Five great Open Houses you can visit this weekend By Waltham Forest Echo
Switchboard Studios in Walthamstow (credit: Open House Festival)
London’s Open House Festival has now officially begun, giving people the chance to see inside buildings normally closed to the public.
Until 21st September, fascinating buildings across the city are welcoming visitors, whether on a drop-in basis or for guided tours.
While there are a large number of places you could visit up and down the borough, we’ve picked our top five places you may want to see.
Switchboard Studios in Walthamstow
Built in the 1950s, this site was originally the head offices for a large group of factories, producing things like dyes and food colourings.
Inside the event space – ‘The Circuit Room’ – you’ll find a walk-in safe that was used to store the cash that paid the industrial workers in the 1950s.
It got its name from its second phase of life, as a call centre and switchboard that dealt with calls to Waltham Forest Council.
The building is now home to Switchboard Studios, a creative co-working space for 26 studios.
Turning Earth Ceramics in Leyton
(Credit: Open House Festival)
On the top floor of an old hardware factory in Argall Avenue, you can find a huge ceramics centre, spread across three rooms and just over 8,000 square feet of space.
The centre has a large open-plan membership studio where part-time professional makers, serious hobbyists and beginners work together in a community environment, with the benefit of shared facilities.
This Victorian mid-terrace house is owned by designer Natasha Landers, who has spent years transforming it into her dream home.
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The house has a number of unique features Natasha created from discarded materials, such as shutters in the living room made from old builders’ scaffolding boards.
She is also an avid collector of black art by predominantly black artists and there is art in every room of the house.
Visit Lockwood Way this weekend – 17th-18th September – for an architect-led tour of recent improvements to its public space.
The tour will also provide a chance to look inside the tap rooms, scooter shop and winery and speak to the makers, brewers and winemakers on the estate about their processes.
If you aren’t successful in booking a tour – don’t worry! – the estate will still be open for self-led access, refreshments and purchasing.
Though named for his daughter Queen Elizabeth I, the building was actually commissioned by King Henry VIII when he laid claim to the land after dissolving the monastery at Waltham Abbey.
It was completed in 1543 and demonstrates the skills and ingenuity of the royal carpenters who built it.
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