London Open House Weekend

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16th and 17th September this year.

Some great stuff,including The Balfron Tower in Poplar, a 16th century house in Leyton and Jimi Hendrix's flat.

Details: http://www.londonopenhouse.org/london/map/index-search.asp

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 09:44 (nineteen years ago)

Dude, I can go in the Balfron Tower every third rehearsal. What's the big deal there?

What else is there? One of these years, I'm going to get to go in St. Pancras Hotel...

― USB Coffeehub (kate), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 09:47 (nineteen years ago)

Oooh, the *actual* Brixton Windmill (not the pub of the same name) will be open! Excellent!

― USB Coffeehub (kate), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 09:49 (nineteen years ago)

i got up the gherkin a couple of years ago on one of these open house jobs, i jumped the 4 hour queue and don't feel even slightly guilty. NOT ONE DAMN BIT

my great aunt used to live on that balfron thingy estate (not up that tower though), it's no great shakes

― The Real DG (D to thee G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 09:54 (nineteen years ago)

I suppose I'm going to have to fork out £3 to get their catalogue because the online search thing is a bit rubbish. Why can't I just look for *all* things open in Lambeth?

I wouldn't mind seeing the Gherkin, though. Trying to think of the things I'd really like to see inside... Nash's Columnades in Regent's Park and stuff like that.

― USB Coffeehub (kate), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 09:56 (nineteen years ago)

sadly my camera at the time was a bit rubbish but i got a couple of decent pictures, i'll see if i can stick 'em up somewhere, the view is *awesome*

― The Real DG (D to thee G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 09:58 (nineteen years ago)

I went to the India Office one year, St Pancras Hotel, Lloyds Building, the big cinema on Kilburn High Road where the Beatles played and damaged the structure etc.

"Dude, I can go in the Balfron Tower every third rehearsal. What's the big deal there?" I imagine it's to see you rehearse whatever it is you're rehearsing, whoever you are.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 10:04 (nineteen years ago)

gherkin already sold out, north london university building on holloway road, ground floor only, lloyds looks a good one though

― -- (688), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:24 (nineteen years ago)

I will be out of the country, sadly.

The Pioneer Health Centre in Peckham's pretty good, and there's a great Streatham 1-2 of an inter-war high modernist housing estate and an ace byzantine church which had an early use of polychromatic brickwork. Yes, really.

My tip: use it as an excuse to get to a bit of Greater London you've never seen before, and have a look at the civic centre.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:32 (nineteen years ago)

Annoyed I missed Gherkin agane.

Balfron is tempting but would prefer Trellick.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:34 (nineteen years ago)

ALWAYS with the civic centres ;)

i am keen to see some stuff. i would like it more if someone decides and then just drags me round them :)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

The Towers Hamlets cemetery walk is recommended to anyone who hasn't visited the cemetery/park. Absolutely astonishing place, as long as you ingore the druggies and alcohloics

― Guilty Boksen (Bro_Danielson), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

astonishing druggies and alcoholics tho.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:36 (nineteen years ago)

Is that Christchurch, in Streatham? I noticed it was part of the open house.

― USB Coffeehub (kate), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

I went here last here:

http://static.flickr.com/32/45574038_44c0eeb8e3_m.jpg

Crossness Pumping House, SE2.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

My next door neighbours are architects, last year they were curating something in an old chapel building on Lee High Road they were restoring. I might ask them if there's anything decent hidden away I should look at.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

Yes! Christchurch in Streatham, and only a couple of hundred yards from Pullman Court, which is kinda fascinating if you like that kind of thing.

When I went last year, a couple of people had their flats open for you to look round, and they were trying to keep things as original as possible (including trying over time to replace original fittings and such where theirs had been lost or altered). This kind of obsessive behaviour is marvellous.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

On the Modernist front, the Finsbury Health Centre behind Exmouth Market is on the list. The outside looks disappointing in the flesh. I wonder if the inside is the same.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 11:57 (nineteen years ago)

Civic Centres are a great choice because:
(a) the odd-bits-of-London thing
(b) no-one visits them so there aren't any queues
(c) no-one visits them so the people there are bored and therefore are always pleased to see someone who takes an interest
(d) there's generally something interesting there if they've bothered to open it up (there's generally something interesting about everything if you can be bothered to look).

(At one of the ones I visited the year before last, the porter fellow was more interested in showing me their boring hi-tech meeting facilities than in the bits I wanted to see, which were the fab original 30s layout fittings, but he was totaly into showing me about.)

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:16 (nineteen years ago)

(oh the Ukrainian church near Bond St tube is ACES too: an Alfred Waterhouse elliptical number with some awesome understated tilework.)

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:17 (nineteen years ago)

and, of course, there's always the freemasons grand hall, which is totally worth a look if you're in the middle of town

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:21 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, but that has tours every day. (No, I am not the guide.)

― USB Coffeehub (kate), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:26 (nineteen years ago)

The old Daily Express building is no doubt worth a peek.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:33 (nineteen years ago)

The Daily Express place is one of the queue-round-the-block big hits each year, and you only get to see the old (way over the top) art deco foyer, which you can often see through the windows in the course of the year.

So I wouldn't bother, but if you must get there early or you'll spend a big chunk of the day there.

― Tim (Tim), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:37 (nineteen years ago)

i got up the gherkin a couple of years ago on one of these open house jobs, i jumped the 4 hour queue and don't feel even slightly guilty. NOT ONE DAMN BIT

you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. I queued up, and came very close to punching someone's lights out who tried to push in claiming he was meeting a friend near the front of the queue.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:41 (nineteen years ago)

The Express building is exactly how Tim describes it, but still fantastic.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:42 (nineteen years ago)

My dad used to work as a printer in Fleet Street and I rememeber always being fascinated by the Express building when I was a kid. That's my inspiration. I think I'll queue round the block for it. At least the block has curves.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:49 (nineteen years ago)

Presumably the more modern Civic Centres aren't worth a look (my exp. of these is disappointing - only dull offices in Uxbridge and Harrows ones iirc, tho the former does look bizarre and labyrinthine from the outside, almost resembling a giant walrus in my mind).

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:54 (nineteen years ago)

you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. I queued up, and came very close to punching someone's lights out who tried to push in claiming he was meeting a friend near the front of the queue.

i believe internet people say things like "pwn3d"

― The Real DG (D to thee G), Wednesday, 23 August 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

What does pwn3rd mean, RG? (Genuine curiosity)

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 24 August 2006 06:45 (nineteen years ago)

I can see how you might think it dull for a building to be like a giant labyrinthine walrus, Steve.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 24 August 2006 07:32 (nineteen years ago)

no don't me wrong, i loved the exterior, it was just v dull instead. it wasn't an old building with retro fittings and what have you.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 24 August 2006 08:40 (nineteen years ago)

I'm looking forward to climbing up the Hornsey Church Tower.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 24 August 2006 09:52 (nineteen years ago)

The Wanstead Quakers Meeting House is Open too. I pass this on the bus each day and it looks like a 1960's experiment dropped into a slice of Epping Forest.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:03 (nineteen years ago)

pwn3d

― The Real DG (D to thee G), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:48 (nineteen years ago)

i bet those quakers collaborate with the russian mafia to burn and bury bodies in the woods

― The Real DG (D to thee G), Thursday, 24 August 2006 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

Thanks for the vocab link, Real DG. I guess I was pwn3rd on that occasion, but I'll just have to live with that.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

it's amazing where student press ID cards will get you, not laid though :(

― The Real DG (D to thee G), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

Went into the Masonic Lodge in the Great Eastern hotel a couple of years ago. That was fun.

Oh, and the Lenin Memorial Library in Farringdon.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Thursday, 24 August 2006 11:43 (nineteen years ago)

The Marx Memorial Library is great. I see from the website they are selling pieces of lino from Lenin's office...

― jadrenos (jadrenos), Friday, 25 August 2006 07:40 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

Open House this weekend.

Highpoint fully booked, unfortunately.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 08:58 (nineteen years ago)

argh, still haven't decided on mode of attack for this yet.

am torn between heading to the suburbs for civic centre/bingo hall/whatever else is there fun or doing a big city/camden/westminster trawl of stuff i should have been to anyways...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 09:42 (nineteen years ago)

I should go to some stuff but no idea how I shall fit it in this weekend.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

Think I'm going to keep to Hackney [St Augustine's Tower / Town Hall], Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest.

Exceptions - the Daily Express building and Finsbury Health Centre, if the queues aren't too snakey.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 10:23 (nineteen years ago)

ha i see the Uxbridge Civic Centre is actually open. i do want to go and take some photos of it but can't this weekend. i really don't think there would be anything much of interest inside tho.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

I will prob go to Hackney Town Hall. The Pump House Steam & Transport Museum in Walthamstow area might be worth a look? What about PIMP Hall ("don't worry, it's just a name!")?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 13 September 2006 10:51 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

shiiiit I forgot it was this weekend.

who's going where?

― blueski, Friday, 14 September 2007 13:00 (eighteen years ago)

seven years pass...

i've somehow never done this. what's good to do that won't have gigantic queues?

― lex pretend, Friday, 19 September 2014 16:15 (eleven years ago)

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