Birkbeck welcomes public for Open House London
Gordon Square to open doors for annual architecture festival
Birkbeck's School of Arts will throw its doors open to members of the public this weekend, offering them a chance to explore its combination of historical and modern features as part of the Open House London festival.
The school, in the heart of Bloomsbury, has been selected to be part of the capital’s largest annual festival of architecture, which takes place this weekend (Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 September).
Visitors at the School of Arts, at 39-47 Gordon Square, will be offered the chance to tour the grade II listed building which was designed in 1820. Housed within its handsome walls are a diverse range of architectural styles and historically significant spaces including:
- The historic interiors, originally occupied by the sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, where the Bloomsbury group of intellectuals had its beginnings. The economist John Maynard Keynes and the dancer Lydia Lopkova later lived there, and The Keynes' Library (which houses three paintings by Vanessa Bell) will be a highlight of the tour
- The Centre for Film and Visual Media, a strikingly modernised extension designed by Surface Architects in 2007, which houses Birkbeck’s 80-seat cinema
Open House London runs on Saturday 17 – Sunday 18 September 2016.
Birkbeck School of Arts (39-47 Gordon Square, WC1H 0PD) will be open from 10am to 5pm on both days. Hourly tours led by Birkbeck History of Art students will run throughout both days on a first come basis, with the last tour at 4pm each day. Find out more about the Gordon Square activity.
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