Open House Festival 2022: visit famous buildings and private homes

If you’ve ever filled an afternoon wandering through the streets of London, chances are you’ve clocked some incredible architecture along your way. But while we can admire these buildings from the street, that’s often where our experience of them ends.

Many of London’s most famous and notable buildings are private, so it’s rare that we’re given the opportunity to step through their doors, and take a first-hand look inside.

But with Open House Festival, a two-week annual celebration of London and its buildings, seeing what goes on behind those closed doors becomes possible. Open House offers a mix of drop-in venues – with no booking required – and ticketed tours that you’ll need to pre-book in advance, often with experts conducting tours. All tickets are free, but the hottest tickets sell out fast.

Here are just some of the incredible buildings, gardens and private homes you can visit via the Open House website.

Bank of England, Moorgate, City of London

Drop-in visits (no booking required)
10th September, 11am to 4pm

Back on the Open House Festival programme after a five year hiatus, the Bank of England has been one of Open House’s most popular things to visit in years gone by (the queue for the venue once brought the City of London to a standstill). The building runs deep underground, and has seen the building branded a ‘groundscraper’, rather than the skyscrapers you’d normally expect to see throughout the City. The building includes the gold vaults, which houses one of the world’s largest collections of gold bars.

Visitors can arrive at any time during the opening hours of 11am – 4pm on Saturday 10th September. There may be queues at busy times, as the maximum capacity is 220 visitors at any one time.

See how you can visit the Bank of England

Museum of London

Guided tour (bookings required)
10th September, 10:15am – 4:30pm, 11th September, 11am – 3:15pm

The Museum sits at the heart of London’s financial hub, and is part of the iconic Barbican complex. The time of this building as a museum is soon coming to an end, as The Museum of London prepares to make the move to West Smithfield, making way for the next chapter of the building’s history.

You can choose from several guided tours during the festival, including an exclusive conservation tour of how the museum works, and how artefacts are stored. Some tours focus on the history of the city of London, and the Great Fire, or you can choose to see the galleries dedicated to Modern London.

See how you can visit the Museum of London

St Paul’s Cathedral – Gardens

Drop-in visits (no booking required)
17th September, 11am to 3pm

Plan a family visit to the gardens of St Paul’s Cathedral and take a closer look at the amazing architecture of Sir Christopher Wren’s masterpiece. You’ll meet the family learning team, and can take a ‘walking sketchbook’ with you to help you discover the details of his design.

See how you can visit St Paul’s Cathedral Gardens

Lancaster House, Westminster, Central London

Guided tours on 9th-10th September, 10am – 5pm
Bookings required

A government building close to Buckingham Palace, Lancaster House is a palatial mansion that dates back to 1825. Its Palace of Versailles-style décor will make visitors feel like they’ve just been dropped into the set of Bridgerton. You can experience guided tours in small groups, and hear about the history of the building, as well as its usage today.

Check ticket availability for Lancaster House

264 Westbourne Park Road

Drop-in visits (no booking required)
17th – 18th September, 10am – 5pm

Take a tour of two contemporary houses built on top of each other in west London. The design reverses the material allocation typical of the local low-grade Victorian buildings with their ground floors stuccoed and upper storeys in brick. See how these architect-designed homes have incorporated rain water harvesting and solar water heating. The homes, designed by Studio Bednarski, sit on a 106m² left over piece of land.

See how you can visit 264 Westbourne Park Road

Crescent House, The Barbican, City of London

Walking tours: 10th September, 10:15am – 2:15pm
Bookings required

Undeniably one of London’s most fascinating estates, the brutalist rabbit warren of The Barbican is home to residential buildings, as well as the public performing arts centre. The residential buildings are usually not accessible by anyone but those who live there, however Grade II-listed Crescent House will open for festival-goers to look around the iconic 1960s flats.

Check ticket availability for Crescent House

Fog House, Clerkenwell, North East London

Guided tour of the house: 14th September, 12 noon until 3pm
Bookings required

Fog House is a Clerkenwell home designed by internationally acclaimed architect, David Adjaye, for TV personality and journalist, Janet Street Porter (Porter is also one of the guest curators of this year’s festival). Named so because of the ‘fogged’, softened light that floods into the building via towering glass walls, Fog House is a jaw-dropping five-storey home. Industrial materials, sleek surfaces and block colour are mainstays of this home, which also has two balconies – one sheltered and the other sun-drenched – and views down onto tranquil St James’s Churchyard.

Check ticket availability for Fog House

One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, East London

Guided tours on 17th September, 10am – 5pm
Bookings required

Long before the likes of The Shard and The Walkie Talkie were dominant silhouettes on London’s cityscape, it was One Canada Square you’d think of when namedropping the capital’s skyscrapers. It’s the third tallest skyscraper in the UK, and visitors can enjoy this rare opportunity to see inside a normally off-limits London landmark.

Check ticket availability for One Canada Square

Rightmove is the headline partner of Open House Festival.

READ MORE: 5 incredible private homes you can visit during Open House 2022