[libraryofbabel]

The concert hall and theater is indeed the main reason most people who aren’t residents end up in the Barbican. When I lived in London it was almost a classical music rite of passage to get completely lost on the wrong concrete overhead walkway while rushing to get to an LSO concert there.

Unrelated, but recently the complex has been appearing in the general consciousness again as the excellent Apple TV series/spy novels Slow Horses (about a bunch of outcast MI5 agents) is set near there.

[ssalazar]

The Agency on Showtime also prominently features the Barbican as the protagonist's residence with a number of great exterior shots.

[themadturk]

After watching the first season I (a left-coast Yank) started reading Mick Herron's novels and had no idea what the Barbican was. Kept forgetting to look it up, as I kept getting caught up in the action...