Finding a way into the Barbican

Maps are particularly useful for a building like the Barbican, which has a history of getting people lost.

Frank Woods, an architect who worked for Chamberlin Powell & Bon and later became a partner, pointed out that it was designed as a neighbourhood, and neighbourhoods don’t have entrances.

Each generation of Barbican management has tried to deal with there being no single obvious entrance to the Centre. 

This early diagram shows how pedestrians would circulate around the Estate and Centre from the tube stations.

The nearest stations are Barbican

and Moorgate.

This diagram looks at traffic flow around the Barbican Centre, working out how different visitors would move around.

The different colour lines refer to visitors, taxis, performers, staff and residents.

The confused pencil scribbles in this part of the diagram foreshadow the future difficulties visitors would have finding their way around the Barbican!