Barbican Centre

What it’s like

A vast City arts building you can wander into free, with a café and restaurant to fall back on between whatever's on.

This is one of those places where the building itself is half the day out. Walking in costs nothing, and the site opens at 8am on weekdays, 9am at weekends, so you can drop in before or after whatever else you've got planned in the City without needing a ticket in hand.

What you'll actually pay for is whatever's staged there, since general entry doesn't cover performances. If a circus or street performance show is on, that's a separate ticket, and the site doesn't give ages for who it suits.

There's a café and a restaurant inside, which matters more than it sounds once you've got a hungry kid and an hour to fill before curtain up. If anyone in your group needs an essential companion for access reasons, the Barbican will book that person a free ticket alongside yours, and there's a hearing loop and wheelchair access throughout, plus a free cloakroom for coats and bags just before a show starts.

One thing worth knowing before you book: if your plans change, ticket exchanges are online but they charge £3 per ticket and want 24 hours' notice. That's a fair enough policy but it stings if a child's bedtime disaster means an evening show gets cancelled at short notice.

Facilities

Plan your visit

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