IT'S THE SHOWDOWN YOU'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR — the London Boroughs Logo World Cup! Over the next week we'll be sifting the chic from the weak in a democratic battle to crown the best borough logo in London.
Huge congratulations to South Norwood's
@BrutalistLib
community who have won a battle to keep the library in its handsome 1966 home designed by Hugh Lea. This was a real community campaign and the library was a great highlight of Open House Festival in recent years. 💚🗝️💚
An absolute travesty of city stewardship. This is a huge demolition project. London and the climate cannot afford to go on like this. These demolitions must end.
A construction worker building part of the Golden Lane Estate in 1956 in the City of London. Taken from Owen Hatherley's brilliant double book review of 'Building Utopia' and
@modernistestate
's 'Golden Lane Estate: An Urban Village' in
@tribunemagazine
The 1979 Whittington Estate in Highgate New Town, designed by Peter Tabori and Ken Adie is just one of the amazing locations you can visit during this year's Open House Festival 🏘️🌿
Congratulations to Kate Macintosh – architect of London’s iconic Dawson’s Heights and Grade II-listed Macintosh Court – and winner of this year’s Jane Drew Prize for dedication to ‘innovation, diversity and inclusiveness’
Our brand new website featuring all the buildings' opening times, interactive maps, an improved personal booking dashboard, and drop-in feature is now LIVE! Go ahead and start securing your must-visit activities! 🔗 Link in bio.
#openhousefestival
#explorelondon
OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2019 starts today!!
This year we have over 800 buildings, walks, talks and tours in the programme. For full listings, to find out important info about the event or to start planning using our top picks & themes:
#OHL19
#LoveLondon
#design
Good morning! It's day 1 of
#openhouselondon
and we're extremely excited for all of you to explore London's finest architecture. What's first on your list?
Congratulations to our chief exec
@PhinHarper
who has been given an honorary fellowship of the RIBA in recognition of their contribution to architecture. 💚🗝️
📣 NEWS: The 2022 RIBA Honorary Fellows have been announced. The 23 new Honorary Fellowships have been awarded to individuals for their contribution to architecture with backgrounds ranging from education to arts, engineering, and business:
Ok London, let's do this. The 2021
#OpenHouseLondon
Festival is now on!
🚲 Walk or cycle where possible.
🌊 Stay hydrated.
😇 Show love to the volunteers.
🎟️ Cancel tickets you aren't going to use so someone else can have that place.
#LetsDoLondon
!
Happy
#InternationalWomensDay
! Women have not had as much chance to shape the architecture of London as men - and many of the estates pioneering women architects did contribute to are now under threat of demolition such as Central Hill by Rosemary Stjernstedt.
@savecentralhill
Thank you all for another successful Open House Weekend, we hope you all had fun exploring London's finest architecture. Dates for 2019 are 21 & 22 September.
Charles Holden is perhaps best known for designing many of London's icon tube stations in the 20s and 30s - here are some of his iconic designs - what do you think? Love them or hate them?
#londonunderground
Very sad to see politicians calling for "nine-foot tall aluminium barriers" around one of London's few unfenced-off public parks. The best parks in London (Burgess, London Fields, Victoria etc) are always open. Primrose Hill should remain open also.
Lovely tour of
@StPaulsLondon
as part of
#ohl20
today. Thank you so much for letting us into the Triforium and letting us know so much detail about the space!
Presenting, a new series of print and audio tours exploring London's most compelling neighbourhoods. A way to explore the city whatever restrictions come our way — and the perfect stocking filler as well! £5.50 print only or £10 with the audio tour too.
Our volunteers are making a big series of walking and cycling tours of London for people feeling stuck and isolated during
#lockdown3
. If you would like to help, especially if you can help draw legible route maps by hand or computer, please email openhouse
@open
-city.org.uk 💚🗝️
In the light of Covid-19, we've radically rethought the Open House guidebook.
Presenting: The Alternative Guide to the Boroughs of London, edited by
@owenhatherley
.
Support Open House by pre-ordering a copy today at a special early bird price.
The sun sets on
@openhouselondon
's bonanza opening weekend. Thank you everyone; volunteers, staff, friends, sponsors and collaborators who helped bring
#OpenHouse2020
to life against all the odds. Watch out for more programme over the next seven days too.
💚🗝️
HERE IT IS. THE FINAL. It has been a wild ride but we're down to two teams vying for 1st place in this epic tournament. CAMDEN and HACKNEY. Both have seen off rivals with their bold and historic designs, but now they face each other.
Congratulations
@selasi_setufe
who has been awarded an MBE for services to diversity in architecture in the new year's honours list. Selasi is a co-director of
@BlackFemArc
& a senior architect at
@BeFirstLondon
. In 2021 she also hosted our podcast series Slavery & the City. 💚🗝️
Just finished our Open House London closing party for 2018. That went quick didn't it? We hope you all had a great weekend and thank you to all the building owners and volunteers for giving up your weekend and to
@AKT_II
,
@derwentlondon
and White Collar Factory for hosting us!
Deptford's Pepys Estate, designed by GLC Architects and featuring a raft of historic naval structures is just one of the amazing locations you can visit during this year's Open House Festival 🏙️🌿📷
The art-deco St. Olaf House at Southwark was completed in 1932 as an office for the Hays Wharf Company. It is named after St. Olaf (or Olave), King of Norway, who fought against Sweyn Forkbeard's Danish army at London Bridge in 1014.
Have you heard about the new amazing roof garden in
@cityoflondon
? It is the largest roof top public space located atop the newly opened Fen Court office building at 120 Fenchurch Street. It's open to the public, no booking required! Check it out! 📷 Eric Parry Architects
We visited
@MuseumofLondon
's stunning new under-construction home in West Smithfield (due to open 2026) to see how
@_SW_News
,
@asifkhan_now
and Julian Harrap are transforming Sir Horace Jones' former markets into a new shared space for Londoners and visitors 🗝️🚉
Dorset Estate in Tower Hamlets, a stop on our East London housing tour designed by Skinner, Bailey and Lubetkin and completed in 1957. The blocks are named after the Tolpuddle Martyrs, heroes of the trade union movement.
#london
#londonhousing
#eastlondon
📷
@chairman_love
Day Two of
#OpenHouseLondon
! 💚🗝️💚 Many sites still have space for visitors. We recommend:
Greenwich Yacht Club
Walters Way
Tooting Bec Lido
Polish Social and Cultural Association
The interior of Tooting Bingo Hall originally designed as a 1931 cinema by Cecil A. Massey in the manner of a spectacular gothic church. Photo is by Andy Pool and was taken during the 2009
#OpenHouseFestival
.
It's a wrap!
#OpenHouseLondon
Festival 2021 is officially over for another year. Thank you everyone who donated, volunteered, contributed and visited Here's to a more open, equitable and accessible city! 💚🗝️ .
Please support our work here:
Did you visit some of London's most iconic & interesting buildings, join a talk or tour as part of OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2019 this weekend? We'd love to hear your thoughts about the experience you had - the good, the bad & the ugly:
#OHL19
#Londonarchitecture
Ealing Village was developed in the 1930's in the hope of luring in starlets from the nearby film studios-by building a slice of Hollywood in West London! We worked with two residents to see what its like to live in this glamorous space:
@edwardmbishop
AND WE'RE OFF! It's day one of the two week 2022 Open House Festival! Already numerous events are already taking place across London from building openings to walking tours. Head to to browse the programme. Tag us on
#OpenHouseLondon
happy exploring!
🚫⚠️ Despite the efforts of
@SAVEBrit
and
@C20Society
, including alternative plans for conversion as part of new cruise terminal plans, Southampton’s unlisted Solent Flour Mills have been levelled by Associated British Ports 📸 Images by
@DDayCenter
The 2021 Open House book will not be a guide to buildings open for the festival, but a guide to the cultural, architectural and social history of London's pubs featuring an extraordinary array of writers exploring over 100 London boozers. Pre-order here:
Open House London programme will go live on 20 August at 10am, we hope you are excited to see the programme! Note that regarding our ballot buildings there is no rush to sign up on 20th as the ballot stays open until early September.
#openhouselondon
#OHL19
Following a resurgence of council housing in the new millennium,
@EnfieldCouncil
contracted Peter Barber Architects to design a row of three storey townhouses on Ordnance Road. This film explores this project, and some of
@PpeterPeter
's other work across Enfield.
@clickclickjim
Congratulations to
@C20Society
president
@cath_slessor
and the Edinburgh team who tonight stormed to victory in the finals of Christmas
#UniversityChallenge
! Outstanding performance. What a nice high to end 2021 on.
How not to treat nature or your neighbours. Honestly, if you don't like the sound of birds near your house (the reason these people cited for hacking apart the pictured tree), don't get a house next to a tree in the first place!
Battersea Power Station by J. Theo Halliday and Giles Gilbert Scott.
Photographed by
@merlinfulcher
in 2012, the year the building appeared in
#openhouselondon
festival.
Hi
@AaronBastani
. Thank you for posting about ill-concieved demolitions of the past. Many communities are still under threat of losing their homes to demolition today. Will you use your platform to help those fighting demolition such as
@SaveCressingham
?🙏
Competition time!
Every copy of our new book, ‘London Feeds Itself edited’ by Jonathan Nunn (
@demarionunn
), comes with this huge map of London featuring many famous and lesser known landmarks within its watercolour details. 1/4
The Art Deco-style Trevithick House created by the St Pancras Housing Association in 1938 is just one of the amazing locations you can visit during this year's Open House Festival 🏙️🌿📷
TODAY: the 2020 Open House London festival programme went LIVE 🥳
Explore the building list 👉
To celebrate, we'll share some of the many architectural gems you can discover in during Open House London Weekend this September
#OHL20
🗝️
1/N... 🤗
GOOD MORNING LONDON BOROUGH LOGO FANS! It is day 3 of the
#BoroughLogosWorldCup
. Lambeth was just knocked out by Brent and we have three big matches today: Southwark vs Bexley, Merton vs Camden and Hillingdon vs Richmond upon Thames.
One of the towers of the World's End Estate by Jim Cadbury-Brown and Eric Lyons, completed in 1975. A remarkable set of dwellings — each flat has views in several directions with natural cross ventilation and a very characterful layout.
#london
#londonarchitecture
📷
@PhinHarper
Together with the brilliant
@modernistestate
, we have created a charter for open and equitable urban tours affirming the rights and responsibilities of the public in exploring the great architecture of London's streets and beyond.
Today is DAY TWO of OPEN HOUSE LONDON 2019!!
It's World CAR FREE day & Santander bikes are FREE today too, so grab a bike and explore our amazing city for FREE - with over 800
#buildings
,
#walks
,
#talks
and
#tours
in the programme:
#OHL19
#architecture
In the early 1930's,
@WembleyPark
was selected as part of the Metropolitan line for it's quick and easy access from Central London. The station was designed to incorporate additional platforms to handle large passenger numbers, which still boasts its original layout today.
#OHL19
Next week we're heading to a fascinating grade-2 listed self-build on the Isle of Dogs (which you may have spied from Greenwich) as part of our 2022 Friends Programme. If you'd like to join us then support our work by becoming a Friend of Open City today
If you're looking to do some Twitter housekeeping to start the year, we've put together a list of ten great Twitter accounts to follow for inspiring, engaging and amusing commentary on London's urban landscape - so your next scroll through the feed will be slightly less mindless!
Greenwich observatory at sunset. You can just about see the red time ball which was first used in 1833. At 12.55pm, the ball rises up a shaft and at 1pm exactly, the ball falls signalling the hour. Public clocks are a great example of civic architecture for social value.
Congratulations to the legendary architectural writer,
@cath_slessor
(shown here receiving her MBE for services to architectural journalism) who has been nominated as the new president of
@C20Society
. We discuss her nomination in the LNDDWN podcast:
For the first time in Open House history, Edenham Way, the low-rise Ernő Goldfinger block in north Kensington, will be opening a flat for visits on Sunday afternoon. Huge thanks to
@CheltenhamEst
for organising this event. Volunteers are very welcome.
It's the FINAL DAY of
#OpenHouseLondon
Festival 2021! Thank you to all the amazing volunteers, supporters and donors who have made this year's festival such fun. For a last-minute Sunday stop-off we recommend Cressingham Gardens in Lambeth, open until 4pm
Juicy, accessible, intimate film tours of special buildings and landscapes across London now live and free for everyone during
@openhouselondon
.
#LondonIsOpen