Open House Festival

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This collection brings together art-filled spaces, hands-on workshops, and inspiring activities where you can meet makers, try new skills, and see creativity in action.

Join sign writer and artist Adam Makowiecki to design your very own graffiti tag or miniature mural using arts and craft materials.

Join Assemblage Collective for this manifesto zine-making workshop, all about expressing yourself and your ideas for a better world! Learn how to craft a zine (like a mini book, from the word maga-zine), then use a range of materials to draw, collage, stamp, write and create a playful manifesto for the future.

Join artist and activist Ruan Murphy in this family friendly, protest inspired printing workshop! This messy, hands-on and thoughtful activity encourages young people and their adults to think about causes that matter to them, and create their own unique piece of art.

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.

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Company Drinks Pavilion and Garden

community/cultural

Company Drinks is a local drinks enterprise and community hub based in Barking Park. Our space includes a beautiful community garden and a former outdoor bowls pavilion that's now home to social areas, a community kitchen, and creative making spaces. Our Annual Community Open Day on 13th September is a fun, family-friendly free event with workshops, taster sessions and tours of the site.

Artist/Spatial Designer Sahra Hersi, 2021

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

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Guildhall Yard

miscellaneous, community/cultural, civic

Publicly accessible space outside the spectacular Grade I listed medieval civic Guildhall.

George Dance the Younger, 1789

Guided tour / Other

Instituto Cervantes London

education

Instituto Cervantes is a public institution under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, created by the Spanish Government in 1991 to promote the teaching, study and use of Spanish globally and the understanding of Hispanic cultures abroad. Instituto Cervantes has presence in more than 90 cities across 45 countries,

, 1951

Drop in / Guided tour

Leadenhall Market

mixed use, restaurant/bar, retail, online

Iconic Victorian covered market, with roots in Roman Londinium. Today, more than 40 renowned retail brands and outstanding food and drink venues are set within the stunning market place.

Sir Horace Jones, 1881

Join us to explore the newly reopened Seven Sisters market and surrounding area. Known as a hub for North London’s Latin American community, the market has been closed since 2021 whilst the site has been undergoing development. The reopening of this site in June 2025 gives us a great opportunity to gather together, remember the history of the market and collectively imagine its future.

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.

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Southwark Integrated Waste Management Facility

industrial, infrastructure/engineering

Ever WONDERED what happens to your recycling? Southwark's FREE fun-filled, family-friendly Wonder Day is back on Saturday 13 September 2025, 10am - 4pm. Come along to our annual Wonder Day, to see our Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) sort recycling using the latest innovations and meet some of the amazing experts that work behind the scenes.

Thorpe Wheatley, 2012

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Switchboard Studios

mixed use

Built in the 1950s, this site was originally the head offices for a large consortium of industrial spaces which produced dyes and food colourings. It is now a creative workspace with 26 studios for creative businesses and an event space.

Jan Kattein Architects, 2019