This 1950s office block is being turned into homes – and will have the perfect view of the Barbican Estate

Most of us can only dream of being able to afford to live in the actual Barbican Estate. Arguably London’s most famous housing estate, the Barbican is a glorious brutalist mish-mash of concrete, curves and convenience. And it isn’t just pretty on the outside: many of the Estate’s apartments are gorgeously sleek and tasteful inside, too. 

If you’ve always wanted to live in the Barbican, well, the second-best thing might soon become reality. A new project intends to turn an office building right next to the Estate into a huge co-living space. If you manage to bag yourself a home there, you’ll get all the Barbican views of your wildest dreams. 

The project involves a 1950s office building at 45 Beech Street in the City of London. Currently still awaiting planning permission (plans have been submitted by developer HUB and Bridges Fund Management), it’s been designed by Stirling Prize-winning architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM). Eventually, the building could have 174 co-living homes, plus a commercial space on the ground floor and ‘public realm’ areas. 

And 45 Beech Street won’t just be next to the Barbican Estate: it’ll be directly inspired by it. Drawing from the Barbican, it’ll prominently feature similarly-styled arches along the top, as well as be inspired generally by the way the Barbican innovated within urban living. 

All this’ll apparently be mostly achieved using a ‘retrofit-first’ approach, meaning it’ll make the most of adapting the current structure rather than needlessly building more. Here are some more renders of what 45 Beech Street could look like.

Looks pretty swish, eh? For more recent architecture news on Time Out London, read about how St Pancras station could soon get much bigger, a Marylebone leisure centre is getting a £42 million revamp and get the lowdown on the latest updates with M&S’s iconic Oxford Street store.