Open House London (now known as Open House Festival, which has spread to over 60 cities worldwide) first started in 1992.
It lets you get into places not normally open to the public. Some of the places are personal spaces (e.g., homes) that the owners/occupants want to share with the public for the duration of the 8-day event, often because of the architectural interest.
A student and I got ourselves on a guided tour of Wren churches in the Square Mile, taking in about five churches, all within walking distance of each other.
Towards the end of the tour, we found ourselves in a side street off the junction where Bank Tube station and the Bank of England are.
The guide pointed at a house, and said, “Here lives Lord xx who, when he was Chairman of the Arts Council, gave approval for the demolition of an iconic building yy for conversion into an office block. So, if you want to throw stones, you know where to go.”
(London, mid-1990s)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_House_London
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