Free London Event - Open House 20-21 Sept

Kimberry

Advance notice for a free event in London next week. :j

Open House 2008 (20-21 September)

This is an annual event to promote London's architecture. Many buildings around London will be open to public - admission is free for all.

What is it?
The entry covers a wide range of buildings: offices, residential, government, embassy, musem, theatre... some are out of access from the general public most of the year. Some building will provide regular talks and tours.
For example, well known spots included City Hall, Fleet Street (ex Daily Express), Lloyd's London, Foreign Office & India Office etc.

Where to start?
If you never been to this event, you can plan your trip using the online search. You can check out the event by area/ borough in Google map. It will show you a brief description of the buildings, opening time and any special events or themes.
You can visit during their opening time. For the popular choices, e.g. Bank of England, the description will shown a 'expected long queue' message or 'first come basis'. Some events need advance booking, this will marked as 'Pre-book' and tell you the booking method. Popular events such as London eye, the places are very limited. It would be fully booked by now.

This is only a brief message (and very un-offical), for full details please refere to the event web site. I've been to this for a few years and really enjoy the weekend walking around, seeing things 'behind the screen'. Highly recommanded to everyone!

Official information page:
http://www.londonopenhouse.org/public/london/event.html

Online search/ plan your visits:
http://www.londonopenhouse.org/public/london/find/

Official MoneySavingExpert.com Insert:

Great spot! There are many buildings available such as Arsenal's Emirates stadium, Lloyds of London, the Olympic Stadium and the Bank of England. The organisers have confirmed the London Eye is already fully booked, as is Jimi Hendrix' flat in case anyone was interested in seeing it.

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b1g1an

Unbelievable, every year I try to get tickets for the Gherkin and it's not even opening this year!

Pip26

Great - thanks for posting - meant to do some last year but coudn't and thought that I'd missed it this year. Know will have missed some bookable things but would have bypassd me altogether if you hadn't posted - thanks!

Lwt_Big_Cheese

Great idea, I was in London yesterday.


Only, the message didn't come through until today the 22nd! :silenced:

Kimberry

I am sorry to hear that Lwt Big Cheese! this event take place in mid Sep every year. Still got chance next year!

For those who have a green booklet, don't forget that the building marked with key 'N' is open to the public most days and free of charge.

Kimberry

This is the photo sharing website for the events this year. They are post by the visitors, more photos will be post in the coming weeks.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/openhouselondon2008/pool/

A taste of what you can see during the Open House weekend. It helps to draw up the visit plan!

Some buildings, like City Hall, host their own free open day through out the year.