London Art, Architecture & Culture: the back story

About London Art, Architecture & Culture: the back story

By the ULTIMATE London Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

London’s culture is written into its buildings: concrete arts centres from the post-war rebuilding, power stations turned into galleries, a skyline of glass in the old Square Mile and a gallery map that runs from Piccadilly to Whitechapel. This is the story behind the places in our Arts & Culture guide, and how to see them.

Concrete London: the Barbican and the National

Much of London’s cultural map was drawn after the Second World War. The Barbican rose on a part of the City left devastated by bombing, from designs by the architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon. The housing estate was built between 1963 and 1976, and the arts centre followed: the Queen opened the Barbican Centre in March 1982, calling it one of the wonders of the modern world.

Today the Barbican calls itself an icon of Brutalist architecture, and the complex has been Grade II listed since 2001. Under one roof you find two art galleries, two theatres, three cinemas, a concert hall and a tropical conservatory, linked by raised walkways, a lake and terraces that reward an hour of wandering before a concert.

London keeps its culture in its buildings: a power station hangs art, a bomb site became a concert hall, and the old coal yards sell design.

Across the river, the National Theatre tells a longer story. A national theatre was first proposed in 1848; Parliament voted the funds in 1949, and the company was launched at the Old Vic on 22 October 1963 with Hamlet, starring the young Peter O’Toole, under its first director, Laurence Olivier. Denys Lasdun’s building on the South Bank was topped out in 1973 and opened to the public in 1976, with its terraces stepping down towards the Thames.

Our tip: walk between the two. Cross Waterloo Bridge at dusk for the view of the National on the South Bank, then follow the river east towards the towers of the Barbican.

Power stations on the river

The architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott gave London two great riverside power stations, and both now belong to culture and city life.

Bankside Power Station, built in two phases between 1947 and 1963, closed in 1981. In 1995 the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron won the competition to turn it into a gallery, and Tate Modern opened in May 2000, keeping the vast Turbine Hall as its entrance. Their Blavatnik Building, a twisting brick extension, opened in June 2016.

Upriver, works on Battersea Power Station began in 1929. The second half of the building began generating in 1944 and the fourth chimney was completed in 1955. Listed Grade II in 1980 and Grade II* in 2007, it opened to the public on 14 October 2022 with Electric Boulevard, as shops, restaurants, offices and homes, and a lift that carries you up one of the chimneys.

The City skyline

The Square Mile is London’s oldest quarter and its most modern skyline. Richard Rogers’s Lloyd’s Building wears its lifts, stairs and ducts on the outside; Foster + Partners’ 30 St Mary Axe, the Gherkin, was completed in 2003 on the site of the Baltic Exchange.

To read the skyline from above, book a timed slot at Horizon 22, a viewing gallery on Level 58 of 22 Bishopsgate, 254 metres above the street, with 300-degree views; or at the Sky Garden at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street.

Mayfair, St James’s and the East End

London’s gallery map has two poles. In the west, the Royal Academy of Arts has lived at Burlington House on Piccadilly since 1867. It was founded in 1768, when the architect William Chambers took a petition from artists and architects to George III, and its first exhibition opened in 1769, and the Summer Exhibition has been held every year since. Around it, the streets of Mayfair and St James’s hold the commercial galleries and auction houses of the art trade.

In the east, the Whitechapel Gallery opened in March 1901 in an Arts and Crafts building by Charles Harrison Townsend, founded by Samuel and Henrietta Barnett to bring art to the East End. The empty panel planned for a frieze above its door waited more than a century: Rachel Whiteread completed the façade in 2012 with her golden Tree of Life. From here, the East End’s galleries and artists’ studios spread north and east.

King’s Cross reborn

Behind King’s Cross and St Pancras, the coal drops built from 1850 to unload coal for the capital later housed famous nightclubs, then stood empty. Heatherwick Studio restored the two long brick warehouses and drew their roofs up until they touch, creating a covered upper level, and Coal Drops Yard opened on 26 October 2018 beside Granary Square and the Regent’s Canal, with shops by makers and designers, restaurants and cafés.

The cultural calendar

September is London’s design month. The London Design Festival ran from 12 to 20 September in 2026, and its 25th edition is announced for 18 to 26 September 2027. In the same September week, the Open House Festival (12 to 20 September 2026) opens the doors of buildings across the city that are usually closed, with walks and talks by architects.

October belongs to art and film. Frieze London and Frieze Masters took over The Regent’s Park from 14 to 18 October 2026, and Frieze Sculpture stays in the park’s English Gardens until 1 November 2026. The 70th BFI London Film Festival ran from 7 to 18 October 2026, in London and around the UK. For dates of the next editions, check each organiser’s own site; we add them here when they are announced.

What’s new

V&A East Museum opened on 18 April 2026 in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, with its first exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story; it joins V&A East Storehouse, where you can see the collections in store. Checked October 2026.

Our advice: give the Barbican an evening, Tate Modern a morning and Coal Drops Yard a lazy afternoon, and book Horizon 22 for a clear day. Then let our Arts & Culture guide lead you to the rest.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with London Art, Architecture & Culture: the back story before you go.