Five... historic places to visit during Open House Festival 2024

A temple, a warship, a market and a museum

Hi and welcome to your weekend newsletter…

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir. Image by Maureen Barlin via Creative Commons

This edition’s my pick of the historic buildings and spaces throwing their doors open to the public next month, as part of London’s annual Open House Festival.

Running from 14th September 2024, the festival’s an all-you-can-visit buffet of events giving you access to buildings in the city not usually open to the public, or helping deepen your knowledge and experience of a public space with talks, walks, workshops and more.

---

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

Europe’s first traditional Hindu temple’s an extraordinary place, rising out of the Neasden streetscape like a turreted, majestic vision. You can explore for hours — and there’s hours’ worth of exploring to be done, across its courtyards, gardens, prayer hall and community facilities — during the Open House drop-in sessions.

Or if you’re not in London that weekend, you can get a sense of the epic scale and ornate detail from this video we made a few years ago.