Seventeen Bromley buildings open free from 12 September, from the Bishop's Palace to a Tudor moated manor. Ten need no booking at all. Every date and time.

Seventeen buildings and walks in the borough of Bromley open free to the public between Saturday 12 and Sunday 20 September, as part of the Open House Festival. Ten of them need no booking at all.

A Tudor moated manor, the Bishop’s Palace, a 1666 almshouse quadrangle, a modernist church rebuilt brick by brick from a demolished Peckham one, and the Bethlem Royal Hospital site are all on the list. So is a walking tour of the Bromley that HG Wells grew up in.

We counted these from the Open House programme map on 6 September and checked every venue’s location against the borough boundary. The London-wide programme carries 820 venues; 17 of them are in Bromley (Open House Festival programme). This is the festival’s 35th edition, and it is free throughout (Open City).

Just turn up: ten openings with no booking

Saturday 12 September

  • Church of the Annunciation, High Street, Chislehurst BR7 5AQ. Open 9am to 4pm. A “Holy Hour” for quiet reflection runs 9.30am to 10.30am, and a pet blessing by the vicar at 2pm. James Brooks, 1870.
  • St Mary’s Church, College Road, Bromley BR1 3QG. Open 9.30am to 4.30pm. Waring and Blake, 1863.
  • St Mary the Virgin, Hayes Street, Hayes BR2 7LH. Open 10.30am to 4.30pm, with self-guided tour leaflets, volunteers on hand and free tea and coffee. The listing dates the building to 1175 and credits George Gilbert Scott.
  • Scadbury Moated Manor, Perry Street, Chislehurst BR7 6LN. Open 2pm to 4.30pm, and again on Sunday 13th. See the note on its closing time below.

Tuesday 15 September

  • Beckenham Library, Beckenham Road BR3 4PE. 9.30am to 5pm. Bromley Historic Collections bring items from the archive and show how the service can help with research.

Wednesday 16 September

  • St Mary’s Church, Bromley. A second, shorter opening, 10am to noon.

Saturday 19 September

  • Bullers Wood School for Girls, St Nicolas Lane, Chislehurst BR7 5LJ. 10am to 1pm, showing the history of Bullers Wood House. William Morris and Ernest Newton, 1889.
  • West Wickham Library, Glebe Way BR4 0SH. 9.30am to 4.30pm, again with Bromley Historic Collections. The building itself is new, by Brimelow McSweeney, 2025.
  • Christ Lutheran Church, 227 Poverest Road, Orpington BR5 1RD. 10am to 3pm. Gordon Cook, 1966.
  • The Priory and Old Library, Church Hill, Orpington BR6 0HH. 11am to 5pm, with historical tours and open studios. Last tour starts at 4pm, and there are no tours between 1pm and 2pm.
  • St Mark’s Church, 10 Church Road, Biggin Hill TN16 3LB. 10am to 4pm, and again on Sunday 20th from noon to 4pm. On the Sunday there is a communion service between 10.30am and 11.45am, which visitors are welcome to join.

Book ahead: seven that need a ticket

Ticketed events are still free, but you need a free Open City visitor account and a booked slot. Bookings opened at midday on Wednesday 19 August, so the popular tours have had a fortnight’s head start.

When What Times
Sun 13 Sep Bishops Palace and Park, Bromley Palace Park, off Rochester Avenue 10.30am and 2.30pm, two hours each
Sun 13 Sep Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs, Blue Badge guided walk 11am to 1pm
Sun 13 Sep Suburban Art and Design in Petts Wood, from 36 Station Square BR5 1NA 2pm to 4pm
Mon 14 Sep Bethlem Royal Hospital walking tour, Beckenham BR3 3BX 10.30am and 12.30pm
Thu 17 Sep RAF Biggin Hill Museum and Chapel tour, Main Road, Biggin Hill 11am to 12.30pm
Sat 19 Sep Bromley and Sheppard’s Colleges, London Road, entrance via the Wren Gates 10am, 11.15am, 12.30pm, 1.45pm and 3pm
Sat 19 Sep Crystal Palace Park dinosaurs, second walk 11am to 1pm
Sun 20 Sep HG Wells’ Bromley walking tour, meets at Primark, 162 High Street BR1 1HE 11am to 1pm

Some of the drop-in venues also run bookable extras on the same day:

  • Church of the Annunciation, Sat 12th: three tower tours, at 11am, noon and 1pm. Several narrow, steep steps, no children under five, and a disclaimer form to sign. There is also a said Mass with breakfast at 9am, and a 3pm talk by Joanna Friel, President of the Chislehurst Society, on how Chislehurst’s buildings have changed.
  • St Mary the Virgin, Hayes, Sat 12th: history and architecture talks at 11am and 2pm, each a 30-minute presentation followed by a 30-minute tour, plus churchyard walking tours at 12.30pm and 3.30pm.
  • Christ Lutheran, Orpington, Sat 19th: a 30-minute talk on the church’s late modernist design at 11am, repeated at 2pm.
  • West Wickham Library, Sat 19th: a reminiscence session at 2.30pm using objects from the handling collection.

The one Heritage Open Days entry

Heritage Open Days, the separate England-wide festival, runs 11 to 20 September and has exactly one Bromley entry: Scadbury Moated Manor (Heritage Open Days, Bromley area list).

It is worth going. The Orpington and District Archaeological Society opens the moated site for a self-guided trail past the archaeological excavations, the foundations of the Tudor kitchens and great hall, wartime defences and a restored shepherd’s hut. The Walsingham family owned the house.

The two programmes give different closing times for the same event. Heritage Open Days lists 2pm to 5pm on both days, with last entry at 4.30pm. Open House lists 2pm to 4.30pm. Aim to arrive by 4pm.

There is no parking on site. The society advises entering where the estate footpath passes the moated site, with the nearest road access by the footpath next to 14 St Pauls Wood Hill, then left along the nature trail. Buses R11 and B14 stop nearby. From Old Perry Street it is a 30-minute walk.

Friday 18 September is the blank day

Openings cluster hard on the two weekends. Counted by day, the borough has:

  • Sat 12 Sep: four
  • Sun 13 Sep: four
  • Mon 14 Sep: one
  • Tue 15 Sep: one
  • Wed 16 Sep: one
  • Thu 17 Sep: one
  • Fri 18 Sep: none
  • Sat 19 Sep: seven
  • Sun 20 Sep: two
Bar chart of free Bromley openings by day during the Open House Festival: four on Saturday 12 September, four on Sunday 13th, one each on Monday 14th, Tuesday 15th, Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th, none on Friday 18th, seven on Saturday 19th and two on Sunday 20th
Chart by Bromley Online.

What it means for you

Saturday 19 September is the day to clear. Seven venues open, five of them free to walk into, and they are spread from Biggin Hill to Orpington to West Wickham rather than bunched in one town.

If you want the Bishop’s Palace or the almshouse quadrangle at Bromley and Sheppard’s Colleges, book now rather than later. Neither is normally open, both are ticketed, and both fall on a single day.

Mid-week is thin, and split. Beckenham Library on the Tuesday and St Mary’s on the Wednesday are drop-ins. The Bethlem walking tour on the Monday and the RAF Biggin Hill tour on the Thursday are single fixed slots, so arriving late means missing them entirely.

Getting there is easiest by train for the town centre venues. Our Bromley train times guide covers the Bromley South and Bromley North lines, and there is parking information here. For the rest of the year, our guide to things to do in Bromley has the venues that open all the time.

Sources