It’s the time of year again when nearly 700 of London’s buildings unlock their doors to the masses. People queue round the block to get inside Lloyds of London or the Bank of England. (And I once stood in line for 5 hours to get to the top of the Gherkin building.) For anyone who appreciates architecture, enjoys learning more about the institutions of their city, or just likes poking their nose around other people’s property, this is the greatest show in town.

I’ve always thought it’d be good to do something like this for science—maybe an ‘Open Labs Weekend’. Can you think of a better way to show the general populace what scientists get up to than offering an open invitation for anyone to come look around the lab and talk to scientists in their natural environment? If the net was widened to include learned societies, small museums, sites of historic interest and blue-plaque homes of famous scientists of yore, we’d have an attractive proposition.

In the meantime, Open House weekend does offer a handful of scientific sights (although only a couple are working laboratories). Here’s the list—the individual pages on the Open House site don’t take kindly to being linked to, so you’ll have to use their search page to get opening times.

Highgate Literary and Scientific Institute

University of London Observatory

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Royal Pharmaceutical Society

South London Botanical Institute

Linnean Society

Royal Institution

Springfield University Hospital

Institute of Cell & Molecular Science (pictured, top)

Elsewhere, I also have a few recommendations for non-sciency places to visit for Open House Weekend, as does the peerless Diamond Geezer.