Beech Street is the east west road which runs under the Barbican Estate in the form of a tunnel. By the time the City of London got round to considering expanding the original Barbican Estate into the bomb damaged wasteland further north, one building had inexplicably been given permission to be built. This was Murray House. The designers of the Barbican Estate had to live with that and build round it. At ground floor level Murray House is in an open area next to the tunnel. The upper floors stick up above the podium level of the estate between the residential blocks.
Beech Street emerges from the tunnel for a short stretch of road before becoming Chiswell Street at the junction with Whitecross Street and Silk Street. The Barbican cinema complex is on the north side, and this includes a café and a restaurant.
