Open House Festival London 2026 events in north London

Visits to former Art Deco cinemas turned into places of worship, award-winning architectural wonders, and the former homes of famous figures are on the programme for 2026.

But the week also offers are fascinating walking tours and special events happening at some of London's public buildings and museums.

Here are five suggestions across north and east London for the festival which runs from September 12-20 with all details and bookings at programme.openhouse.org.uk.

Take a tour of The Barbican's conservatory and adopt a plant

The iconic conservatory is set for restoration from 2027-2030 so here's a final chance to explore the architectural history of the garden designed in 1982 by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon.

Sessions include a guided tour from the Barbican Conservatory head gardener, the chance to hear from the team behind Barbican Renewal, or to adopt a cutting from the Conservatory with Wayward Plants, who have propagated the plants ready for you to take one home.

Visit the Bethnal Green Canal Club garden created by boat dwellers

The Canal Club in Waterloo Gardens Belmont Wharf is a 1978 modernist community centre designed by Julian Sofaer. The modest, open-plan space has a community garden developed by the boating community moored alongside it. The drop in day includes children's art activities and pizza making.

Visit Sigmund Freud's Belsize Park home - sit in the garden or see his famous couch which was shipped from Vienna before the Nazis could get hold of it. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Take a tour of historic Hampstead and sit in Dr Freud's garden

A quiet seat in the garden where John Keats was inspired to write Ode to a Nightingale or the home - now a museum - where Sigmund Freud lived out his final months after fleeing the Nazis, are both possible in one visit to historic Hampstead.

Fenton House with its lawn, orchard and collection of 18th century instruments and the Hampstead art gallery and museum Burgh House are also historic homes turned into public spaces in the leafy neighbourhood.

Visit an award-winning 'floating ark' house in Highgate

6 Wood Lane was designed by Birds Portchmouth Russum Architects in 2016 and is described as an "ark" that floats above a masonry base. The four storey house maximises a slim site on a street of period villas. Take a tour with architect Mike Russum to discover the entrance footbridge and elevated living area with a smokers' balcony overlooking the garden with a semi circular terrace looking out on to woods.

Modernist architecture lovers can get their fix nearby with a tour of the Highpoint flats in North Hill where Berthold Lubetkin - who also designed the penguin pool at London Zoo - put his ideas about urban planning into practice in 1935.

Kilburn Gaumont State cinema once played host to gigs by The Beatles and David Bowie but is now a church. (Image: RPO)

Visit an Art Deco cinema turned into a place of worship

The Gaumont State Theatre in Kilburn High Road opened in 1937 as a 4,004-seat super cinema with an illuminated tower that was designed to resemble the Empire State Building. In its hey day it hosted live gigs by a who's who of rock greats from The Beatles to David Bowie.

It's now a church and not often accessible to the public but for one day the Ruach City Church is allowing the public inside to get a peek at its Wurlitzer organ and explore its remarkable interior.

Further north west in Harrow lies the former Grosvenor Cinema, a Grade II* listed Art Deco gem with a well-preserved proscenium arch flanked by fluted columns that was fully restored by its new owners the Zoroastrian faith community.

Take a tour of a beautiful building that's been a bar, a nightclub and a warehouse before being restored to its former glory.

Eyeball a Shoreditch mixing console where hits have been made

Since being founded in 1984 Strongroom in Curtain Road, Shoreditch has produced some of the biggest records in British music and remains the largest independent recording studio in east London.

Visitors can discover the unique wall art by legendary Sex Pistols artist Jamie Reid that draws from druidic culture and sacred geometry to convey vital messages of hope, environmentalism and anti-fascism.

Explore the spaces where the likes of Nick Cave, Radiohead, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers, the Spice Girls and Little Simz cut their records.