Barbican is well connected in every way except the one the ratings count, because hardly anyone here commutes by train. Rail is barely used. Buses come every couple of minutes. Most working residents walk to work or never leave home. Where a town centre lies is a question only a government model could make difficult here.
Moorgate, Farringdon and London Liverpool Street are the nearby rail stations, and the area has 79 bus stops. At the 2021 Census only about 2% of working residents took the train to work and about 2% the bus. Three main-line stations within reach, and the residents treat them mostly as somewhere to meet visitors off the train.
The commute here is mostly a walk, or none at all. The 2021 Census found about 72% of working residents working from home, about 13% walking to work, about 3% cycling and about 2% driving. The census was taken in March 2021 under lockdown, so the home-working share captures an unusual spring, though the order of the rest looks believable for a place built next to the offices. About 72% of households have no car and about 4% have two or more. The car is optional here, and most households have opted out.
The Department for Transport's modelled journey-time statistics put the nearest town centre about 11 minutes away by car, 22 by public transport, 14 by bike and 28 on foot. Only a government model could leave the middle of London half an hour's walk from a town centre.
The same statistics put everyday destinations close. A GP is about 7 minutes away by car, on foot or by public transport. A hospital is about 9 minutes by car and 11 by public transport. A food shop is about 3 minutes' walk or 6 by car, and employment is about 6 minutes by car or public transport. These are modelled averages for the area, and the public transport times date from 2019, so they are the figures most likely to have moved since, even though the distances themselves stay put.
The buses are a service, and a busy one. The stops with timetable data average about 606 scheduled departures each on a weekday and about 34 in the peak hour, and every one of them has a weekend service. Those are current timetables, and they describe buses that turn up before anyone has time to look at the screen.
Broadband is close to complete. Gigabit-capable connections reach about 93% of premises and superfast about 95%, with no premises below the universal service minimum. Mobile coverage is complete too, with every network covering every postcode.
Road noise is the price of living in the City. About 30% of postcodes are near or above 65 decibels of road noise, the level at which official noise mapping treats traffic as significant, and the loudest band present reaches 70 decibels. Rail noise does not register above that threshold anywhere in the area. The mapping covers postcodes, so ask which side of the block a flat faces, because the walkway side and the road side of the same building can be very different places to sleep.
Electric charging is limited. The area has 25 public charge points with 41 connectors between them, and one of those is a rapid charger. With so few cars on the estate, that single rapid unit is less of a shortage than it would be anywhere else.
Connectivity comes out middling, held back mostly because so few residents use the railway, and the buses, broadband and short walks to everything would be the envy of most places. For a buyer who works in the City or from home, it is about as connected as a home gets.