Camden has 82 Open House entries from 12 to 20 September, and 41 need no ticket at all. Kenwood, the Isokon and Lincoln's Inn are all drop-in.
The Open House Festival runs from Saturday 12 to Sunday 20 September, and Camden has 82 entries in this year’s programme. Forty-one of them need no ticket and no booking. You turn up in the opening hours and walk in.
That matters, because the ticketed half of the festival is already picking up. One Camden tour has sold out, and the BT Tower closed its visitor details deadline on 24 August. The drop-ins are the part still fully open to anyone reading this today.
We went through the Open House programme listing by listing on 5 September and checked every entry against its map coordinates, so the list below is Camden addresses only.
The 41 you can turn up to
Nineteen of Camden’s 82 entries do not run on a weekend at all, so check the day before you set out.
Five worth planning a day around
Isokon Building, Lawn Road, NW3 2XD. A Grade I listed block of flats from 1934, designed by the Canadian modernist Wells Coates for Jack and Molly Pritchard. It carries an English Heritage blue plaque for the Bauhaus figures Gropius, Breuer and Moholy-Nagy, and there is a museum on site. Guided tours run 11am to 4pm on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September, taking in three flats as well as the museum. The listing warns that it is very popular and tells you to arrive early and expect a queue.
Kenwood, Hampstead Lane, NW3 7JR. The Robert and James Adam villa of 1764 opens its Dairy and its Coach House, over and above the usual English Heritage visit. Both run 11am to 3pm on Saturday 12, Sunday 13, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September.
Lincoln’s Inn, WC2A 3QA. An Inn of Court for more than 600 years, and, in its own words, usually closed to the public. The 11-acre estate holds Grade I and II listed buildings, a law library and a chapel. Open Saturday 12 September only, 10am to 3.30pm, and it does not repeat.
Sir John Soane’s Museum, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3BP. The architect’s own house, built in 1812. Open 10am to 4pm on Saturday 19 September.
Senate House, Malet Street, WC1E 7HU. Guided tours run on Saturday 12 September at 11am, 12.15pm, 1.30pm, 2.45pm and 4pm, all drop-in. On Sunday 13 September it switches to a self-guided route from 11am to 5pm.
The ticketed half
Fifty-two Camden entries have ticketed slots. They are free, but you need a free visitor account and you book on each listing.
The ones people ask about every year:
- BT Tower, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September. Visitors had to submit names and details by 5pm on 24 August, so this is closed to new bookings.
- Alexandra Road Estate, Flat 85B, Rowley Way, NW8 0SN, Sunday 13 September. A recently refurbished three-bedroom maisonette on block B of Neave Brown’s 1978 estate.
- Freud Museum, 20 Maresfield Gardens, NW3 5SX, Tuesday 15 September, half-hour guided tours through the day.
- Hampstead Heath Pergola, off North End Way, Saturday 12 and Saturday 19 September.
- Queer Britain, 2 Granary Square, on both weekends.
- Aga Khan Centre, 10 Handyside Street, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September.
- Revolution, Reform and Regeneration: Somers Town Tours, Saturday 19 September, already showing as sold out.
Two entries counted here sit on the edge of the borough. The Soho walk, Refugees, Radicals and Revellers, meets at Tottenham Court Road station and covers Soho, which is in Westminster. North End and Hampstead Garden Suburb Prehistory meets at Whitestone Pond in Hampstead, but the suburb it is named after is in Barnet.
What it means for you
- Book nothing for the 41 above. Turn up inside the opening hours. Popular buildings queue, so early is better, and the Isokon says so on its own listing.
- The first Saturday is the crush. Thirty-one Camden entries open on 12 September and 25 on 19 September. If you want a quiet visit, the weekdays carry 7 to 13 entries a day and almost no queues.
- Check the listing on the morning. Openings are run by the buildings, not by the festival, and they can be pulled at short notice.
- Getting there: most of the Bloomsbury and Holborn entries are walkable from each other. Our Camden tube times and fares page covers the lines and the fare caps, and Camden roadworks and travel has the current closures. More to do afterwards is on things to do in Camden.
Sources
- Open House Festival 2026 programme, Open City, checked 5 September 2026
- Open House Festival 2026 map, which publishes coordinates for every entry
- Individual listing pages, linked in the table above, for dates, times and booking status
- Postcodes.io, used to confirm the administrative district of each entry from its published coordinates
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