Open House London

Open House is a charity committed to raising the standard of good design, particularly in the capital. Their annual festival of architecture involves opening up six hundred buildings across London, new and old, for the public to view completely for free!

I started the day at The Monument, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built to commemorate the Great Fire of London 1666. After climbing the 311 steps I was rewarded with panoramic views of the city.

The Lloyds Building, is somewhere I've always been fascinated in. The building was designed by Richard Rogers and is described as 'a mechanical cathedral'. The essential services are sited on the exterior of the building in six vertical towers leaving large uniterrupted spaces within. Inside the glass and steel hide real surprises. The Adam Room, out of character from the ultra high-tech interior, is a classical Italianate wood-pannelled room. It was originally the dining room of Bowood House and was bought to Lloyd's piece by piece.

London City Hall, along South Bank, was designed by Norman Foster in 2002. It's one of the capitals most symbolically important new projects and is a sustainable, virtually non polluting building. This beautiful modern spiralling staircase runs through the centre overlooking views of the Thames.