Hornsey's medieval tower, Highpoint, Highgate School and the old Ally Pally station all open free next month. Which need booking, and which you can walk into.
The oldest building in Hornsey opens its crypt and its bell ringing chamber on Saturday 12 September, and you do not need a ticket. We counted 26 buildings and tours within reach of Crouch End in this year’s Open House Festival programme, across Hornsey, Muswell Hill, Highgate, Harringay and Wood Green. Every one of them is free.
The festival runs from Saturday 12 to Sunday 20 September. It is the 35th edition, run by the architecture charity Open City, and buildings across all 33 London boroughs open their doors so people can go in for nothing.
The catch is that the tours worth planning around are ticketed, and booking opened at midday on 19 August. The drop-in openings need no booking at all. Below is which is which.
The nine days are nothing like evenly loaded. Saturday 19 September has ten of the 26 open or running, and Sunday 20 September has eight. The two opening weekend days have five each. The four weekdays between them have one apiece, except Tuesday 15 September, when nothing local opens at all.
Walk in, no booking needed
These open their doors and let you in. No ticket, no account, no ballot.
| Building | Where | When |
|---|---|---|
| Tower and Churchyard of St Mary's Hornsey | High Street, N8 7NT | Sat 12 Sep, 2pm to 5pm |
| Florentia Village | 108 Vale Road, N4 1TD | Sat 12 Sep, 11am to 3.30pm |
| OmVed Gardens | 1 Townsend Yard, Highgate, N6 5JF | Sun 13 Sep, 11am to 3pm |
| Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution | 11 South Grove, N6 6BS | Sun 13 Sep, 12 noon to 3pm |
| Fitzroy Park Allotments | Fitzroy Park, Highgate, N6 6HU | Sun 13 Sep, 2pm to 5pm |
| Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre | Wolves Lane, N22 5JD | Sun 13, Fri 18 and Sun 20 Sep, 10am to 4pm |
| Highgate School chapel, library and museum | North Road, N6 4AY | Sat 19 Sep, 10.30am to 2pm |
| Muswell Hill Baptist Church | Dukes Avenue, N10 2PT | Sat 19 Sep, 11am to 3pm |
| 18 Lauradale Road | Muswell Hill border, N2 9LU | Sat 19 Sep, 1pm to 5pm |
| Jacksons Lane Arts Centre | 269a Archway Road, N6 5AA | Sat 19 and Sun 20 Sep, 10am to 6pm |
| Cumberland Road Studios | 40 Cumberland Road, N22 7BU | Sat 19 and Sun 20 Sep, 12 noon to 6pm |
| RC Church of St Mellitus | Tollington Park, N4 3AG | Sat 19 and Sun 20 Sep, 1pm to 4.30pm |
| The Old Schoolhouse | 136 Tottenham Lane, N8 7EL | Sun 20 Sep, 10am to 5pm |
| CUFOS, the old Alexandra Palace station | Top of The Avenue, N10 2QE | Sun 20 Sep, 12.30pm to 4.30pm |
| 1 Halliwick Road | Muswell Hill, N10 1AA | Sun 20 Sep, 10am to 5pm |
| Lauderdale House family arts and crafts | Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill, N6 5HG | Sun 20 Sep, 11am to 3pm |
Three of those are worth going out of your way for.
St Mary’s Hornsey is the oldest building in Hornsey and the only part of the old parish church still standing. The Grade II* tower was mostly built in the late middle ages, heightened when the church was rebuilt in 1832 and 1833, and it survived the demolition of the rest of the church in 1927 only because its replacement had no bells worth ringing. The Friends of Hornsey Church Tower run guided tours every half hour on the afternoon of 12 September, up to 20 people at a time, taking in the crypt, the ringing chamber and the roof. Tour tickets are issued on the door on a first come, first served basis. The churchyard tomb and tree trails are self-guided and step free; the tower stair is not, and the programme entry warns its medieval spiral steps are “worn and uneven” with a rope handrail.
CUFOS is the former Alexandra Palace Railway Station at the top of The Avenue, N10, now run by a small volunteer charity. It opens for one afternoon only, on Sunday 20 September.
Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre opens on three separate days, including a Friday, which is more than any other site on this list. It has heritage glasshouses alongside its newer eco buildings.
Book ahead: the tours that need a ticket
These need a free Open House visitor account and a booking. Several are single tours with a fixed start time, so they will go.
| Tour | Meet at | When |
|---|---|---|
| Halliwick Recreation Ground landscape tour | Albion Avenue gate, N10 1AG | Sat 12 Sep, 10am to 11am |
| Resilience in Highgate, a multi-sensory walk | Outside the Boogaloo, 312 Archway Road, N6 5AT | Sat 12 Sep, 11am to 1pm |
| Harringay Green Lanes eateries tour | In front of Wood Green station, N22 5JU | Sat 12 Sep, 1pm to 2.30pm |
| 6 Wood Lane, Highgate | N6 5UB | Sun 13 Sep, seven tours from 10am |
| Parkland Walk walking workshop | Parkland Walk, N4 3EY | Mon 14 Sep, 11am to 2pm |
| Green Lanes, a street shaped by migration | Outside Park View Cafe, 327a Green Lanes, N4 1BZ | Wed 16 Sep, 2pm to 3.30pm |
| Lauderdale House behind the scenes | Waterlow Park, N6 5HG | Thu 17 Sep, 5.30pm to 6.30pm |
| Highpoint, Highgate | North Hill, N6 4BA | Sat 19 Sep, 11 tours from 10am |
| Migration tales: local heroes in Hornsey and Crouch End | Cafe Merro, 85 Crouch End Hill, N8 8DD | Sat 19 Sep, 11am to 1.30pm |
| Alexandra Palace mindful walking and drawing tour | Alexandra Palace Way, N22 7AY | Sat 19 Sep, 11am to 1pm |
| Forgotten stories at Ally Pally | Alexandra Palace Way, N22 7AY | Sat 19 Sep, 1.30pm to 3pm |
| Wolves Lane guided tours | Wolves Lane, N22 5JD | Sun 13 and Sun 20 Sep, 11.30am and 2.30pm |
| Cumberland Road Studios guided tour | 40 Cumberland Road, N22 7BU | Sat 19 and Sun 20 Sep, 2pm |
Highpoint on North Hill is the one to book first. Berthold Lubetkin and Tecton’s 1935 blocks are Grade I listed, the highest grade there is, and the tours are led by the residents. Open City lists eleven of them across Saturday 19 September, each about an hour, running from 10am to 5.30pm. Eleven tours is more than any other local site is offering, which is a reasonable proxy for how much demand there is.
The Crouch End walking tour is the one that starts closest to home. It sets off from Cafe Merro on Crouch End Hill on Saturday 19 September, and the published route takes in Hornsey College of Art, Church Studios, the Floral Hall, Hornsey Library, a lunch stop at Dunns Bakery, the inside of Hornsey Town Hall, the clock tower, Broadway Parade and the former Hornsey police station on Tottenham Lane. It is 11am to 1.30pm and the lunch is at your own expense.
The one day the buses will be against you
Two of the nine festival days are worth checking your travel for.
Friday 18 September is a bus strike day. Arriva London North drivers are due to walk out from 4am that morning until 4.30am on the Saturday, one of eight remaining dates in a dispute over hot weather working. Wolves Lane Horticultural Centre is the only site on this list open that day, and the only bus Open House lists for it is the W4, which is on TfL’s strike list. Wood Green station and Alexandra Palace station are both walkable alternatives, and Wood Green keeps its non-striking routes.
Saturday 19 September, the festival’s busiest local day, falls outside the strike window: the walkout ends at 4.30am that morning. We have set out all eight remaining strike dates separately.
The other thing to note is that Shepherds Hill N6 is booked for multiway traffic signals from 14 to 18 September for BT duct laying, on the road between Highgate station and Crouch End. Our roadworks and travel page has the rest.
What it means for you
- Register now if you want a ticketed tour. Bookings opened at midday on 19 August, so the popular ones have had six days’ head start on you. You need a free Open City visitor account before you can book anything.
- Saturday 19 September is the day to clear. Highpoint, Highgate School, the Crouch End walking tour, Muswell Hill Baptist Church, Jacksons Lane, Cumberland Road Studios, both Ally Pally tours, St Mellitus and 18 Lauradale Road are all open or running that day.
- Sunday 20 September is the second best. The Old Schoolhouse on Tottenham Lane, the old Alexandra Palace station, 1 Halliwick Road, Lauderdale House’s family craft session, Jacksons Lane, Wolves Lane, Cumberland Road Studios and St Mellitus.
- If you only do one thing and you cannot book, go to St Mary’s Hornsey on Saturday 12 September. Tower tours every half hour, no advance ticket, and the churchyard trails are step free.
- Check the listing before you travel. Times and access notes are published on each building’s page and can change; the ones above were taken from Open City’s programme on 25 August.
More things to do locally, all year round, are on our things to do in Crouch End page, which includes the Parkland Walk that the Monday 14 September workshop uses.
Sources
- Open House Festival 2026, Open City for the 12 to 20 September dates, the 35th edition, free entry across all 33 boroughs, the programme publication on 15 July and bookings opening at midday on Wednesday 19 August.
- Open House Festival programme, checked 25 August 2026, for every building, address, date, time, drop-in or bookable status and travel note in the two tables above. Individual listings are linked from each row.
- Tower and Churchyard of St Mary’s Hornsey for the tower’s history, the half-hourly tours of up to 20 people, the first come first served tickets and the accessibility notes on the spiral stair.
- Highpoint for the Grade I listing, Lubetkin and Tecton, 1935, and the eleven resident-led tours on 19 September.
- Migration tales: local heroes in Hornsey and Crouch End for the full published route from Cafe Merro to the former Hornsey police station.
- Take part as a visitor, Open House for the requirement to register a visitor account to book ticketed events and enter ballots.
- Arriva North London bus driver strikes resume next week, Unite the Union, 23 August 2026 and TfL bus strike information for the 18 to 19 September strike window and the inclusion of the W4.
- Weekly overview of roadworks by ward, Haringey Council for the Shepherds Hill N6 multiway signals from 14 to 18 September 2026.
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