Open House London is an organisation which promotes appreciation of architecture by the general public. It organises tours, lectures, educational projects for children and so on, but it is best known for Open House Weekend, a two-day event which takes place on one weekend each September throughout London since 1992. The event forms a London version of the European Heritage Days, a Europe-wide event that started as "Journées Européennes du Patrimoine" in France in 1984. During this weekend many buildings considered to be of architectural significance open their doors for free public tours. Heritage Open Days is a similar event covering the rest of England, and takes place the previous weekend.
The 2005 event which took place on the 17th & 18th of September featured five hundred buildings including banks, offices, government buildings, and even private homes. Well known buildings not usually open to the public which were open on Open House weekend in 2005 included Marlborough House, Lancaster House, the Mansion House, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and Horse Guards. The event attracts tens of thousands of people. It is often possible to turn up and go straight into some establishments, although queues are an hour or two long at the most popular buildings, while in other cases admission is by advance booking of a guided tour only.
The Open House event in London is usually held on the third weekend in September. The most recent was held on the weekend of 19 and 20 September 2009.
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See also
External links
- London Open House Homepage
- Unoffical Site
- Interview with Sarah Yates, Open House
- Heinz Richardson from firm Jestico & Whiles presenting a talk as a part of Open House's Green Sky Thinking(Video)
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