Andor – A Star Wars Story at the Barbican, London

How a Brutalist experiment became the Star Wars planet – Coruscant.

In another life I might have been a town planner. I did study it for a time, but after working in my local council planning department I realised it was more about money and less about what is best for residents. Despite that I’ve still held a passing interest in urban planning, particularly the large-scale ambitious projects that are different to your day-to-day housing developments. I’ve also got a soft spot for Brutalist architecture and one development scheme which ticks both boxes is the Barbican complex in London. Born out of post World War II reconstruction the Barbican is a mix of residential and leisure attractions officially opened in 1969. It’s somewhere I’d heard about, but it took an appearance in a Star Wars show for me to finally get around to visiting it.

Season one of ‘Andor: A Star Wars Story’ was filmed between November 2020 and September 2021 and used a few locations in London – I wrote about some of them in here https://fromscenetoseen.wordpress.com/2023/04/21/the-world-is-not-enough-for-star-wars/  and also here https://fromscenetoseen.wordpress.com/2022/01/24/cleveleys-a-new-hope/ when they filmed in the North West of England at the seaside town of Cleveleys .

For Andor the Barbican was used as part of the planet Coruscant – a planet that is entirely covered in a mega city. Several characters are seen walking through atmospherically lit corridors and meeting in quiet corners such as these…

My husband and I were in London for the Doctor Who Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in August 2024. That was amazing experience and great to see again at Christmas as it was filmed for television. We had enough time the day after to do some exploring before catching our train home in the evening, so I booked us on the Architecture Tour of the Barbican. We were very conscious of the fact that this was a place where people lived and we didn’t want accidentally to trespass or linger where we weren’t allowed. It turns out that most of it is public right of way, so we didn’t need to worry too much about that. There was a moment on the official tour though when a lady in one of the apartments rather rudely tried to shoo us off when we dared pause for a few minutes!

Arriving at the Barbican by tube we passed through a grimy underpass, which had an unexpected Banksy on a wall. We grabbed a coffee in the little cinema café Cinema Cafe & Bar | Barbican and then set off to explore some of the centre before our tour started. We hadn’t quite anticipated the scale of the place with its multiple levels. Give yourself plenty of time to make your way around.

We located a cloak room by the art gallery, where thankfully we could leave our overnight bags, and had just enough time to have a quick look around the rather lush Barbican Conservatory If you’re a John Grant fan you might recognise it in the music video for one of his best tracks ‘GMF’.

After a little mooch around the rather nice Barbican Centre shop, which sells lots of art & architecture themed items and jewellery, we joined a nearby group of people gathering around a tour meeting point sign and waited for our guide. I don’t know if it was fully booked but there was a group of about 20 of us on the tour – no stereotypes, it was a nice mix of ages, individuals and couples. Our guide explained that the tour would last about 90 minutes and be mainly outside – fortunately for us it was a gorgeous sunny day.

The Barbican estate is surprisingly large – it feels like a corner of London that architects just got allowed to play with. It’s a wonderful mix of stark concrete, strong angles and an impressive amount of water features. I think it’s stunning and on a blue-sky day lends itself wonderfully to doubling as an imaginary planet. It’s unlike anywhere I’ve been in the capital before, it deserves the nickname of ‘a City within a City’ .

The Barbican complex includes: three residential tower blocks, interlinking raised pathways between more residential areas, and an entertainment complex that includes a gallery and theatre. The tour is great at pointing out that many of the architectural features have a function. Did you know the Conservatory mainly serves to hide the fly tower (for moving the big backdrops) from the theatre below?

Interestingly the Barbican didn’t quite work as planned. Our guide explained that the access to the ‘road in the sky’ isn’t that obvious – we certainly didn’t spot that there’s a way up to it from Moorgate tube station when we arrived – we didn’t actually need to have walked down the dirty underpass. In general, the flow of people through the complex doesn’t work well and some entrances didn’t get used as intended.

Our tour ended with a sneak peek into a secure area normally closed to the public. Behind a locked door we were led into a service corridor, quite narrow so we could only go in single file. Our guide pointed out a wall behind all the pipework and cables where the architects had experimented with different concrete finishes before they were applied to the estate.

After the tour we treated ourselves to an ice cream and sat by the water in front of the theatre, enjoying the atmosphere and people watching. Then, we went Andor location hunting – which turned out to be quite an easy task as the areas used had required very little set dressing, just careful lighting and clever camera angles coupled with a bit of CGI background to transform them into Coruscant.

There are quite a few areas that suggest the ‘used future’ vibe of the Star Wars galaxy quite effortlessly. Look at these lifts and the retro signage, and whatever the blue column is – gorgeous!

It’s a desirable place to live (despite the ever-curious tour groups). I had a quick look on Rightmove and at the time of writing it had several one-bedroom apartments listed at around £925,000. If I had a million or so to spare, I still don’t think I’d want to live there – there’s not enough green space, though it is a great place to visit. (The water looks green but it’s dyed as a way to disguise the fact it’s only a few feet deep!)

There’s another brutalist complex in London used in Andor for Coruscant – Cyril’s apartment is within the Brunswick Centre. I’ve not been able to visit yet and I know some of it isn’t accessible to the general public, but I’ve seen some fans use family/friends connections to make it in.

Filming for season two of Andor took place from November 2022 to February 2024 and according to eagle eyed fans, who spotted production crews, they returned to the Barbican for some of it. Second season of Star Wars series Andor filming at the Barbican estate in London (Exclusive Pics) – Bespin Bulletin There was also some filming in Valencia, Spain, which will certainly be added to my ever-growing ‘to visit’ list! The new series should air in April 2025.

I recently discovered an architect, artist and Star Wars fan Nada Maktari, on Instagram. She looked at the Andor filming at the Barbican and the Brunswick as part of her studies. It’s great to see location filming being treated academically, and her essays are really interesting. Check out her amazing film posters too on her Instagram & website.