Press Release: 2021 Open House Festival to boost London’s cultural and economic reopening from 4 September

The 30th edition of London’s Open House Festival will launch on Saturday 4 September with hundreds of buildings and landscapes open and tours taking place over nine days across the city.

Open City, the charity behind the Open House Festival, is pleased to announce that the 30th edition of London’s largest festival of special buildings and landscapes will take place from Saturday 4 September to Sunday 12 September 2021. 

The festival, which runs for nine days including two weekends, will see hundreds of buildings and landscapes across the capital open up to the public for visits and tours, alongside a city-wide programme for all ages and abilities including numerous outdoor events.

Some highlights from the programme already confirmed include tours of the outstanding Modernist Isokon Building in Camden; Richard Rogers’ new Centre Building for the LSE; 6A Architects’ stunning reworking of an old fire station to create the South London Gallery; Greenwich’s Design District a new neighbourhood of creative workspaces designed by some of the world’s best architects; and Van Gogh’s former home in Stockwell.

This year’s Open House Festival will include a particular focus on London’s pubs with the publication of a new book, Public House, a Cultural and Social History of the London Pub, tracing the story of the city through 120 remarkable pubs across all 33 boroughs and multiple pubs and breweries taking part in the festival for the first time.

The weekend celebration will be the first in a year of programmes marking the 30th anniversary of Open City, a charity dedicated to making London and other cities more open, equitable and accessible. The festival, which in a typical year sees 250,000 people visit over 800 buildings across all participating boroughs, is the largest in a network of 46 festivals opening up buildings and conversations about city-making across the world.

Siân Milliner, Head of Open House Festival, said “Following the vaccination rollout, the 2021 Open House Festival will be a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the reopening of cultural life across the capital with a programme of in-person, outdoor and some online events. We hope the festival will strengthen London’s cultural and economic recovery and is timed to coincide with the final stages of the government’s vaccination programme.”

The 2021 Open House Festival will launch on Saturday 4 September and run for nine days until Sunday 12 September. Full listings for the 2021 Open House Festival will go live on the Open House Festival website in August with visitors required to book ahead for most events.

www.openhouselondon.org.uk

Notes for editors:

Pubs Book 

Public House, a Cultural and Social History of the London Pub is a new book published by 

Open City and edited by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro of architecture and urbanism practice, DK-CM. Tracing the development of the pub as an enduring institution through societal upheavals the book will connect changes in pubs with wider social and political movements; filled with original drawings, photography and archive material.

Impact of Covid

Like many charities, Open City was seriously affected by the pandemic, but while most British cultural organisations were forced to close their doors in 2020, Open City found effective ways to keep engaging large audiences throughout the year. The charity delivered extensive programmes including producing new digital and outdoor events, tours, films, podcasts, educational activities and publishing The Alternative Guide to the London Boroughs, a book featuring 33 writers exploring each of the 33 London boroughs.


Open House Festival 2020

The 2020 Open House Festival was smaller than previous years due to the pandemic but nonetheless successfully engaged over 100,000 people with a programme of digital and well managed in-person events with zero Covid-related infections reported afterwards.

About Open City

Open City is a charity dedicated to making cities more open, accessible and equitable. It supports children and young people, particularly from under-represented backgrounds to pursue careers in architecture and city-making professions, and stages Open House Festivals in London, Taipei, Lagos, New York and elsewhere.

Contact

press@open-city.org.uk

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