Open House Festival 2021

Open City, the charity behind London’s Open House Festival, has announced that the 30th edition of the much-loved city-wide celebration of architecture and landscape, will take place on the weekend of the 4th and 5th of September 2021.

The festival will see hundreds of buildings across the capital open their doors to the public for carefully-managed visits and tours, alongside a city-wide programme for all ages and abilities including online and outdoor events.

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, will strengthen London’s cultural and economic recovery and is timed to coincide with the final stages of the government’s vaccination programme.

Sian Milliner, Head of Open House Festival, said “The coming year is critical for London. Having taken important steps to defeat Covid, it is imperative we are now equally ambitious in the actions we take to rebuild the economy and civic life. 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 hybrid programme of in-person, outdoor and online events.”

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.

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.

The 2021 Open House Festival will take place on the weekend of the 4th and 5th of September, with a programme of fringe events in the surrounding weeks. Full listings for the festival will go live on the Open House Festival website in August.