From private homes to public buildings, nearly 70 buildings in Camden are open for business for Open House weekend in September. Here’s the best of what’s open.

Ham & High: Hidden House by Coffey ArchitectsHidden House by Coffey Architects (Image: timothy soar)

When Open House London returns on the weekend of the 16th and 17th September, 69 of Camden’s most elusive and mysterious buildings will be open to the public for a snoop around. All of the big names will open their doors, including Burgh House, Fenton House and, of course, Keats House, but alongside the borough’s most famous residences will be the lesser known of our local architectural gems.

Amongst architectural practices’ offices, corporate buildings and housing estates are some of the more esoteric properties and buildings that call Camden home.

Here’s our guide to what you should mark with an X in Camden:

Ham & High: The Hampstead home of modernist architect Erno GoldfingerThe Hampstead home of modernist architect Erno Goldfinger (Image: PA Archive/Press Association Images)

Best for small spaces

Hidden House, 59 Kingsway Place, Sans Walk, EC1R 0LU

From Coffey Architects, Hidden House is a one storey home built in 2016 and set on top of the former vaults belonging to the Clerkenwell House of Detention. Hard to locate, it has two bedrooms and bathrooms hidden inside an oak panelled perimeter and punched roof peppered with rooflights.

Ham & High: The London skyline's infamous BT TowerThe London skyline's infamous BT Tower (Image: Archant)

Best for the Bond fan

2 Willow Road, Hampstead, NW3 1TH

One of the first controversial properties acquired by The National Trust, this Modernist property was designed by Ernö Goldfinger in 1939 and still contains his collection of modern art and furniture. A terrace of three houses, it was home to the architect until his death in the late 1980s. In true Modernist style, concrete dominates the structure of the building which is clad in red brick. It is said that the local uproar over the building, which replaced older cottages, inspired the name of Ian Fleming’s Bond villain.

Ham & High: Alexandra & Ainsworth Estate (Rowley Way) in South HampsteadAlexandra & Ainsworth Estate (Rowley Way) in South Hampstead (Image: Archant)

Best for those with their heads in the clouds

BT Tower, 45 Maple Street, W1T 4BG

Built in 1965 by GR Yeats, this icon on the London skyline is open for visitors keen to explore the famous revolving floor, 158 metres above the capital’s city floor.

Ham & High: Artists Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth used to hang out at the Isobar here with other north London intellectualsArtists Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth used to hang out at the Isobar here with other north London intellectuals (Image: Archant)

Best for Brutalism

Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate, Rowley Way, NW8 0SF

Neave Brown’s famous social housing scheme is known as much for its ambition in providing a solution to the social housing question in the late 1960s as it is for its appearance in numerous television programmes and films including Kingsman: The Secret Service and Prime Suspect. Visit five flats within the estate that was Grade II* listed in 1993.

Saturday 16th only

Ham & High: The elusive Freemasons Lodge will be opening its doorsThe elusive Freemasons Lodge will be opening its doors (Image: Archant)

Best for Modernism

Isokon Building, Lawn Road, NW3 2DX

Designed by renowned pre-war Modernist Wells Coates, this Grade I listed block of Hampstead flats was created for furniture designers Jack and Molly Pritchard. Other notable residents included novelist Agatha Christie and cold war spy recruiter and NKVD agent Dr Arnold Deutsch. European émigrés of the Bahaus style of architecture like Walter Gropius and Moholy-Nagy also lived in the building which became a hub of north London intellectual society. In 1937 the communal kitchen became the Isobar restaurant, which served famous faces such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

Ham & High: White on White, 13 St Mark's Crescent, NW1 7TSWhite on White, 13 St Mark's Crescent, NW1 7TS (Image: Archant)

Best for conspiracy theorists

Freemasons’ Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, WC2B 5AZ

Designed in 1927, the notorious Freemasons’ Hall was designed by Ashley and Newman. Its classical exterior is matched by its elaborate interior decoration featuring mosaic, stained glass and ornate ceilings.

Sunday only

Best for eco warriors

44 Willoughby Road, 44 Willoughby Road, NW3 1RU

This RIBA award shortlisted building was designed by Guard Tillman Pollock Architects as a floating box with integrated gardens on every level, alongside mesh screens. The new-build, open-plan structure includes sustainable features such as heat pump, PV panels and water collection mechanisms. You’ll know it when you see it.

Best for extension inspiration

White on White, 13 St Mark’s Crescent, NW1 7TS

Gianni Botsford Architects added this tiny glass extension to this Camden home with the intention for it to be invisible from the Canal tow path. As a result, it’s a glass box sunk into the ground.

Best for refurbishment inspiration

3 Wedderburn Road, NW3 5QS

This transformation of a Grade II listed Victorian property in Belsize Park will show you how to tackle that tricky fusion of modernity with the Victorian fabric of north London’s housing stock. The contemporary alteration and extension by Finkernagel Ross is built almost entirely out of glass and is capped with a floating, marble-clad canopy.

Saturday only

Best for something old and something new

Royal College of Physicians, 11 St Andrew’s Place, Regents Park, NW1 4LE

Designed by Sir Denys Lasdun, the Royal College of Physicians is renowned for its magnificent interiors and white mosaic exteriors. The now Grade I listed building was redesigned after the RCP bought Someries House in 1958 and decided to fix it up and repair bomb damage. The new building fused Lasdun’s Modernist ideals with the classical architecture of the surrounding Nash terraces.

Sunday only

You can see the full list of buildings opening their doors in Camden and across the rest of London here.