Discover the architectural gems on your doorstep with the return of an event all about celebrating the capital’s innovation and heritage.
Open House London is back on the weekend of September 16 and 17, showcasing hundreds of historic, and modern, sites which enrich their communities.
Redbridge has taken part in the 25-year-old festival since 1996, and this year 12 buildings are available for you to explore.
Take a look at the selection below.
ILFORD
Ilford Hospital Chapel, 48 Ilford Hill
Open on Saturday, September 16, from 10am-4pm, and Sunday, September 17, 1-4.30pm, plus tours every half an hour.
Founded in c.1145 by Adeliza, Abbess of Barking, as a hospice for 13 old and infirm men, the building has features from the 12th and 19th centuries.
Grade II* listed, its interesting architecture includes windows by pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.
Valentines Mansion, Emerson Road
Sunday, September 17, noon-4pm.
The popular attraction, which dates from the end of the 17th century, boasts a fine staircase, Venetian windows and Georgian additions.
Lived in by families until the early 1900s, the Grade II* listed mansion was reopened to the public in February 2009 following extensive restoration work.
Uphall Primary School nursery, Uphall Road
Saturday and Sunday, September 16 and 17, 10am-1pm.
This unusual ship-shaped school building is Grade II listed, and was built in the 1930s.
It was later converted into a nursery.
Redbridge Town Hall council chamber, High Road
Saturday, September 16, 10.30am-2.30pm, plus tours every half an hour.
The site was created in three stages – the old town hall (1901), with facade in free classic style and some original decorations; library (1927) and additional buildings (1933).
Woodford Green
Bancroft’s School, High Road
Saturday, September 16, noon-3pm.
Formerly a Drapers’ Company charitable school in Mile End Road, the school moved to its current site in 1889.
A spiral staircase leads to the top of the tower, providing stunning views of the surrounding area.
Entry is to the chapel, great hall, library, dining hall, tower and quad.
Repton Park (formerly Claybury Asylum), Manor Road
Open Saturday, September 16, 10.30am-12.30pm and Sunday, September 17, 1.30-4.30pm, hourly residents’ association-led tours.
The site includes the 17th century Claybury Hall. The original asylum (hall, chapel, water towers, gate lodges, ward blocks, airing shelters) is all Grade II listed.
The private parkland was originally designed by Sir Humphrey Repton.
WANSTEAD
Quaker Meeting House, Bush Road
Open Sunday, September 17, 1-5pm, with hourly tours between 1.30pm and 4.30pm.
A four-hexagon modernist building, within the lush setting of Epping Forest.
The meeting room for Quaker worship faces onto a wooded burial ground of simple headstones, including those of Elizabeth Fry, William Mead and Norman Frith.
Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue, Victory Road
Sunday, September 17, 10am-4pm.
This place of worship, dating from the 1860s, was originally the Merchant Seaman’s Orphan Asylum Chapel.
The Grade II* listed building was bought by the synagogue in 1995 and restored with a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
The Temple, Wanstead Park
Sunday, September 17, noon-5pm, with a talk by local historian Dr Richard Arnopp at 12.30pm.
This feature in the style of a Doric temple, dating from c.1760, is all that is left of the grand stately home Wanstead House.
The Palladian mansion was the height of glamour and the talk of high society in its heyday, but was mostly demolished by its bankrupt owner in the 1820s.
Wanstead House’s tale is told in The Temple’s museum.
Wanstead Heritage Walk, begins outside Wanstead station, The Green
Sunday, September 17, 10am (duration two hours).
A guided walk from the station to The Temple, highlighting St Mary’s Church and the remainder of the historical landscape that formed Wanstead House’s grounds.
NEWBURY PARK
Ilford War Memorial Gardens, Eastern Avenue
Saturday and Sunday, September 16 and 17, 11am-4.30pm.
Grade II listed hall in the war memorial gardens. The panels share the names of Ilford men killed during the First World War.
The hall was designed as the entrance to the now-demolished children’s ward of Ilford Emergency Hospital.
BARKINGSIDE
Fullwell Cross Library, High Street
Saturday, September 16, 9.30am-4pm, with a talk by Ilford Historical Society president Jef Page, titled The History of Fairlop Fair, at 2pm.
The unique circular-shaped building was designed to mimic the nearby roundabout.
It was refurbished in 1990 and 2011, having been created in 1958.
CHADWELL HEATH
Box Theatre, Redbridge College, Barley Lane, Chadwell Heath
Sunday, September 17, 10am-5pm, with hourly tours between 11am and 4pm.
This award-winning performing arts centre was built in 2016. Designed as an elevated translucent box, the building is clad in colourful glazing to create a vibrant facade.
Visit openhouselondon.org.uk for the full list of buildings taking part this year.
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