please empty your brain below

"Beckontree" Estate, with a rogue "k".?Never thought I'd see that here, for shame.... Will be there on Sunday morning, public transport permitting....

dg writes: For shame. Struck off now, ta.

I was logged on at 10am six weeks ago and I duly phoned the number given to try and book a tour of St Pancras Chambers, it was an answerphone message that asked you to leave your number and they would get back to me, they got back to me at 7:30pm last evening to offer me a tour for this morning, no thanks I said, Ive made other arrangements.


I hope we can rely on you to do the Becontree Estate tour for us.

When I was living in Rainham the library had a copy of the original catalogue - fascinating stuff.

dg writes: Not this year, I'm booked in elsewhere. But one year.

I hope the life-changing is entirely positive, DG. I'm afraid I can't get to London today, and the Sunday railway service from Norfolk is impossible, so I will have to give it a miss this year.

Will we be getting an update on the life-changing meeting soon DG?

I had a great first day, getting round 13 places in the City and Clerkenwell. Not a hint of queuing at any of them. There's lots of good stuff out there if you're prepared to give anything a go. Two highlights were 30 Crown Place on the edge of the City, which has excellent 17th floor views and smashing boiled sweets. The Marx Library in Clerkenwell was also fun thanks to the enthusiastic guide.

A note on St Anne's Soho, which DG mentions below. I think they stopped letting people up to the (more interesting) upper levels. It's a pity, but probably a sensible decision. My lungs have never been right since I inhaled so much dust and pigeon poop 3 years ago.

Enjoy tomorrow!

Did my first Open House Weekend day today. Lots of fun.

A few thoughts--

1. It's worth checking the booking page for 55 Broadway even after it's all booked, because this week on Monday or Tuesday I checked it without any expectations of getting a space, but I found an open spot for today, which I nabbed. I had left the internet window open, and later I saw another open spot for 55 Broadway pop up, which showed up for 30 seconds before that time slot was nabbed.

2. This year, they let people take photos of the ground floor of 55 Broadway. I got there early for my tour this morning, and I was surprised when the receptionist volunteered that photos were okay in the lobby, because I know that last year several bloggers reported that photos were not allowed on that level. Because it's hard for me not to reveal my thoughts via my facial expression, the receptionist then telephoned "Dave" to make sure that photography was allowed down there, and he said it was. Oddly, though, they wouldn't let me photograph the stairwell on the ground floor.

3. I had no problem with queues at the venues I visited (after 55 Broadway). Portcullis House - 6 people in the queue, 5 minutes to get in - even though there were 59 billion tourists near the building (it helps that the entrance is on the side of the building that is across from the river - it seems that many tourists don't wander around that way). Royal Courts of Justice - no queue. Marlborough House - no queue. Conservative Club - I prebooked it just a couple of days ago, and they had 3 different time slots available, and I don't think all the slots on their sheet of paper were full even today. Former Daily Express lobby - 10 people in the queue, 5 minutes to get in. Dr. Johnson's house - 40 people in the queue, 20 minutes to get in (this "long" wait was apparently because it was 4:30 and they were one of the last Open House venues that was still open, so a lot of people were saving it to last, like I did).

4. There were a number of tube line partial closures today that I didn't think to check into until late last night, and this affected my plans today - I had to miss one of the 3 places I most wanted to see because it would have been difficult/time-consuming to get there. Even when I called that venue a few days ago to check into their opening times because their Open House website listing was self-contradictory (I was glad I telephoned them, because the Open House listing was incorrect), they gave me directions for reaching them today that involved using their local tube station, so they weren't aware either that the station would be shut today.

5. After I found out about the tube restrictions, I scrapped the plans I'd made for today to go to 2 farther-flung places and 2 inner London places, and decided to go to my morning tour at 55 Broadway and then "wing it" in the central area of town for the rest of the day. However, I took with me a list I made last week of the top 30 places that were of interest to me -- I didn't order the official guide, I just spent quite a lot of time with the website's search engine (which is not the greatest -- it could be so much better) -- I made a quick chart with name, address, opening times, tour times, last entry time, nearest tube station, which day(s) it would be open -- and I referred to this list on the fly today as I went from place to place. At one point during a heavy rain shower with my unbrella pulled down low, I ended up mistakenly walking down a street I hadn't meant to go down, and when I realized that, I scrapped the next 2 places I was planning to visit because I knew that there were some other venues nearer to where I found myself, and I wanted to get out of the rain. Of course, in the very center of London, there were so many places participating in the Open House that it was easy to fill up my day by this sponteneity-on-top-of-sketchy-planning method. One thing I did do was circle all the ones that were open on Saturday only, and I prioritized those if I could, because I'm going to go around tomorrow as well. Another thing I did when I made my master list was to check if the venue was open for visits at other times of the year or only on this one weekend; how much the normal entrance fee was if it was open to visitors at other times (i.e., how much I saved by going today when it was free), if there was a special tour available only today or, on the contrary, if today was self-guided but guided tours were available on the other days they were open to visitors.

6. I didn't mind that some places required pre-booking and were full and off-limits to me, because there was such a great choice available anyway.

7. From a personal, greedy perspective, it would be fantastic if greater London were divided into, say, 12 areas and each area had its Open Day or Open Weekend on a different month -- this would spread out the fun throughout the year, and enable one to visit so many more of the places that only want to go through the hassle of opening to the public on one day a year. Or maybe there could be themed months, when one month had all the private homes/modern architecture, one month the walks & talks, one month the government buildings, one month the galleries, one month the churches, one month the office buildings/especially tall buildings, etc.

8. In preparing for today by reading what various blogs had written about it, I noticed that one blog had organized a meetup at a pub for 5:30 today so folks could chat about their Open House experiences. I don't know anything about that blog, but I almost dropped by that pub for an hour because it sounded like a nice idea. However, I'd had so little sleep last night, and didn't manage to have enough food/caffeine today that I was flagging by 5:30 (just having left Dr. Johnson's) and decided to hop on the train home instead and get my dinner preparations underway. But if there were a meetup planned for the Sunday evening (tomorrow) to share Open House experiences and views whilst gently socializing, I probably would have gone to it. Does anyone know of any like-minded groups who do things like that in London?

Have you thought of starting a blog, cm? :)

And, in answer to your very last question, yes, this lot.

My first Open house weekend too, and under your recommendation I was there 6 weeks ago booking the biggies. I visited Tower 42 today (brilliant building, with an excellent tour guide) and I am headed to Trellick Tower tomorrow. You can check out the view from Tower 42 on my blog.

Thank you for the tip on the social group, DG. Oddly enough, when I was waiting for the tour of the prison cells at the Royal Courts of Justice today, there was one lone postcard for that very group just sitting on a little low ledge in the main hall - obviously it had been put down casually by someone. I picked up the postcard, thought "Ah, a message from the gods? Maybe this is something I would want to check into...", then, inexplicably, I had a slight feeling of "un-attraction" to the idea, just an intuitive thing that was only relevant to myself naturally, and I put the card back down. No offence to anyone, because obviously I know nothing in actuality about the group.

I think I might possibly go to Wednesday's "London history talks and music and stuff in a pub" thing by the other group I alluded to in my previous comment, whom I also know nothing about, except that when I breezed though a few shots of an event photo gallery on their site, I seemed to be perhaps 15 years older than a few of the attendees, 15 years younger than most... so it was a bit early-Goldilocks & the 3 Bears, but that event may not have been representative, obviously.

How about London-based or Surrey/Kent-based hiking groups, are there any NON-fuddy-duddy (do you guys use the adjective 'fuddy-duddy'? perhaps you do not) hiking groups of folks between the ages of, say, 34 and 46, who don't need to climb mountains and do triathlons, who don't just want to amble a few miles along a boring stream in zone 6, but who do visually-pleasing and mediumly-exerting stuff like walk 10 miles along an undulating-at-most southern cliff?

(Yes, I know YOU do that kind of thing, because you've written about it, and I do that kind of thing on my own --well, I've taken a few friends from time to time, but they usually don't want to do it again, because it's not their thing and they usually don't wear the right shoes or bring what I recommend they do and end up needing to share my water/snacks and wishing they hadn't brought an everyday purse instead of a backpack etc., and don't get a thrill from a beautiful environment like I do--
but you/your blog are not the "I want to form an open social group around this enterprise, nor even publish my actual name" types, and I respect that and think it's sensible.)

I am aware of the Ramblers and such, but have no idea what sorts of folks and ages go on such hikes. The last thing I would want to do is arrange to spend 4 or 6 hours in the countryside with a small, perhaps-chummy group of people who might all be a bit nuts and might drive me crazy or might take a dislike to me and it might be unpleasant. shiver.

:-)

Ah, DG, back from Becontree (and other places nearer the centre of town)

The coach, as it happens, was a 53-seater, and there in fact, in all, 45 participants (including one rather vocal local councillor). Given the 10am start, at a fairly remote location not near a tube station (and with the district line from there into town closed for engineering works), and the 4-hour commitment (although it overran by well over a further half-an-hour), and the rather recherché subject matter, I was also rather surprised at this.

It was clear that well over half (maybe over two-thirds) of those taking part were either locals, or (like me) former locals, and probably more families with children than is typical for an open house event. The tour (to three empty houses, and around a large part of the state) was great - with two other visits, to the Dagenham branch of Kingsley Hall and to the Valence House Museum, which both featured interesting, informative, extensive, talks by people clearly well-informed about and enthused by their subject matter. (The refurbished Valence House museum was also most impressive). And a great commentary on the coach tour from a local historian (and former housing manager on the estate) and media consultant type. Plus someone from the council housing department too.

So - yes, highly recommended, actually. Far more so than I expected it to be!

What's that phrase? Next year, there's always next year. (How two sets of friends both ended up with BT Tower tickets, I'll never know - lucky so and sos).

I went for Option 5: aimed for the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe, and spent several hours visiting astonishing places in that lovely corner of london that I had never visited before.











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