Barbican Centre Barbican Centre is owned, funded, and managed by the City of London Corporation, the third-largest arts funder in the United Kingdom. It was built as The City's gift to the nation at a cost of £161 million (equivalent to £480 million in 2014) and was officially opened to the public by Queen Elizabeth II on 3 March 1982. The Barbican Centre is also known for its brutalist architecture. The second-floor library is one of the five City of London libraries. It is one of the largest public libraries in London and has a separate arts library, a large music library
Young Centre for the Performing Arts was to create a performing arts, education and community outreach facility that would be home to George Brown Theatre School's celebrated three-year professional actor training program; Soulpepper Theatre Company with its three-tiered mandate of performance, artist training and youth outreach; and Toronto's independent arts community. This facility, in which the performance and education of all performing disciplines would be undertaken, would be unique in the world. In 2002, the architectural firm of KPMB Architects was hired to design the centre with Thomas Payne as the principal architect, Chris Couse as senior associate and Mark Jaffar as project architect. The design