Rogers House in Wimbledon, designed by Richard Rogers and Su Rogers
(Picture: Iwan Baan)Open House Festival is in with a fortnight-long programme of free tours and events celebrating London’s housing, architecture and landscapes.
This year, the 30th anniversary festival will feature its most diverse mix of events to date, including tours of buildings never before opened to the public, music performances and supper clubs in unique and hidden spaces.
Over 100 homeowners will open the doors of their homes for the public to explore, many of them for the first time or back this year after a long hiatus. Free tours range from multi-million-pound houses designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects to some of Britain’s most striking council estates.
There is a mix of drop-in venues — so no bookings required — and ticketed tours. All tickets are free but numbers are limited, so book soon to secure a place. Head to the Open House website for tickets and tour information.
Here’s my pick of 10 private London homes opening their doors at this year’s festival.
1. Fog House, Clerkenwell
By Sir David Adjaye for Janet Street-Porter
This year we’ve worked with a handful of Londoners to create their hit-list of places opening for the festival, including writer and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter.
A lesser-known fact is that Street-Porter is an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architecture and, in 2004, commissioned starchitect Sir David Adjaye to design a home in Clerkenwell.
“He called it the Fog House, which I found very pretentious and which we had a very public falling out over,” says Street-Porter.
The space had been a leather tanning factory, partly modernised and used as a studio by the artist Marc Quinn.
“Adjaye added a glass top floor and rear extension, making it a house on five levels with two bedrooms and bathrooms,” says Street-Porter. “The top floor has a wonderful view over the churchyard behind, which was worth all the misery of the building process.”
Street-Porter sold the property in 2016 but many elements of the original transformation are still on show today, including kitchen units spray-painted an electric shade of lavender — colourmatched to Street-Porter’s office desk designed by architect Piers Gough at her previous home around the corner.
Guided tours of the Fog House will take place on September 14.
2. Rogers House, Wimbledon
By Richard and Su Rogers, restored by Gumuchdjian Architects
If you don’t know who architect Richard Rogers was, chances are you will know some of the other buildings he designed, such as the Pompidou Centre and Lloyds of London.
For the 30th anniversary of the Open House Festival, 22 Parkside in Wimbledon, a home designed by Rogers for his parents, will be opening its doors.
To see how someone as seminal as Rogers — well known for designing iconic public buildings — worked at the intimate level of creating a home for his parents, is a special opportunity.
I’m delighted to see this back in the programme after an 11-year hiatus.
Tours and talks are taking place at the home from September 8 to 10.
3. Mansfield Road, Gospel Oak
By Gordon Benson & Alan Forsyth
Designed between 1972 and 1980 by Gordon Benson and Alan Forsyth, this long terrace was a late addition to the Borough of Camden’s ‘Golden Era’ of housing. Resident Stefi Orazi has an exceptional eye for design; when visiting be sure to ask her about her favourite details around her home. The original red tiles used throughout the interior and exterior, for example, create a sense of continuation with the access gallery.
A real win with this year’s opening of Mansfield Road is that two flats will be open. It’s fascinating to see different layouts of two homes within the same terrace, and, what I enjoy most, how each individual has made it their own.
Visit on 17 or 18 September.
4. Dawson’s Heights, East Dulwich
By Kate Macintosh
Don’t go up the Shard for the best view of London — go up to Dawson’s Heights. This two-block social housing estate with just under 300 homes has arguably the best uninterrupted views of the London skyline and is as popular with the residents as it is with architecture enthusiasts.
Being able to see inside someone’s home at one of these iconic estates is the best way of getting a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the values, hopes and ambitions the architect set out to achieve through their design.
Tours are taking place on September 10.
5. Pocket House, East Dulwich
By Tikari Works
This extremely successful home design won a RIBA London award and was shortlisted for Grand Designs’ House of the Year in 2019.
Pocket House was built on the site of two garages — a very small site on which to create a family home, even by London standards. Expect plenty of ingenious design techniques that really maximise every inch of this tiny home.
What the architect-owners have done is so impressive that you have to see it to believe it.
The open day is taking place on September 10, and numbers will be limited to 20 at one time.
6. Winscombe Street, Camden
By Neave Brown
This terrace of five houses was designed in the 1960s by renowned architect Neave Brown, originally for his family and friends. The terrace is praised for being a vision for how community-spirited life should be. You can see this in the clever and generous layout of each home, and how the houses relate to each other.
This opening is particularly special because it’s the first time a home in this terrace has been in the festival programme and, considering it became the blue-print for some of the most iconic post-war council housing, it is well worth a visit. I’ve never seen glass bricks look so good!
Head to the Camden terrace on September 18.
7. Havant Road, Walthamstow
This is the first year that owner Natasha Landers has opened her home for the festival, but I’m so pleased she has. This is a pretty classic Walthamstow Victorian terrace, uplifted with a burst of sunshine yellow in the living areas. What I love most is that designer Natasha has lived here and worked on this house for the last 22 years.
The home has been knocked around and tinkered with, bit by bit, over the years. For me, this house exemplifies what we can do when we have space, time and, crucially, agency over the spaces where we live — three things many Londoners do not have.
Visit the home on September 9 and 10, 16 and 17.
8. Beyond Beck Road, Hackney
Beck Road is a street near London Fields in Hackney made up of modest and unmodified terraced houses, punctuated by a railway arch. This street has a rich history with a longstanding tie to the art community which started in the 1970s when a community of squatters began occupying empty and derelict houses.
On September 10 and 11, the work of 10 artists will be on display in homes and studios on the road, and there will be a street installation. There were over 5000 visitors to the road in 2019, and this year the residents are building on their plans.
Beck Road is a brilliant example of how communities and neighbourhoods can come together and use the platform of the Open House Festival to share what they care about with a big audience. It’s about showing-off what happens inside even the most modest of architecture.
Head over on September 10 or 11 for the open studios and installation.
9. Mountain View House, Sydenham
By CAN architects
A home that’s playful, kitsch, surreal and calming — all at the same time. Architect Mat Barnes became fascinated by photos taken during the construction of Disneyland’s Matterhorn ride and of fake mountain scenery while working on the extension and renovation of his own Edwardian home, which he shares with his wife and two young children.
The family have experimented with repurposing materials otherwise destined for waste. For instance, the colourful kitchen countertops are made from a terrazzo of recycled chopping boards and milk-bottle tops.
Tours are taking place on September 17 and 18.
10. A houseboat, Haggerston Wharf
I’ve always wanted a houseboat to be included at the festival and, to my delight, we have three in Haggerston Wharf this year.
Open House is about celebrating the most iconic architecture, the most compelling interiors, but it’s also one of the only festivals of its kind where one person generously opens up their own home for others to explore and learn from; where you can get inside buildings and meet people whose path you otherwise might never cross.
What better way to exemplify this than getting into a houseboat and finally, as the one of the boat residents says, take your chance to have all your houseboat toilet related questions answered for once and for all.
