Barbican

Lonely Planet review

It's fair to say that its brutalist concrete architecture isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the Barbican is still London's pre-eminent cultural centre, boasting three cinemas, two theatres which feature touring drama as well as dance performances and the highly regarded Barbican Gallery, which stages excellent temporary exhibits.

Londoners remain fairly divided about the architectural legacy of this vast housing and cultural complex in the heart of the City. While the Barbican is named after a Roman fortification protecting ancient Londinium that may once have stood here, what you see here today is very much a product of the 1960s and 70s - it was built on a huge bombsite abandoned since WWII and opened progressively between 1969 and 1982. Yet despite topping several recent polls as London's most ugly building, many Londoners see something very beautiful about its cohesion and ambition - incorporating Shakespeare's local church St Giles Cripplegate into its brave-new-world design and embellishing its public areas with lakes and ponds. Trendy urban architects are racing to get hold of the back-in-fashion apartments and the residences in the three high-rise towers that ring the cultural centre are some of the city's most sought after living spaces.