UNESCO world heritage site: Westminster Abbey is among the many highlights of this year’s Open House London

The London Open House Festival takes place this year from September 13 to 21, and as well as the always fascinating and revealing opportunities it presents with buildings around the capital, there’s also a better-than-usual programme arranged in and around Croydon this year.

There’s even a chance to visit the Gigglemugs who inhabit Croydon Town Hall…

This year’s London Open House line up will be the biggest and boldest edition yet, set across 32 London boroughs and the City of London, the festival is set to include more than 800 free open days and events to highlight landmark architectural projects, government buildings, local communities, towering skyscrapers, and the city’s most interesting homes.

Bookings opened earlier this week, and you do need to register on the Open House website to book your places, which are mostly free.

This year’s confirmed highlights include:

• Venues in the Olympic Park, including the London Aquatics Centre, Sadler’s Wells East, The Loop (a circular economy hub at Hackney Wick), and a park-wide tour with architects from Allies and Morrison
• Westminster Abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage site, dating from the 11th century and including stunning examples of Gothic and Medieval architecture
• The Museum of Homelessness, which occupies a 1869 former park keepers’ lodge, created from scratch by people with experience of homelessness
• The first Lewisham self-build houses designed by Walter Segal at 11 Elstree Hill
• The popular Golden Key Academy walking tours this year include the first tour for joggers – south of the river at speed!, Bricks of Brick Lane and Belgravia’s 200 years of glory: from swamp to splendour
• Leadenhall Market, a covered market with roots in Roman Londinium, now home to 40 retail and restaurant brands

Fascinating tour: Leadenhall Market, on the site of Roman Londinium’s forum, is steeped in history.

The festival will once again run its Building by Public Ballot collection, giving visitors a once-in-a-lifetime chance to step inside some of London’s most remarkable and protected buildings.

The ballot system presents a free and fair way to allocate tickets to some of the most high-profile buildings in the Festival.

London’s deputy mayor Justine Simons, a guest curator for the 2025 festival, sais: “Culture is bringing us together, building real life, human connections. Culture is supporting our health and wellbeing, offering our young people a positive life path and revitalising our neighbourhoods.”

The Croydon Open House highlights include…

• Polaroids of Croydon, a walking tour led by author and friend of Inside Croydon, the always excellent John Gridrod

• MHA The Wilderness, a visit to the garden originally created by Rev William Wilks, the former secretary of the Royal Horticultural Society and breeder of the Shirley poppy

• South Norwood Library

• 

  Rare opportunity: get to delve inside the ancient Almshouses

  Whitgift Almshouses, with guided tours around and inside one of the most historic buildings in the borough, which dates back to 1596. David Morgan, Croydon Minster archivist and Inside Croydon’s resident historian, will be leading some of the tours.

And those Gigglemugs?

Award-winning storyteller Bernadette Russell leads a tour of the Town Hall for five- to eight-year-olds (siblings and grown-ups welcome).

Visit the festival website to see the full programme preview and register to book: click here.

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details

• Inside Croydon has moved to Bluesky. Click here to join us there for latest updates and insights

PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates

• Check out our archive of podcasts on Spotify, including our monthly news discussion panel show thingy, the Croydon Insider, and The Andrew Fisher Interview

• If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com

• As featured on Google News Showcase

• We offer FREE ads to community groups when they have members who are paid subscribers to Inside Croydon

• Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here

• Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network