Sands End Arts Centre Featuring in Open House London

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One of many building across the borough offering rare access

Sands End Arts & Community Centre in Fulham

The capital’s annual Open House Festival is a chance to explore for free some of the capital’s most intriguing buildings... historic and modern.

One highlight this year will be the Sands End Arts & Community Centre in Peterborough Road, Fulham.

It was named 2022’s best new building in London by the Royal Institute of British Architects and shortlisted for this year’s Stirling prize. It has dramatic sloped roofs inspired by the 19th century glasshouses which once stood alongside it.

Built by the council and designed with input from local residents by Mae Architects on the site of the disused Clancarty Lodge in South Park, with funding for the 660sqm project coming from Thames Tideway and Chelsea FC.

It aims to have a minimal environmental impact, the art and activity space is open for a tour each day from 13-20 September. A member of the architectural team will be on site to answer any questions, and refreshments are available.

As well as a central courtyard, cafe, dance studio and day nursery, the buildings are fully accessible. The bricks used in construction were all made from recycled waste.

Other local attractions taking part in the festival (which runs from 8 to 21 September) include the Tudor Fulham Palace in Bishop’s Avenue, SW6, which dates from 1495. It is open to view on 18 September, via secret palace tours of the buildings, and strolls round the 13 acres of botanic and walled gardens.

Want to know what’s happening with the Earls Court Development Company’s huge project to transform a 40-acre site into a car-free, net-zero mixed scheme aiming to ‘bring the wonder back to Earls Court’? Plans will be outlined and discussed during free guided tours on 13, 17 and 20 September.

The new Hammersmith Quaker Meeting House at 30 Bradmore Park Road, W6, completed in 2020, it is open on 10 and 11 September. H&F Council, with its partner A2Dominion, facilitated and paid for the design and construction of the new Meeting House when the site of its former premises was needed for the Civic Campus regeneration project in nearby King Street.

Victoria Timberlake, a member of Hammersmith Quakers, said, “We are pleased with our beautiful new Quaker Meeting House, which we hope will be a beacon of environmental sustainability to the Hammersmith community.”

Dame Sheila Hancock (left) with Cllr Stephen Cowan (second left) outside the Hammersmith Quaker Meeting House

Walking tours will also be taking place including The Great White City Reimagined which covers the regeneration projects which have taken the place of Television Centre, plus the surviving remnants of the 1908 Olympic stadium. Guided by resident Lynne Matthews, it is on Sunday, 11 September, at 11am.

Another guided walk is the one-and-a-half-mile Walk through the Great White City, looking at the evolution of the whole White City area. It is on Sunday, 18 September, at 2pm. The tour guide is Joanna Oyediran.

Aerial view of Television Centre in White City and the surrounding area

On a more modest scale is a tour of the redesigned 1890 house at 8 Gransden Road, W12 – an end-of-terrace Victorian home which has been dramatically extended and revamped, including basement and rear addition. Meet the architect from the Sam Tisdall firm which designed the changes. Just drop in on 10 or 11 September, 10am-4pm.

At a time of soaring energy bills, you might pick up some useful tips on a visit to an ordinary looking Victorian terraced home which has been turned completely carbon-neutral. Brian Thresh will show you round his house at 23 Sedgeford Road, W12, on 16 or 17 September, and talk you through the retrofitted changes, including air source heat pump, insulation and solar installation.

Tucked away behind a busy road is The Foundry at 1 Adelaide Grove, W12 (originally the George Broad sculpture foundry, built in 1895). You’ll probably have seen the distinctive 15m brick chimney. Now converted into a multi-level studio and exhibition space, it has the architect on site from 9-21 September to answer questions. Check for opening hours.

One of Hammersmith’s historic gems is the William Morris Society’s Kelmscott House at 26 Upper Mall, built in 1780 and including (on the drop-in open days of 8, 10, 15 and 17 September) the current exhibition. On some days there are printing demonstrations.

Kelmscott House at 26 Upper Mall in Hammersmith

Built in 2019, close to Hammersmith tube station, is 245 Hammersmith Road, W6, the dramatic flexible office and retail building with new public spaces. An architect will be on hand on Saturday, 10 September, to explain all on a guided tour.

For more information and to reserve your free ticket for these events visit the Open House Festival web site.

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September 5, 2022