Barbican 25

by Rosie Lavan

The Barbican, one of London's cultural landmarks, is celebrating its birthday.

Last Saturday, March 3, marked 25 years since it first opened its doors in 1982, and the Queen hailed it as " as wonder of the modern world."

The programme of events for the birthday weekend was testament to the culture of diversity that the Barbican has always fostered.

Visitors to the Do Something Different weekend, mainly children and families, could listen to the poet Michael Rosen play with words in the conservatory, look up at circus performers wandering round the foyer on stilts, and pick their "favourite person to strangle" during a workshop with the London Stunt School.

But then the Barbican - Europe's largest arts centre, funded by the City of London Corporation - has always been a bit different.

It was born out of a brave-new-world impulse, part of the redevlopment of a site that had been utterly devastated by the Blitz. It is known for the defiant modernity of its design, but it is full of the past, with a long history that takes in the Romans, the plague, prostitution and poets, inbcluding Shakespeare and Milton.

With a consistently innovative and international arts agenda it encourages Londoners to look east for their culture, while in its birthday year the Barbican itself continues to look forward, as it always has.