London is a city best shared. This year’s Open House Festival is in partnership with Airbnb Learn more
Full programme and booking 21 August
London is a city best shared. This year’s Open House Festival is in partnership with Airbnb Learn more
Attendees, volunteers, and contributors need to register Learn more
Join us for an alcohol-free beer tasting and brewery tour! Our shutter will be open all afternoon for you to pop in and join us for a beer. Our brewer James will lead a brewery-tour session at 2pm giving the low-down on the magic behind alcohol-free brewing, followed by a guided tasting with a selection of four great Nirvana beers.
Enfield Council has been awarded grant funding from the National Heritage Lottery Fund, The Pilgrim Trust and The Enfield Society to understand how the non-conformist chapel in Lavender Hill Cemetery can be conserved and identify potential new uses. Join us to explore the cemetery, take a look inside the former Chapel and give us your thoughts on its future!
Thomas J Hill, 1870
Join us for a special open day at Kribi Coffee UK! Owners Anne and Luca will guide you on a tour through the air roastery and share the rich story of Cameroonian coffee and their family’s connection to the farmers and the land. There will be live demonstrations of the coffee air roaster and some sample coffee to try!
We are a theatre company for performers and artists with learning disabilities in the West London area. We will screen a free immersive experience, run on a loop, entitled Red Rope. It tells a powerful story about the impact of plastic on our oceans and features artworks, dance, music and poetry by our performers and artists. We will also display works of art.
Join us for an exclusive architect and designer led tour of The Black Horse Bar & Pizzeria. Hear directly from the architect and interior designer from Flamingo & Oak about their inspiration and creative process behind designing this award-nominated venue. Discover the design elements that make The Black Horse unique and gain insights into their work.
Flamingo & Oak, 2023
To celebrate its 30th anniversary, Heatherwick Studio is welcoming the public to its new home for the very first time. Visitors will discover how the studio seeks to make the built world more joyful, engaging and human through its designs. There will be tours of the studio's workshop, while a display of models and objects will take people on a journey through 30 years of projects and ideas.
Heatherwick Studio, 2023
Discover the work of innovative charity Furnishing Futures, which partners with the interiors industry to create trauma-informed healing homes for families given empty social housing after escaping domestic abuse. Enjoy a tour of our warehouse and studio, meet our team and learn about sustainability in interiors and the impact of trauma-informed design for recovery.
An opportunity to explore our permanent “Home of Ideas” and to visit current exhibition “Ideas Aren’t Linear” – a non-linear journey through the design processes of two recently completed projects: The Energy Hub and Aylesbury Health Centre, known affectionately as “The Elephant and The Castle” – exposing the twists, about-turns and serendipity that informed their unexpected relationship.
Herbert Paradise transforms a mid-terrace home into a sustainable oasis. This retrofit features an open-plan ground floor connecting to the garden, eco-friendly systems, and raw materials. With high ceilings, clay plaster, and recycled joinery, it shows how sustainable design creates joyful spaces. A garden studio completes this urban refurbishment balancing comfort and environmental responsibility
RISE Design Studio, 2024
Welcome to Open House Festival 2024 at Wolves Lane Horticulture Centre ! Join us for a captivating exploration of urban food production and sustainable living. Discover our unique blend of historic glasshouse structures from the 1970s alongside our new cutting-edge sustainable buildings designed by Studio Gil and Material Cultures. Tour and experience the beauty and purpose of Wolves Lane.
Material Cultures + Studio Gill, 2024
Winner of the Environmental Leadership Prize in the 2024 Don't Move Improve Awards, House Made by Many Hands is the first building structure in the UK to specify low-carbon LC3 concrete, together with hand-cast hempcrete walls, a hardwood frame in place of traditional steel, natural materials throughout and a rigorous policy of reuse and recycling for the interior.
Cairn, 2023
Brockley Conservation Area's High Victorian enclave holds many interesting houses in a variety of styles and including Edwardian domestic architecture, historic trees and original lanes and mews. These have survived into the 21st century almost intact. Houses built in the 1950s and 1960s indicate WWII bomb damage and add to the area's variety and history.
, 1850
Join us for an alcohol-free beer tasting and brewery tour! Our shutter will be open all afternoon for you to pop in and join us for a beer. Our brewer James will lead a brewery-tour session at 2pm giving the low-down on the magic behind alcohol-free brewing, followed by a guided tasting with a selection of four great Nirvana beers.
We are a 12-acre organic food-growing workers' cooperative, located on the edge of Epping Forest. We grow food that is delivered throughout Waltham Forest by our fruit and veg subscription service, hold volunteering and run courses. Our open days are a rare opportunity to experience the site on the weekend.
KSS were part of the team responsible for the design and delivery of the new building at Selhurst Sports Arena, Croydon and is the new headquarters of MERKY FC. The new building, more than just a football centre, is a community hub, providing a safe space for the community to come together and is operated by the charity Communities First Foundation on behalf of adidas. https://merkyfchq.com/
11.04 Architects, 2023
We are offering people a rare glimpse of the birthplace of television with guided tours of Studios A & B. The BBC first arrived at the Palace in 1935, as the race to broadcast via the latest innovation in entertainment – television – gathered pace. The corporation leased the entire East Wing of the Palace, with former dining rooms transformed into Studios.
John Johnson and Alfred Meeson, 1873
The team that brought the Dinosaur Swing Bridge to life will describe the process of the bridge’s inception, evolution, and construction, how the design emerged and improved, and how a community deepened their relationship with this pivotal structure that bridges heritage old and new.
Tonkin Liu, 2021
Not the end of the line? London’s King’s Cross and St Pancras are perfectly located stations at the crossroads of north, south, east and west. The stations and the neighbourhoods they inhabit, have a rich and diverse history. This walk will look at the decline and the regeneration of this well-known area.
Although Highgate is sometimes labelled a sleepy 'village for millionaires' frozen in time, during our two-hour walk with an integrated cardio effect, participants will see how this area has evolved under the influence of generations of nonconformists. Our route includes the most architecturally diverse street in London, experimental pink plaques instead of the usual blue ones and extremely eccentric homes.
Royal Arsenal Riverside is a place of rich history, long known by its link to Woolwich’s military origins dating back to the 16th c. Now in its third decade, the masterplan has set the design principles to help write its next chapter. Learn how this historic waterfront site has been transformed into a thriving and well-connect new neighbourhood through a guided walking tour by the masterplanners.
Allies and Morrison, 2005
What is a city for? This question is more urgent than ever in the 21st century: a warming planet, a housing crisis and ever changing working-living patterns are forcing us to reconsider different ideas for what the city should be. How can these ideas coexist? How can they come into conflict? This tour explores how London of the 21st century works and how it might work in the future.
Explore twenty first century architecture in one of London's most luxurious and historic neighbourhoods. This walking tour covers Mayfair's new contemporary developments, discovering architectural treasures, hidden gems and buildings that are designed for our changing climate. Largely shaped by aristocratic landowners in the eighteenth century, the neighbourhood has undergone constant evolution ever since. Georgian originals blend with thoroughly modern additions where architects have responded to Mayfair's unique character with creativity and ingenuity. Tour stops include the inventive reuse of existing buildings, re-shaped green spaces, a completely transformed London square and luxurious designs to delight. You will see how the architects of today have integrated modern architecture into an historic neighbourhood, showcasing the balance between preservation and modernisation. These all combine to create Mayfair's distinct architectural character which reflects it sumptuous beginnings, bold ambitions and future visions.
Matthew Brettingham, 1756
Join this walking tour to discover how post-war architects and planners re-imagined the future of housing. See first hand the highly experimental output of London councils, including the low-rise flow of the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate designed by Neave Brown and the high-rise monolith Trellick Tower by Erno Goldfinger. This walk is not about housing pre-fixed by ‘public’, ‘social’, ‘council’ or ‘local’ – but the concept of housing itself.
Trace the lost river and discover abandoned island of Channelsea, then visit the newly founded urban oasis of Abbey Gardens on this walk, talk and eat exploration of this hidden history of the tidal Lea Valley and site of London's now rapidly vanishing industrial past. Consider the opportunity to make new urban green spaces that celebrate both wild and manmade environments in harmony.
Public Works, 2006
In centuries past thousands of people thronged to Oxford Street to watch executions – now London's most famous destination draws millions of visitors who spend millions of pounds in Europe's busiest shopping thoroughfare. This walk uses the built environment to chart the history of retail and witness its future already in action.
Lee Simmons, 2021
This two-hour walk covers a number of leading personalities who led the fight back against the Axis Power, explores preparations for some of the most decisive battles, considers how London became the centre of the free world while not losing sight of how people got on with their lives. This is realised by visiting the locations they worked from or the memorials raised to them.
This North London walking tour will draw comparisons between the progress and demise of the postwar welfare state. Focussing on housing and healthcare, the tour will present prominent examples from the era in North London and discuss ways these are being adapted to meet contemporary challenges, such as the housing crisis and ongoing maintenance. The ambition of the tour is to reassess the value of postwar architecture today.
Drop in / Family activity
institution/profession, scientific, library
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) moved into Burlington House 150 years ago in 1874. Part of the extension to Burlington House to provide accommodation for learned societies, the building was refurbished in 2007. The RAS is the oldest astronomical society in the world and has been encouraging and promoting the study of astronomy and geophysics since 1820.
Robert Richardson Banks and Charles Barry, 1874
Family activity
Built in 1817 and located at the terminus of York Gate, Regent’s Park, St Marylebone Parish Church is one of the most significant landmarks of Marylebone. Our parish church has shaped and has been shaped by the community of Marylebone, even giving the village its name and providing continual spiritual and pastoral care for the community for over 900 years.
Thomas Hardwick, 1817
Drop in / Family activity
institution/profession, education, gallery, health, library, museum, online
Striking, provocative and one of London’s few Grade I listed post-war buildings. As we celebrate 60 years since our unique building was opened we invite you to drop in, explore our archives, take a tour and more to discover this award-winning building from its modernist lines to dramatic interiors. See https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/event/open-house-festival-2024 for more.
Sir Denys Lasdun, 1964
Drop in / Family activity
community/cultural, concert/performance space, religious, online
A Grade I and II* treasure that’s home to an inclusive church, an award winning venue, a unique organ and The Margins Project for those in crisis in London. Family Organ Building Workshops are generously supported by the Institute of Physics.
James Cubitt, 1877
Through the keyhole of special spaces and places across London and beyond.
Open City is a charity dedicated to making London and its architecture more open, accessible and equitable.
We open up buildings, conversations and careers to those normally locked out of them.
Accelerate empowers young Londoners to pursue careers in architecture, landscape and city-making.
Volunteer your time, make a one off donation or become an Open City Friend and receive a package of exciting rewards.