Open House London 2024

Every third weekend in September, Open House London tells the story of London's unique architecture. It's all about history, home design, contemporary urban planning, and environmental issues.

The Open House London Weekend is a citywide festival of design and creativity. The event provides visitors with a unique chance to understand what makes London great and be inspired by its architectural greatness. The festival features neighborhood walks, cycle tours, discussions, and debates. For a few decades, Open House London has been a huge success in the British capital and has been replicated around the globe.

Festival Highlights

Guides will show you 800 little-known venues, which are typically closed to the public. The tours feature historical sites, government buildings, educational establishments, and even odd private homes. One of the most pleasant surprises—it is absolutely free!

Some tours and other events that take place within the festival require pre-booking, though most are available to anyone who wants to join on the spot. Open House runs for two days and spans all 33 London boroughs.

Locations

The 2024 Open House Festival program includes the Smallest Gallery in Soho, Berwick Street Market, Shepherd's Bush Market, London Fields West, Southall Manor House, Design District houses, St Marks Schoolhouse, Rock 'n' Roll Camden, Warehouse Art Collective, and much more. This architectural event usually draws about 250,000 people. So queues are typically one or two hours long at the most interesting buildings.

Festival History

Open House London was started in 1992. The festival is produced by the organization Open-City. It follows a trend of a Europe-wide event "Journées Portes ouvertes des monuments historiques," which started in 1983 in France. Heritage Open Days is a similar project for the rest of England, which occurs on the second weekend of September.

At present, Open House has become the largest celebration of the urban landscape and architecture worldwide. Over 60 cities all over the planet, from New York City to Lagos, currently participate in Open House Worldwide. About 750,000 people attend Open House events annually, with nearly 2 million building tours.