Open House 2024 highlights: the top 10 must-see buildings in London

More on this topic

Open City names new chief executive

Highlights include Ernő Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower, RIBA Stirling Prize 2023 winner the John Morden Centre and the under-construction London Museum (the rebranded Museum of London) for which tickets have already been awarded by ballot.

The annual event allows rare access to new and old architecture in all of London’s 33 boroughs

Elsewhere, among the landmarks opening for drop-in visits without prior booking are Angel Yard in Edmonton by Jan Kattein Architects, the Zaha Hadid Foundation in Clerkenwell, TiggColl’s Addison Studios in Brook Green, 25 Cannon Street by Buckley Gray Yeoman and the Phoenix Gardens Community Building by Office Sian Architecture + Design.

This year’s festival also includes special ‘collections’ – themed groups of buildings, focusing on community and belonging curated by Christopher Laing, on making and manufacturing curated by Riya Patel, on alternative housing curated by Oliver Wainwright, and on African and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) third spaces curated by Space Black.

The full listing can be seen on the Open House Festival website.

Founded in 1992, the Open House Festival typically sees around 250,000 people engage with London’s most compelling architecture, heritage and communities. This year’s festival will run for two weeks from Saturday 14 to Sunday 22 September.

The 2024 Open House Festival comes two years after the 30th anniversary of its parent charity, Open City, which runs a year-round programme of educational activities, films, tours, and the weekly The Brief podcast, produced in association with the AJ.

Ten highlights from the 2024 Open House Festival

Source:Image by Ivy Street Family Centre

Ivy Street Family Centre, N1, by Sam Jacob Studio

Ivy Street Family Centre, N1, by Sam Jacob Studio

The 2022 transformation of a beloved community space in a former pub, to a purpose-built centre for families with under-5s and the wider community.
Drop-in tours on Sunday 22 September

Source:Image by Percy Weston

Peckham House, SE15, by Surman Weston

Peckham House, SE15, by Surman Weston

Surman Weston has recently completed its first self-build project, Peckham House, in south London. A resilient, characterful and experiential family home, which reflects the firm’s personalities and architectural interests.
Drop-in tours on Saturday 21 September

Source:Image by Graziano Miliano

12 Church Grove, SE13, by Shepheard Epstein Hunter

12 Church Grove, SE13, by Shepheard Epstein Hunter

London’s biggest community-led self-build project, co-ordinated by the Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS), features 36 flats in two linked buildings, a new public riverside garden and shared community spaces. Designed by Shepheard Epstein Hunter with contributions from Architype and John Broome Associates, the recently completed project aims to create sustainable and permanently affordable homes in a community woven into the wider communities of Lewisham.
Drop-in exhibition and pre-bookable tours on Saturday 14 September

Source:Image by Kilian O'Sullivan

Edith Neville Primary School and Children's Centre, NW1, by Hayhurst & Co

Edith Neville Primary School and Children's Centre, NW1, by Hayhurst & Co

The rebuilding of Edith Neville Primary School in 2021 formed the first phase of Camden’s £89 million Central Somers Town regeneration masterplan. The regeneration initiative provided a rebuilt school designed by Hayhurst & Co along with nearby new public open spaces, community facilities and 130 new homes.
Drop-in tours on Saturday 21 September

Source:Image by Dow Jones Architects

St Marks Schoolhouse, SW11, by Dow Jones Architects

St Marks Schoolhouse, SW11, by Dow Jones Architects

Dow Jones Architects has recently refurbished this 1866 listed schoolhouse as its architecture studio. The project has created a light-filled contemporary workspace, and demonstrates a sensitive, low-carbon approach to a historic restoration.
Drop-in tours on Saturday 21 September

Source:Image by Merlin Fulcher

Brixton Recreation Centre, SW9, by George Finch and muf architecture/art

Brixton Recreation Centre, SW9, by George Finch and muf architecture/art

Designed by architect George Finch and completed in 1982, Brixton Recreation Centre combines sports and leisure facilities with urban amenities. The unique building was planned as a key component of a redevelopment scheme for central Brixton with new shopping and commercial centre, raised walkways and 50-storey blocks of flats. It was granted Grade II-listed status in 2016 in part due to its role as a ‘social condenser’. An example of recent careful repair and adjustment to the complex by muf architecture/art can be seen on the West façade at Beehive Place.
Drop-in exhibition and tours on Sunday 22 September

Source:Image by French + Tye

Brockley House, SE4, by Office S&M

Brockley House, SE4, by Office S&M

Completed last year, Brockley House is a colourful renovation of a mid-century corner house in Lewisham, reimagined by Office S&M Architects for a young family of three. The design draws inspiration from cakes, American diners and digital art, and creatively reconfigures and extends the house to introduce dynamic light, drama and a sense of joy throughout.
Drop-in tours on Sunday 15 September

Source:Image by Jim Stephenson

Costa's Barbers, SW11, by Brisco Loran and Arrant Industries

Costa’s Barbers, SW11, by Brisco Loran and Arrant Industries

This high street shop was recently converted by Brisco Loran into a home with a continued, strengthened and adaptable relationship to its street. This allows the former shop floor to be used for commercial or public purposes when desired. Currently occupied as both home and architecture studio, the project was collaboratively self-built by its designers.
Drop-in tours on Saturday 14 September and Saturday 21 September

Source:Image by Ståle Eriksen

Blockmakers Arms, N1 by Erbar Mattes Architects

Blockmakers Arms, N1, by Erbar Mattes Architects

The Blockmakers Arms is a mid-19th-century former pub in the Regent’s Canal Conservation Area. The site was formerly owned by the Wenlock Brewery and continued to operate as a pube well into the 1960s. In the 1970s it was converted to residential use and subdivided into three independent flats. As part of this conversion, an external stair was added to the rear façade to connect the upper floors.
Drop-in tours on Saturday 21 September

Source:Image by George Selley and Woody Holding

Found(ation), SE1, by Hannah Sheerin and Lioba Pflaum

Found(ation), SE1, by Hannah Sheerin and Lioba Pflaum

Designed by by Lioba Pflaum and Hannah Sheerin, Found(ation) is the winner of the Antepavillion 2024 competition for a pop-up installation on a corner site in Southwark formerly occupied by a Soviet T-34 tank. A ‘pretty’ foundation is displayed within a future, fictional archaeological site that reveals the condition of London’s soil.
Drop-in tours on Saturday 21 September and Sunday 22 September