Welcome to the Barbican: the 1980s

In the 1980s, visitors to the Barbican Centre could pick up a free 'Welcome to the Barbican' monthly guide.

It gave an introduction to the Centre, how to get around and what to do there.

Each issue of Welcome to the Barbican includes this brilliant isometric drawing of the Barbican by John Ronayne.

It reveals each space in the Barbican, showing the building as a whole.

The drawing is beautifully detailed, right down to the furniture in the foyers.

You can see all the way down to Cinema 1

into the Hall

and up to the conference rooms in Frobisher Crescent.

The drawing also shows us how the Conservatory was built to hide the Theatre fly tower. You can see the plants wrap around the mechanical structure in the middle.

Whether or the not the drawing helped visitors to navigate the Centre, it gives a fantastic overview of the site, recording how it was on opening in 1982.