The list of venues opening for this year’s Open House Weekend will be revealed next Friday (14th Aug).
At that time, booking for those venues that need booking will also open.
Unlike a few years ago, they aren’t taking bookings themselves, mainly as their attempt to do so sent their website into meltdown for days, and resulted in lots of lost bookings for lots of people.
Instead, venues will take bookings themselves – usually via an email or an alternative website.
They will also be supporting the ballot scheme, which does let people book a venue in the middle of the day instead of frantically sitting at their desk at 9am (or 10am, or whenever it goes live). Unfortunately, it also means people request everything, in the hope of getting something, and sometimes are “lucky” enough to be double-booked.
If you want an alleged heads-up on the events, you can buy the guide, which will be posted to you.
I used to buy the guide every year, but have frankly given up as for the past few years, it either didn’t arrive at all, or arrived after the website went live. I like to support the charity by buying the guide, and as a bonus you used to get a few days advance warning of the website listings. But not any more.
In fact, I haven’t done Open House for the past couple of years as I have been a volunteer at one of the venues open on the Saturday, although for some reason we don’t get the “queue jump” badges handed out to official volunteers to use the next day.
Anyway, check out the Open House website on the morning of Friday 14th August.
Update… the search page is now LIVE.
Open House Weekend takes place on 19th-20th September.
Sneaky trick…
Here’s an insider’s trick to finding some of the venues that will require booking. Don’t tell anyone I told you. Shush!
The guide’s usually free in your local library, but libraries seem rather vague about when it arrives, or if they’ll get any; and some demand proof that you live in the borough before they’ll give you a copy, because it would be a constitutional outrage if they accidentally gave one to someone from Ealing.
It’s a shame you’ve had disappointment with receiving the guide in advance. I order every year, and I believe I’ve always received mine several days before bookings open. I received this year’s guide on Monday (August 10), and I’m in Chicago. They understandably charge more for international delivery (13.50 GBP, compared to 8.50 GBP for UK delivery). One would hope that UK delivery would have been more dependable.
On a more positive note, I very much enjoy your blog and calendar of events. Weekly reading for me, even when I won’t be in London.
The Open House guide will be available for free at the City Information Centre located in between St Paul’s cathedral and the Millenium Bridge. We are expecting delivery sometime next week. Please follow us in Facebook here https://www.facebook.com/visitthecity?ref=hl and we’ll let you know as soon as it arrives.
I always order the guide and receive it in advance of the website going live. This year I received it a week before. It’s good to have a thumb through plus helps plan the events. Note that Crossrail tours will be announced on their special section of the website on 1st September.