Open House Festival

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Evening Openings & Events

Step beyond usual daytime hours and experience what's on offer in the festival during the evening.

Find out more about Peckham's Aylesham Community Action group's work, get a sense of our neighbourhood's character on a walk with locals and discuss our campaigns against attempts for insensitive over developments in our area. We want to engage with built environment enthusiasts and together find some answers to London's critical questions : ‘What it takes to build or destroy a community?'

Architect unknown, 1988

Learning from the past to change the future: placard making with the Marx Memorial Library Inspired by our extensive collection of historic protest posters and banners, we will ask participants to create their own using collage and crafting on what matters to them today.

Drop in / Guided tour

Chelsea Physic Garden

garden

Now part of the Chelsea Heritage Quarter, Chelsea Physic Garden was established in 1673, by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London. This four-acre green space in the heart of Chelsea is London's oldest botanical garden and home to over 4,500 medicinal, edible and useful plants.

, 1673

Guided tour

Conway Hall

community/cultural, concert/performance space

The home of Conway Hall Ethical Society, an organisation renowned as a hub for free speech and progressive thought. Grade II listed building with both Arts and Crafts and Art Deco features adding to its distinctive style.

Frederick Herbert Mansford, 1929

Drop in / Other

Culture House

community/cultural

Culture House is the first permanent exhibition space for Somali artefacts curated by the Somali community.

Freehaus Design, 1

Guided tour

Designer-led tour of Beresford Square, Woolwich

public realm/landscape

Beresford Square in Woolwich has been transformed. Come and find out from the designers what has changed.

LDA Design, 1897

Guided tour

Night at the Museum

community/cultural

An evening event launching a new heritage trail exploring the lost heritage of Gilbert Bayes' 'Art in Everyday Life' sculptures scattered across the St Pancras Housing Estates. Enjoy a guided walk of the new trail, and hear from those involved in the project, including architects Edit Collective, Central St Martins, artists Camilla Bliss and Melanie Jackson, and A Space for Us People's Museum.

G Topham Forrest, 1927

Drop in / Guided tour

outhouse gallery

gallery

outhouse gallery is a small, independent, artist-run creative space located in Brunswick Park, Camberwell. As a former public toilet, the gallery's mission is to be open, public and accessible to both facilitators and visitors - from free exhibitions, live performances, and workshops to providing a space for recording and broadcasting an independent radio station.

Walking tour

Regent’s Park & Estate: Autumn Equinox Exploration

art in the public realm

Join artist Alisa Ruzavina for an art & ecology walk exploring the diverse land of Regents Park Estate & Regent’s Park through creative exercises, sharing of local stories, plant knowledge & folklore. The walk will include an artist tour of Wonderscopes – public sculptures celebrating local relationship to changing seasons.

Walking tour

The City at night

walk/tour

Working, sleeping, playing – the City of London is home to all sorts of activities after dark. This walking tour will explore buildings and spaces, well known and lesser-known, in darkness, and will tell the history of night-time in London. We will visit places where London works, sleeps and plays at night, and over the course of two hours will even see how night time activity shifts.

Drop in / Workshop

The Old Library, Erith (The Exchange)

community/cultural

The first library in Bexley, designed by William Egerton, funded by Andrew Carnegie, and now the home of The Exchange. The Garden has been recently transformed by landscape designer Sarah Price, and maintained by community volunteers.

William Egerton, 1906

Drop in / Other

The Space Theatre

theatre

A Grade II listed converted church in the Isle of Dogs. Formerly a Scottish Presbyterian chapel (St. Pauls) the Space is now a theatre and arts centre dedicated to new writing, emerging companies and artist development. We host all arts from classical recitals through to wrestling, are available for event hire and have a charming bar and kitchen on site.

Thomas Knightley, 1855

Guided tour / Talk

Walworth Town Hall

mixed use

The Grade II listed Victorian complex, originally built between 1865 – 1906, is one of London’s most iconic civic buildings. After a devastating fire in 2013, it was placed in the Heritage at Risk Register and closed. Now, after sensitive restoration by Feix & Merlin and General Projects, it reopens its doors. With a modern CLT extension that celebrates its former glory while embracing its future.

Feix & Merlin, 2024

Guided tour / Other

Westminster Abbey – East End

religious

UNESCO World Heritage site dating from 11th century including stunning examples of Gothic and Medieval architecture and many hidden treasures.

, 1245