An unassuming white building behind King’s Cross conceals a wonderful interior and rooftop garden. This is the Aga Khan Centre, opened in 2018 to house several divisions of the Shi‘a Ismaili charity and its design incorporates a collection of gardens, courtyards and terraces all based on Islamic principles.
It’s also open for tours.
While it looks like a conventional office block from the outside, it’s inside that the real action takes place. A central floor-to-ceiling courtyard space dominates, but what really marks the building out at the many gardens dotted around the outside and on the roof.
What’s also delightful about the building is the attention to detail, from the careful use of patterns in the decoration to both shade rooms while reminding people of the building’s origins to the furniture dotted around the library spaces, and even the signs for the toilets seem to have been custom designed when an off-the-shelf sign would have been adequate.
They theme their public tours based around the seasons, and you can now book for the summer season tours, which will run roughly a couple of days each week on the below dates.
The tours are free, and to book a tour, go to the bottom of this page.
July
- Thur 14th July
- Thur 21st July
- Thur 28th July
August
- Thur 4th Aug
- Thur 11th Aug
- Sat 13th Aug
- Thur 18th Aug
- Thur 25th Aug
- Sat 27th Aug
September
- Thur 1st Sept
- Thur 8th Sept
- Thur 15th Sept
Their website suggests that all dates in Jul, Aug and Sep 2022 are sold out.
We are a family of four from Canada and will be visiting London on August 10, 11 and 12. We are very eager to visit the AgaKhan Centre. Since the tour is sold out can we visit the Centre on our own. Please advise.
Questions like that should be directed to the Aga Khan Centre.