A Day of Exploring at Open House London

This weekend was Open House London. For two days, over 700 buildings in London are on show to the public for free, most of which the public does not normally have access to. Some of the buildings have guided tours, while others you can just wander freely through. But they all have some sort of compelling reason to visit: whether the building is historical; designed with a greener city in mind; showcases how the city or transportation works; or displays shared community spaces or better work and home design.

Last Wednesday after dodgeball, I was talking to Aaron's coworker who is really into architecture and building design. He brought up that he was going to the Open House this weekend, and then suggested some buildings to check out.

Aaron, Yacine and I made it to a few places on Saturday. We tried to go to the Bank of London, but unfortunately there are only 500 people that get in, and when we arrived at 10:30am (it opens at 9:30am) all the slots were filled! Popular visiting spot : )

Here are the ones that we did get to see:

• Guildhall - Built between 1411 and 1440, the building consists of a Great Hall, an old library and a crypt (in the basement below). The hall housed some famous trials including Lady Jane Grey and Guy Fawkes' accomplice in the gunpowder plot that almost blew up Parliament.
  
• Lloyd's Registry Group - a building designed to make the best use of the space available with minimum impact on the 1901 Colcutt building it's built around and the surrounding streets. The new part of the building is entirely glass. But the 1901 part which is what we walked through has an old reception hall and general committee room.
  
• HM Treasury - Her Majesty's Treasury is the department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy. The building was constructed in the early 1900s.
  
• The Foreign and Commonwealth Office - this is the department responsible for protecting and promoting British interests worldwide. The building was built in the 1860s. The coolest part about this is that we were walking through the courtyard and a woman approached asking if we'd like a brochure. Then she asked if we wanted to see something really neat so she told us to look closer through a gate, and we saw the door of 10 Downing Street, where the Prime Minister (David Cameron) works and lives. Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed, but this was by far the coolest part of the day!