I’m so excited. My favourite event of the whole year takes place this weekend. Open House London comes around every September. Hundreds of buildings, many of them normally off-limits, open their doors, gates and portcullises to the public. You can browse through a fairly clunky database of locations here, but I’d recommend popping to your local library where you can pick up a dead-tree brochure for free. The booklets are also available over the weekend at the venues, but you’ll have to pay £6.50.
In the meantime, here’s a roundup of all the places with science or medicine connections.
Sat – 10am-5pm. Sun – 10am-5pm. Regular tours. Last entry 4.50pm
Railway Avenue SE16 4LF
M@ says: Treasure of a museum devoted to engineering and the world’s first tunnel beneath a major river, constructed by Marc Brunel in the early Victorian era. The tunnel’s still there, carrying the (currently closed) East London Line.
Sun – 1pm-5pm. Last entry 4.45pm
42 Craven Street WC2N 5NG
M@ says: One of those secret little medical museums that London conceals by the dozen. A near neighbour of the Benjamin Franklin house.
Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution
Sun – 12noon-4pm. Unrestricted entry to Victoria Hall, guided tours to other rooms..Last entry 3.15pm.
11 South Grove N6 6BS
M@ says: You know, I’ve yet to visit this place, but it’s been a bastion of enlightened thought since the 1840s.
Sun – 10am-5pm. Hourly tours, first come basis. Last tour 4pm.
2 Savoy Place WC2R 0BL
M@ says: This former examination Hall for the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Physicians is now home to the Institute of Engineering and Technology. You’ll also find a statue of Michael Faraday outside.
Sat – 10am-4.30pm. Regular tours, first come basis. Last entry 4pm
99 Southwark Street SE1 0JF
M@ says: Popped here last year. It’s a museum dedicated to engineers’ test rigging, with the most Gradgrindian pediment in London.
Sat – 10am-5pm. Last entry 4.45pm.
Burlington House, Piccadilly W1J 0BF
M@ says: An old favourite. This is the place where Darwin and Wallace’s theories of natural selection were first publicly expounded. You’ll also see a gorgeous library dedicated to taxonomic methodology. Unfortunately, the bank-vault basement room containing all Linnaeus’ specimens will be off limits – but maybe if you catch them at a quiet moment and ask really, really nicely…
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Sat – 10am-5pm. Tours on the hour, first come basis. Last tour 4pm.
Keppel Street WC1E 7HT
M@ says: Impressive classical-cum-art deco hulk in the middle of Bloomsbury. Noted for the golden disease vectors that adorn its balconies.
Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret
Sat – 10.30am-5pm. Sun – 10.30am-5pm. Last entry 4.45pm.
9a St Thomas Street SE1 9RY
M@ says: Another of those squirky (small and quirky) medical museums. This one lay undiscovered in the upper stories of a church for many decades. Today, you can see a restored 18th Century operating theatre and a small garret with an exhibition about herbal remedies.
Queen Mary College, Inst of Cell, Blizard Building
Sun – 10am-4pm. First come basis, queuing if necessary. Last entry 4pm.
4 Newark Street E1 2AT
M@ says: This one’s a priority. You’ve never seen a lab quite like this. Colourful, bulbous meeting rooms and the Centre of the Cell hang above teaching laboratories.
Sat – 10am-5pm. Last entry 4.45pm
2 Carlton House Terrace SW1Y 5AF
M@ says: Pathological curiosities and information about the profession fill this double-house near the Royal Society. Worth visiting to get the spectacular views of the Mall.
Sun – 10am-4pm. Regular tours bookable on the day. Last entry 3.30pm.
11 St Andrew’s Place, Regents Park NW1 4LE
M@ says: The light, roomy interior belies the stark brutalist exterior of this building by Denys Lasdun (architect of the National Theatre).
Sun – 10am-6pm.
21 Albemarle Street W1S 4BS
M@ says: Home of the Science Online 2009 conference, and my bi-monthly science pub quizzes. As well as a few centuries worth of more worthy events. Recently renovated by Terry Farrell.
Sat – 10am-5pm. ‘Show and Tell’ from Collections in Foyle Reading Room 10am, 12.30pm, 3pm, max 25 per group.
1 Kensington Gore (Exhibition Road entrance) SW7 2AR
M@ says: Always welcoming venue often overlooked in favour of the nearby South Kensington museums.
Sat – 10am-5pm. Tours every 20 mins, first come basis. Exhibition on Victorian science, displays of portraiture.
6-9 Carlton House Terrace SW1Y 5AG
M@ says: Perhaps the most important scientific organisation of all time is housed in a stunning, marbled terrace building.
Sat – 10am-4pm. Sun – 10am-4pm. Last entry 3.30pm
New Burlington House, Piccadilly W1J 0BA
M@ says: Diagonally opposite the Linnean Society – fit them both in if you can.
South London Botanical Institute
Sun – 1pm-5pm. Regular tours, first come basis. Last entry 4.30pm.
323 Norwood Road SE24 9AQ
M@ says: An unexpected South London study centre for plants and ecology.
Sat – 10am-4pm. Regular tours from information point (Front Quad, Gower Street)
Gower Street WC1E 6BT
M@ says: The only tour featuring a Nature Network blogger – Jeremy Bentham can be viewed in his preserved state in the UCL corridors. The tour also visits the library and UCL’s museums.
Sat – 10am-4pm. Regular tours departing from building foyer.
Gower Street WC1E 6BT
M@ says: Another highlight for me. The building was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the same architect behind the Natural History Museum. Inside you’ll see modern laboratories surrounded by outrageous Victorian embellishments.
All images by M@.