Open House Festival 2026

For nine days in September, buildings across all 33 London boroughs open their doors to anyone who wants to walk in, and it costs nothing. The Open House Festival runs from 12 to 20 September 2026 — two weekends and the weekdays between them — and this is its 35th edition.

The premise has not changed since 1992: livery halls, government offices, private houses, power stations, social housing estates, architects’ studios and places of worship that are normally shut, ticketed or simply unnoticed agree to open for free, with no membership and no gatekeeping. What began as one London weekend has since been copied in more than sixty cities worldwide, from New York and Chicago to Brno, through the Open House Worldwide network.

The festival is run by Open City, a registered charity (no. 1072104) whose work extends well past the September programme: year-round architecture walking tours, an education arm in 50 London schools, and the Accelerate mentoring scheme for young people traditionally excluded from architecture. All proceeds go back into that work.

Planning a visit. The 2026 programme was published on the festival website on 15 July. Most open days need no booking at all — you turn up during the published hours — but the ticketed activities are the ones that fill first: bookings for those open at midday on Wednesday 19 August 2026, and you need a free account on the Open City site before you can reserve. If you are travelling to London for the festival, that is the date to put in the diary, not the September weekend.

Access. Participating buildings publish their own access information in the programme. Anyone with specific access requirements can raise them with the festival team through the contact page on the Open City site.

Opening a building. Anyone responsible for a London building or space — an owner, a collective, a community group — can apply to take part as a festival contributor. Open City publishes its curatorial criteria, an application route and online surgeries for first-time contributors.

Where to look: the full programme and booking are on the Open House Festival pages; Open City’s year-round walking tours are listed separately at open-city.org.uk/events.

Sources: Open City — Open House Festival 2026 (dates, 35th edition, 33 boroughs, programme and booking dates, access); Open City — About (charity status, education figures, Accelerate); Merlin Fulcher, Editorial Director, Open City, correspondence of 6 August 2026 (festival duration and dates).