Barbican Estate

Barbican Estate
Lauderdale Tower in 2014
General information
Type	Mixed-use development
Architectural style	Brutalist
Town or city	London, EC2
Country	United Kingdom
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Chamberlin, Powell and Bon
Structural engineer	Ove Arup & Partners
Civil engineer	Ove Arup & Partners
Designations	Grade II listed
Website
Official website

The Barbican Estate is a residential estate built during the 1960s and the 1970s in the City of London, in an area once devastated by World War II bombings and today densely populated by financial institutions. It contains, or is adjacent to, the Barbican Arts Centre, the Museum of London, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Barbican public library, the City of London School for Girls and a YMCA (now closed), forming the Barbican Complex.

The Barbican Complex is a prominent example of British brutalist architecture and is Grade II listed as a whole with the exception of the late Milton Court. Milton Court once contained a fire station, medical facilities and some flats and was demolished to allow the construction of a new apartment complex which also contains additional facilities for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

The main fort of Roman London was built between 90 and 120 AD southeast of where the Museum of London now stands at the corner of London Wall and Aldersgate Street. Around 200 AD walls were built around the city that incorporated the old fort, which became a grand entrance known as Cripplegate. The word Barbican comes from the Low Latin word 'Barbecana' which referred to a fortified outpost or gateway, such as an outer defence of a city or castle or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defence purposes. In this case there seems to have been a Roman specula or watchtower in front of the fort at numbers 33–35 on the north side of the street then called Barbican (now the west end of Beech St), which was later incorporated into the fortifications north of the wall. The Normans called it the Basse-cour or Base Court, synonymous with the modern word "bailey" and still applied to the outer courtyard of Hampton Court Palace.