One residential development dwarfs all others - the Barbican Estate. With over 2,000 flats this was a huge civic project of the 1960s, when the City of London decided to create an upmarket residential area in a bomb-damaged part of the City. It is a city within a city, with its own walkways and private gardens - even its own lake. The residential estate is built around the Barbican concert hall and theatre complex. Although technically a council estate since it was built by the City it was always intended for City businessmen. Just north of the Barbican is the Golden Lane Estate, which was a genuine council estate, but is now listed. Further north still, around Old Street, there are various small developments and conversions. If instead of going north, you turn west into the Smithfield Meat Market area, you find other flats in quiet streets. Florin Court in Charterhouse Square is a 1930s building - the backdrop for the Poirot television series. Around the market area and into West Smithfield there are flats to be found. There is a large flat development, for example, in Hosier Lane near Barts Hospital. The City carries on west as far as Fleet Street. In this area many office or commercial buildings have been converted into flats. There are flats to be found in St Bride Street, and the Gallery on Ludgate Hill. There are also flats to be found in and around the Temples, where the barristers work.

To the east of the City, you find Spitalfields which is the edge of the East End. There are original Georgian houses built by Huguenot merchants in Folgate Street, Fournier Street, and other streets near Brick Lane. Many former commercial buildings in the area have been converted into flats. The proximity to the Bangladeshi community and Brick Lane makes this an interestingly different area. This is the area on the other side of the road from Liverpool Street station. If you go further north above great Eastern Street, you are into Shoreditch. This is also an area where old commercial buildings have been turned into flats and created a new and vibrant residential community. Hoxton just to the north contains mainly council properties, but Hoxton Square itself contains attractive houses.