Crime and Safety in Barbican, City of London
Last updated: 07 Jun 2026
The most common crime in Barbican is shoplifting, with 127 offences during 2026, giving a crime rate of 4.9. This is 14% higher than 2025's figure of 111 offences and a difference of 0.64 from 2025's crime rate of 4.2. Barbican's least common crimes are possession of weapons, with 0 offences recorded in 2026.
Barbican 2026 Crime Scorecard
1.3% higher, borough crime rate
London
70% lower, national crime rate
England, Wales & NI
Local Crime in Context
As of April 2026, the crime rate in City of London is 1.3% higher than London and 70% lower than the England, Wales & Northern Ireland overall figure.
City of London Crime Rate Over Time
| Barbican | |
| City of London | |
| London |
Barbican Crime Map
Incidents mapped in Barbican represent the time frame between January 2016 and April 2026. Each point on the map represents an area where crimes have been recorded locally.
Use Crime Map
Hover over a point to see a breakdown of crime types recorded at that location. You can also filter by individual crime types, or use a combinations of offences to visualise the data you need.
Introduction to Barbican's crime statistics
This crime profile provides a detailed view of crime and safety around Barbican up to April 2026, the most recent data release available. The crime figures and statistics have been calculated across each of Barbican's 48 postcodes using three area sizes for comparison:
- Within a Five-Minute Walk
- Within a Ten-Minute Walk
- Within a Fifteen-Minute Walk
Individual crime risk scores and index figures are for the 12-month period ending April 2026 unless otherwise stated.
Crime Risk Scores
Barbican • 12 Months Ending April 2026
The typical five-minute walk within Barbican has a crime risk score of 111. This is based on analysis of 48 nearby areas within Barbican, with "most" referring to roughly two thirds of the nearby locations.
Crime risk scores are on a scale of 1 to 1,000 and consider the severity of the crimes involved, as determined by sentencing guidelines. A score of 1 represents the lowest risk, and 1,000 the highest risk. This approach ensures that - unlike overall crime rate figures - bicycle theft is not given the same importance in Barbican's risk scores as, for example, robbery, or violence & sexual offences.
Within a five-minute walk of the typical location in Barbican, crime risk scores are typically around 111, while in City of London they are average 181.
Areas within a ten-minute walk typically see crime risk scores of 194 (376 for City of London), and scores within a fifteen-minute walk are most often around 284 (City of London 540).
Trends in Crime Risk
Barbican
Calculated via Seasonal and Trend decomposition using Loess, the Seasonality Adjusted line represents the original data with seasonality subtracted, and the Trend line has been plotted unadjusted. Overall trend direction has been identified using the Mann-Kendall trend test, and rate calculated from the slope of the best-fit line identified from linear regression.
The 10-year trend indicates a decrease of 36% in Barbican's crime risk score. This is potentially a strong signal of how the crime risk is evolving. Cross-referencing with major cultural events and Covid's impact during this time is advised.
Looking at the previous five years, the trend in Barbican's crime risk score is up by 36%. While potentially a good indicator of the overall risk trend, analysis may offer further insight when combined with the checks mentioned above.
Over the last year, Barbican's crime risk score has shown a downward trend of approximately 17%, indicating that the risk profile is going down. This is an extremely short time period for crime trend analysis, and caution should be exercised when interpreting this figure.
Crime Rates and Indexes
Barbican
The CrimeRate Index shows how crime rates compare against the national average.
1.0 equals the average
2.0 is double
3.0 triple
0.5 is half and
0.25 a quarter.
Highest Crime Rates
Barbican • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Excluding other crime and other theft because their geographic location is often not relevant, anti-social behaviour as its definition is too wide, and bicycle theft for its specificity.
Theft From the Person offences have a crime rate of 2.04 reports per 1,000 people in Barbican, which is 1.32 times the national average. This figure is calculated from 53 crime reports logged by City of London Police during the 12-month period ending April 2026.
For the same period, City of London Police recorded 127 reports of Shoplifting in Barbican, resulting in a crime rate of 4.86 reports per 1,000, and a CrimeRate Index of 0.68.
The crime rate for Drugs is 0.65 times the national average at 2.01 reports per 1,000. This is from 52 crime reports reported to City of London Police.
Most Significant 3-Year Increases in Crime Types
Barbican
Excluding other crime and other theft, anti-social behaviour, and bicycle theft, and calculated with the same STL method described in Trends in Crime Risk, using CrimeRate Index figures to identify crime types that are trending above or below the national average, and the analysis timeframe limited to the last three years.
Robbery offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Robbery CrimeRate Index was 0.44 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Public Order offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.17 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Public Order CrimeRate Index was 0.13 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 31% over this timeframe.
Shoplifting offences are trending upwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.59 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Shoplifting CrimeRate Index was 0.16 times the national average, and the current trend indicates an increase of 269% over this timeframe.
Most Significant 3-Year Decreases in Crime Types
Barbican
Calculated with the same methodology as the largest increases section above.
Theft From the Person offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 1.33 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Theft From the Person CrimeRate Index was 1.54 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 14% over this timeframe.
Burglary offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of - for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Burglary CrimeRate Index was 0.13 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a near-complete decrease over this timeframe.
Violence and Sexual Offences are trending downwards, and have a CrimeRate Index of 0.05 for the month of April 2026.
Three years ago, the monthly Violence and Sexual Offences CrimeRate Index was 0.09 times the national average, and the current trend indicates a decrease of 44% over this timeframe.
Crime Type Breakdown & Heat Map
Barbican • 12 Months Ending April 2026
Size and colour reflect the CrimeRate Index figures for each type of crime.
Barbican | City of London | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Type | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| Anti-Social Behaviour | 25 | 0.97 | 0.08 | 172 | 0.39 | 0.03 | 235,985 | 21.68 | 1.53 |
| Bicycle Theft | 74 | 2.83 | 3.88 | 310 | 0.69 | 0.95 | 13,695 | 1.26 | 1.73 |
| Burglary | 17 | 0.65 | 0.31 | 485 | 1.05 | 0.34 | 47,359 | 4.34 | 1.39 |
| Criminal Damage and Arson | 27 | 1.06 | 0.20 | 306 | 0.69 | 0.11 | 54,098 | 4.99 | 0.79 |
| Drugs | 52 | 2.01 | 0.65 | 445 | 0.99 | 0.32 | 53,167 | 4.87 | 1.58 |
| Other Crime | 3 | 0.12 | 0.40 | 48 | 0.09 | 0.05 | 13,008 | 1.19 | 0.64 |
| Other Theft | 85 | 3.26 | 0.57 | 2,312 | 5.11 | 0.90 | 97,452 | 8.97 | 1.58 |
| Possession of Weapons | - | - | - | 46 | 0.10 | 0.12 | 6,443 | 0.60 | 0.71 |
| Public Order | 34 | 1.32 | 0.23 | 614 | 1.35 | 0.23 | 60,049 | 5.52 | 0.95 |
| Robbery | 11 | 0.43 | 0.55 | 288 | 0.62 | 0.53 | 30,804 | 2.83 | 2.40 |
| Shoplifting | 127 | 4.86 | 0.68 | 1,666 | 3.69 | 0.52 | 87,976 | 8.09 | 1.13 |
| Theft From the Person | 53 | 2.04 | 1.32 | 1,322 | 2.90 | 1.87 | 77,160 | 7.11 | 4.59 |
| Vehicle Crime | 24 | 0.95 | 0.33 | 168 | 0.38 | 0.09 | 81,755 | 7.50 | 1.74 |
| Violence and Sexual Offences | 45 | 1.75 | 0.06 | 1,518 | 3.34 | 0.11 | 273,434 | 25.12 | 0.83 |
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Total Crime by Year
Barbican | City of London | London | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index | Count | Rate | Index |
| 2026 | 552 | 21.28 | 0.32 | 9,528 | 21.00 | 0.29 | 896,400 | 82.39 | 1.14 |
| 2025 | 404 | 15.49 | 0.25 | 9,292 | 20.74 | 0.28 | 896,961 | 83.23 | 1.12 |
| 2024 | 455 | 17.88 | 0.26 | 9,074 | 20.98 | 0.28 | 900,986 | 84.38 | 1.12 |
| 2023 | 336 | 13.42 | 0.22 | 8,159 | 19.24 | 0.24 | 835,471 | 78.98 | 1.00 |
| 2022 | 287 | 12.03 | 0.19 | 6,931 | 16.49 | 0.21 | 795,646 | 75.77 | 0.99 |
| 2021 | 212 | 9.08 | 0.18 | 3,676 | 8.81 | 0.13 | 727,983 | 69.09 | 1.01 |
| 2020 | 302 | 13.03 | 0.24 | 8,142 | 20.57 | 0.28 | 819,467 | 77.66 | 1.05 |
| 2019 | 306 | 13.29 | 0.23 | 7,281 | 18.59 | 0.24 | 849,310 | 80.70 | 1.06 |
| 2018 | 352 | 15.12 | 0.29 | 6,040 | 15.36 | 0.22 | 810,063 | 77.08 | 1.08 |
| 2017 | 243 | 10.22 | 0.23 | 5,722 | 14.69 | 0.23 | 758,160 | 72.41 | 1.13 |
| 2016 | 45 | 1.85 | 0.17 | 1,637 | 4.25 | 0.22 | 234,565 | 22.42 | 1.18 |
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Barbican Compared to Other City of London Neighbourhoods
12 Months Ending Apr 2026
| Neighbourhood | Total Crimes | Crime Rate | Rate Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| London Wall | 67 | 6.18 | 71% safer |
| Moorgate | 499 | 15.09 | 29% safer |
| Cheapside | 748 | 16.61 | 22% safer |
| Golden Lane Estate | 67 | 71.95 | 238% more dangerous |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Crime in City of London