miles of tunnels to 150 pits, and a tanker sucked it out. More than 1,400 still worked in 2004.
- The heating
- Electric cables run through the floors and warm every flat from October to April. Residents can't turn it off.
- The railway
- Four tracks once ran through the site in an open cutting. The engineers boxed them into a 305 m tunnel on rubber bearings.
- The glasshouse
- The Conservatory sits on top of the theatre, partly to hide the theatre's tall fly tower. It now holds about 1,500 kinds of plant, plus fish and terrapins.
- The wall
- Pieces of the Roman and medieval city wall still stand in the gardens, next to the church of St Giles Cripplegate, which survived the bombing.
The architects
- Peter Chamberlin
1919–1978 - The driving force of the three. He ran the theatre design and died two years after the last tower opened, before the arts centre was finished.
- Geoffry Powell
1920–1999 - Won the Golden Lane competition that started the firm. He later said of the Barbican, "in the end it killed our practice".
- Christoph Bon
1921–1999 - Swiss, trained in Zurich and Milan. He led the arts centre with Chamberlin and took over the theatre after he died.
- Ove Arup and Partners
Engineers - Worked out how to build on London clay and how to stop the trains shaking the flats.
- Herbert Spencer
Signage - Designed the lettering and signs around the estate, including the small castle mark for the Roman watchtower.
- City of London
Client - Paid for the estate, built it and still runs it. It called the arts centre the City's gift to the nation.
Things you might not know
Every tower lift has a small hatch into each flat's service cupboard, so the milk and post could be left without anyone knocking.
The Queen Mother planted a mulberry tree in Thomas More Garden in 1984.
The old stump on the highwalk came from a 500-year-old beech in Burnham Beeches that fell in 1990. The City owns that forest too.
The arts centre was meant to cost about £14 million. By 1982 it had cost about £159 million.
On opening night 3,500 guests watched fireworks over the lake, and BBC2 showed the whole evening live.
A gold refiner's frieze from a bombed shop at 53 Barbican was saved in 1962. It now stands at a west entrance to the estate.
The towers turn up in One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing, a 1975 Disney film set in the 1920s.
The estate has played MI6 in Quantum of Solace and the planet Coruscant in Andor.
Unit 4 + 2 shot a film for their song Concrete and Clay on the building site in 1965.
In 2003 residents were offered the chance to run the estate themselves. They voted no, by a wide margin.