Chiswick House studios, Chiswick Town Hall and Hogarth's House all open free, 12 to 20 September. Nineteen listings borough-wide, twelve needing a ticket.
Five Chiswick buildings and walks open free during Open House Festival 2026, starting on Saturday 12 September at the Victorian Society’s Grade II listed headquarters in Bedford Park.
Open House runs from Saturday 12 to Sunday 20 September. Nineteen listings across the borough of Hounslow are in the programme, from Chiswick House’s artists’ studios to Kempton Steam Museum at Hanworth. Everything is free.
The catch is booking. Some sites are drop-in, some are ticketed, and tickets for the ticketed ones went live at midday on Wednesday 19 August. You need a free visitor account on the Open House site to take one. Nothing in the borough was showing as fully booked when we checked the programme on 30 August, but that can change, and the walking tours are small.
The five in Chiswick
| Place | When | Booking |
|---|---|---|
| The Victorian Society, 1 Priory Gardens, Bedford Park, W4 1TT | Sat 12 Sep, 11am to 4.15pm; guided walk of Bedford Park 2pm to 3.30pm | Drop in, walk needs a ticket |
| A Ruskinian Walk, from Building 3, Chiswick Business Park, 566 Chiswick High Road, W4 5YA | Sat 12 Sep 12pm; Sun 13 Sep 2pm; Sat 19 Sep 12pm | Book |
| Hogarth’s House, Hogarth Lane, W4 2QN, garden tours | Sun 13 and Sat 19 Sep, 2.30pm and 3.30pm | Book |
| Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfield Terrace, W4 4JN | Tue 15 Sep, 11.30am and 1.30pm | Book |
| Chiswick House and Gardens, Burlington Lane, W4 2RP, Open Studios | Sun 20 Sep, 10.30am to 3pm | Drop in |
Two are worth flagging.
The Victorian Society’s offices at 1 Priory Gardens were designed by E J May in 1880 and are part of the original Bedford Park development, a couple of minutes from Turnham Green station. The Society says you can drop in any time between 11am and 4.15pm; only the separate walking tour of Bedford Park needs a ticket. That Saturday is also the middle weekend of the Chiswick Book Festival.
At Chiswick House the artists’ studios, converted from historic outbuildings around the walled Kitchen Garden in 2025 and home to 23 artists, open to the public only twice a year. The studios, the Learning Hub and the Kitchen Garden are drop-in. Going inside Chiswick House itself is free that day but, the listing notes, needs to be booked, and last entry to the house is 3pm.
Check the closing time before you go. The booking panel on that listing gives 10.30am to 3pm; the description further down the same page says 10.30am to 3.30pm.
The rest of the borough
Brentford
- Boston Manor House, Boston Manor Road, TW8 9JX. The busiest venue in the borough: short tours of the meeting rooms, attic and roof views, plus spotlight tours of the Floating Architecture exhibition, on all six of its open days (12, 13, 17, 18, 19 and 20 September). Book.
- St Lawrence, High Street, TW8 8EW. Walking tour, Fri 18 Sep, 11am. Book.
- Brentford Then and Now, from Market Square. Thu 17 Sep, 2.30pm to 4.30pm. Book.
- Great West Road centenary walk, from the Market Place by 194 High Street. Sun 13 Sep, 2.30pm to 4.15pm. Book.
Isleworth and Osterley
- Quaker Meeting House, Quakers Lane, TW7 5AZ. Built in 1785 and open 10am to 5pm on Sat 19 Sep as a drop-in, with a free crochet workshop at 10.30am and Hounslow Community Choir at 1pm, both bookable.
- Redlees Studios, Redlees Park, Worton Road, TW7 6DW. Sat 12 Sep, 10am to 4.30pm. Drop in.
- Hidden Isleworth walk, from Isleworth Leisure Centre and Library, Twickenham Road, TW7 7EU. Sat 12 Sep, 2pm. Book.
- Exploring Spring Grove, from the forecourt of Isleworth station. Tue 15 Sep, 2.30pm. Book.
- Isleworth Public Hall, South Street, TW7 7BG. Talk, Wed 16 Sep, 2.15pm. Book.
Hounslow
- Hounslow House, 7 Bath Road, TW3 3EB. The council’s 2019 headquarters by Sheppard Robson. Three guided tours on Fri 18 Sep, at 9.45am, 11am and 12.15pm. Book.
- St Stephen’s Conservation Area open gardens, from St Stephen’s Church, Parkside Road, TW3 2BP. Sun 20 Sep, 1pm to 3pm. Drop in.
Feltham and Hanworth
- Kempton Steam Museum, Kempton Park Pumping Station, Snakey Lane, TW13 6XH. Sun 13 Sep, 10.30am to 4pm. Drop in.
- The St Michael Steiner School, Park Road, Hanworth, TW13 6PN. Sun 13 and Sat 19 Sep, 11am to 2pm. Drop in.
- Feltham’s mural and mosaic trail, from Feltham station ticket office. Sat 12 Sep, 11am and 2pm. Book.
One more listing is worth knowing about but is not, strictly, in the borough. Cranford Park’s restored Grade II stables and Secret Garden open on Sunday 13 September, 11am to 3pm, drop in. Open House gives the address as Hounslow, but the stables sit on the Hillingdon side of the park, the restoration is a Hillingdon Council project and the nearest station is Hayes and Harlington. It is roughly seven miles west of Chiswick.
What it means for you
- The two big days are the Saturdays and Sundays. Six listings open on Sat 12 September, six on Sun 13, five on Sat 19 and three on Sun 20. Nothing at all is open on Monday 14 September.
- Book before you travel. Twelve of the nineteen borough listings are ticket-only. The drop-ins are the Victorian Society, Redlees Studios, the Quaker Meeting House, Kempton Steam Museum, the Steiner school, St Stephen’s gardens and Chiswick House Open Studios.
- Walks start somewhere other than the building. Four of the borough’s listings are walking tours with a named meeting point, and three of those meeting points are stations or a market square, not the site itself.
- Check the listing on the day. Open House venues do occasionally withdraw, and the programme page is the only place that shows it.
The full programme, including everything outside the borough, is at programme.openhouse.org.uk. For more Chiswick listings this month, see things to do in Chiswick.
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