Open House London Update

Our thoughts are with the family of the Queen this morning, as they mourn the loss of someone held dearly by so many. Over her 70 years as UK head of state, Queen Elizabeth II played an important role in the creation and restoration of London’s architectural heritage opening more than 100 buildings in the capital ranging from schools to hospitals, and airports to banking headquarters and transport interchanges.

The architecture of the ‘Second Elizabethan Era’ includes the 1969 Victoria Line, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon’s 1982 Barbican Centre, the 1997 Shakespeare's Globe on the Southbank, BBC Broadcasting House and Foster + Partners' iconic 2000 Great Court at the British Museum. Spanning from Lloyds Lime Street (opened in 1952) to the Elizabeth Line (opened in 2022), the period is defined by a wide range of architectural expressions spanning Classical Revival, Brutalist, High-Tech and Post-Modern styles.

In recognition of Queen Elizabeth II’s services to our city's built environment, we have compiled a tribute detailing 122 buildings she opened in London between her coronation in 1952 and her death aged 96 in 2022 which you can read here. We are also grateful to our comrades in the Open House Worldwide community around the globe who have sent condolences from their respective countries.

In light of the Queen's passing there will be some changes to Open House London 2022

Educational events including walking tours and building openings will generally continue as scheduled at the discretion of individual contributors and tour guides provided they can be conducted in a respectful manner. However celebratory events including parties and drinks reception will be postponed until a later date.

We understand that some Open House contributors would prefer to postpone events and tours they had scheduled for the coming days and will do everything we can as a charity to facilitate those postponements.

We are asking all contributors to email ticket holders directly to let them know whether scheduled events are going ahead or being postponed. Please check the live festival programme at programme.openhouse.org.uk for the latest information and remember to cancel any personal tickets that you have booked but are no longer able to use.

Thank you and best wishes from everyone at the Open City team.