London

What the critics think of the Barbican

Anniversary events at the Barbican

Interview with Barbican artistic director Graham Sheffield

At first it wasn’t even clear that the Barbican would be an arts centre. When debates first started about how to fill the 35-acre bomb site where it now stands, Sir Edward Howard, former Lord Mayor of London, thundered that ‘Art makes less contribution to civilisation than the internal combustion engine.’ Yet the discussions were taking place in an idealistic postwar world. Small wonder, then, that the rhetorical tide started to flow in favour of a design devoted to something more utopian than commerce, or, indeed, internal combustion engines.
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It’s one of the many ironies in the Barbican’s history that the architects, Chamberlin, Powell, and Bon, made one of the determining factors for their design the belief that within five years nobody would be using private cars any more in London. It wasn’t their only miscalculation. Initial estimates said that the Barbican would cost somewhere between £6 and £8 million to build; the final bill came in at £156m. Strikes, legal cases, and the discovery of a plague pit all contributed to delays. When it finally opened in 1982, five years behind schedule, the City was far from convinced that it was cause for celebration.

At the age of 25, however, the Barbican is looking in better shape than it was, not only at its opening, but in its troubled mid-teens. A £35m refurbishment has brought improvements to its two theatres, two art galleries and three cinemas, as well as enhancements to the acoustics in the Hall, and – at last – a proper entrance on Silk Street. Outgoing managing director John Tusa must feel triumphant at the state in which he – with the help of artistic director Graham Sheffield – is leaving the Barbican; certainly happier than its first director, Henry Wrong, who after his departure, called it ‘the ugliest building in the world’.

Wrong’s is just one voice in a debate that will probably never be resolved. Will Londoners ever truly take this concrete monolith to heart? What’s certain is that auspices look good for its being around for another 25 years. As for the internal combustion engine – well, that’s another debate entirely.

What the critics think of the Barbican
Both lauded and loathed the Barbican still polarises opinion like no other institution. So with its twenty-fifth anniversary approaching, we invited our expert critics and other leading names to evaluate its contribution to the arts and debate the merits of a true London icon.

Graham Sheffiel

Anniversary events at the Barbican
The twenty-fifth celebrations feature a bumper crop of cultural delights. See our full listings of upcoming events at the Barbican.

Interview with Barbican artistic director Graham Sheffield
Graham Sheffield joined the Barbican in 1995 as director and he's no more immune to the builiding's quirks than anyone else. So who better to answer some choice questions from the Time Out critics about London's most intriguing and infuriating institution?