Barbican Estate

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Image:Barbican.flats.london.arp.jpg Image:Barbican Estate Tower 2005.jpg The Barbican Estate is a huge housing complex in the City of London. Built on a site that was bombed in World War II, the complex was designed by architects Chamberlain Powell and Bonn, who also designed the earlier, nearby Golden Lane Estate. The complex is architecturally important as it is one of London's principal examples of concrete Brutalist architecture and considered a landmark.

The estate also contains three of London's tallest buildings (Cromwell Tower, Shakespeare Tower, and Lauderdale Tower, at 42 stories and 123 metres/403 feet each), and it is a rare residential site in an area densely packed with commerce and finance. The Barbican Estate also contains the Barbican Centre (an arts, drama and business venue), the City of London School for Girls, the Museum of London, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The idea to build a residential site in the Cripplegate area, as it was previously known, arose after the devastation of the area during World War II. Following almost complete destruction in the Blitz, only around 5,000 people lived in the City in 1950, a mere 50 of whom lived in Cripplegate. The decision to build new residential properties on the site was taken by the Court of Common Council on 19 September 1957.

The estate of 40 acres was officially opened in 1969 and is now home to around 4,000 people living in 2,013 flats. The flats reflect the widespread use in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s of concrete as the visible face of the building. This has led some commentators to denounce the flats as clumsy in comparison with their newer, more glassy surroundings, though a contrasting opinion sees the area as maturing into a place with some character and charm of its own.