Open House celebrates 25 years of unlocking London’s elusive spaces
![Vex House, by Chance de Silva Architects.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/e5JVMQwq9aLAC7tMbSRps3-415-80.jpg)
Architecture aficionados and nosey parkers will pour through the doors of more than 800 less-accessible London buildings for Open House this weekend. Alongside favourite staples like Renzo Piano’s Shard, the 25-year-old Open House scheme has 200 newcomers on its books. These include a good number of homes, such as the Science Lab in Waltham Forest, a restored and reimagined 1930s building by owner-designer Carlo Viscione; and Barrett’s Grove in Stoke Newington, a slim apartment block with wicker balconies by Amin Taha Architects.
Inspiring workplaces are also on the menu. DSDHA’s HQ for jeweller-to-the-stars Alex Monroe is a Corten steel-clad infill on Tower Bridge Road; while the stylish refurbishment of Connock & Lockie tailors on Lambs Conduit Street is by Benedetti Architects. On a more corporate scale, the metropolitan police’s New Scotland Yard has moved back into its old home, a 1930s neoclassical building on the Victoria Embankment originally designed by William Curtis Green. It has been made fit for purpose by AHMM.
Some of the most intriguing workplaces are the ones that architects build for themselves. In Waterloo, Feilden Fowles has made a bucolic home for itself in the corner of a mixed-use site it developed, Oasis Farm. And up-and-coming firm Selencky Parsons has an entirely cork-clad office in Brockley.
This is the last year for Open House visitors to book a tour of Crossrail’s new stations, before they open for business as the Elizabeth line in December 2018. At £14.8bn, Crossrail is Europe’s largest infrastructure project, masterminded by its head of architecture Julian Robinson. Highlights include Hawkins\Brown’s new Tottenham Court Road station on Dean Street and Weston Williamson’s work at Paddington.
For a more historical transportation experience, there is the ongoing and painstaking restoration of the Old Waiting Room at Peckham Rye station – a high Victorian delight from 1865 by Charles Henry Driver, much of which has been bricked up and forgotten since the 1960s. Restoration is in the hands of architect Benedict O’Looney, a charismatic champion of Peckham’s neglected historic wonders.
This is the silver anniversary of Open House, which was conceived in the British capital in 1992, but now springs up in New York, Dublin, Galway, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Barcelona, Rome, Helsinki, Slovenia and Chicago.
Pear Tree House, designed by Jake Edgley Design
Pear Tree House, designed by Jake Edgley Design
One Blackfriars, by SimpsonHaugh and Partners
Alex Monroe HQ, by DSDHA.
Foster + Partners architecture studio
Westbourne Gardens, designed by Nimtim Architects
Westbourne Gardens, designed by Nimtim Architects
Barrett’s Grove, by Amin Taha Architects
New Scotland Yard, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris (AHMM).
INFORMATION
Open House London 2017 runs from 16-17 September. For more information, visit the website
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Clare Dowdy is a London-based freelance design and architecture journalist who has written for titles including Wallpaper*, BBC, Monocle and the Financial Times. She’s the author of ‘Made In London: From Workshops to Factories’ and co-author of ‘Made in Ibiza: A Journey into the Creative Heart of the White Island’.
-
Take off: Mathieu Lehanneur's Olympic Cauldron rises into the Parisian night sky
The Paris 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony was closed with a soaring cauldron spectacle that will go down in history
By Hugo Macdonald Published
-
Phaidon’s new Graphic Classics is a lavish greatest hits of graphic design
Graphic Classics is a compendium of seven centuries of visual culture, from the everyday and ephemeral to visionary works that reshaped our world
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Birley Chocolate hits the sweet ’n’ chic spot in London’s Chelsea
The new Birley Chocolate shop, a sibling to Birley Bakery, is a confection of colour as delicious as its finely crafted goods
By Melina Keays Published
-
Tour the Natural History Museum’s new gardens, a Jurassic lark in London
The Natural History Museum in London has unveiled two new gardens, with resident dinosaurs, after a transformation led by architects Feilden Fowles
By Bridget Downing Published
-
Drama Republic moves into a colourful, handcrafted workspace in London
For the new creative HQ of production company Drama Republic, Emil Eve Architects remodels a warehouse into office space in London’s Holborn
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
Hideaway House in London features timber panelling inspired by the New York hospitality scene
The elegantly refurbished Hideaway House by Studio McW in London features timber panelling inspired by Philip Johnson’s The Four Seasons Restaurant
By Léa Teuscher Published
-
An Uxbridge annexe by Bureau de Change is a design for effortless intergenerational living
Uxbridge Bower, a residential annexe in west London, is a contemporary addition offering both privacy and connection for the needs of a family
By Tianna Williams Published
-
‘Modern Buildings’ tours south-east London through a guide to post-war Blackheath and Greenwich
‘Modern Buildings: Blackheath and Greenwich’ is a detailed survey of a London borough’s rich trove of new modernist architecture
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Triangle House invites you to its inner world of colourful surprises
Triangle House by Artefact is a private home in Epsom, outside London, combining Caribbean style, colour and functionality
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Tour the refreshed Saint Andrew Holborn: an icon reveals its crisp new interior in London
DaeWha Kang reimagines Saint Andrew Holborn church through a sensitive architectural solution that blends tradition and modernity in London
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
A Suffolk house by Studio Bark pairs a fresh visual language with low-energy design
Suffolk house Water Farm is off-the-grid but defiantly on the map, a bold new object in the landscape with a strong visual impact and minimal carbon footprint
By Jonathan Bell Published