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‘There are places in this building I would never go alone,’ my tour guide Umberta says grimly, as she leads us down a darkened corridor. I’m inside the Barbican, getting access to some of the Brutalist behemoth’s most (allegedly) haunted places.
Although the Barbie is only 60 years old, it’s built on a hotbed of paranormal activity, Umberta explains. From 2,000-year-old Roman ruins, to 12th century Jewish burial grounds and 17th century plague pits, there are plenty of nearby spots teeming with potential lost souls who could still be roaming the building’s halls. Plus, thanks to the Barbican’s Grade II-listed status, its mid-century interiors are also full of creaky steel doors, creepy concrete corridors and thick geometric-patterned carpets that would send shivers down any beige-influencer’s spine.
The 75-minute tour takes you into some of the Barbican’s very own backrooms, while weaving in a brief history of the area. Off-limits areas we step inside include the seemingly endless corridors of the Frobisher Crescent, the Twin Peaks Red Room-coded Auditorium 2 and the eerily quiet library (long after closing hours). Most of the spooky happenings we’re regaled with are tales from Barbican staff members: security guards who fell asleep and woke up to mysterious figures watching over them; librarians who heard puzzling sounds down deserted corridors; engineers who had books lobbed at them by invisible assailants. Thankfully, the carpets really are just ugly.
Things start off tepid, with a slightly unconvincing account of sightings of the ghosts of John Milton and cartographer John Speed, both of whom are buried at St Giles Cripplegate across the Lakeside Terrace. But the fright factor soon amps up. Each next location will be even spookier than the last, Umberta promises. She leads us to rooms that security guards do their best to avoid, and the toilets she would never enter by herself (these are near The Pit theatre, FYI). At one moment we pass through a corridor with the words ‘IF YOU’RE READING THIS RUN THE SHADOW MAN CAN SEE YOU’ scrawled on the wall. I won’t spoil it, but the final location is the best of all (low ceilings, dank smells and Latin chanting are all involved), and it gets even freakier when Umberta’s key card mysteriously stops working leaving us trapped in a cramped corridor for longer than any claustrophobe (me) would care to be.
While not a non-stop horror fest, the Barbican Ghost Tour is a theatrical, and at times spine-tingling, jaunt through some of the building’s creepier spots. More than anything, it’s fun and fascinating to get a peak behind the scenes at some of this labyrinthine building’s out-of-bounds areas. Even if you’re a firm non-believer, you’ll leave this tour seeing the Barbican in a whole new light.
Barbican Ghost Tours; every Weds to Sun until 27 March 2027. £25. Book online here.
London’s best walking tours
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