Open House continues unabated this weekend.
Here's where else I've been over the last week.
Open House: Punchdrunk (Woolwich)
The Immersive One
Sometimes something utterly unexpected turns up on the Open House list, and so it was on Thursday evening when an invite to tour secret backstage facilities at Punchdrunk appeared entirely unannounced. I'll have that, I thought. And so it was I joined one of three very small groups invited for a backstage tour inside the immersive theatre company's permanent home at Woolwich Arsenal. We were under strict instructions to take no photos and reveal nothing confidential so I forgive me if I lapse into lorem ipsum every time there's something I shouldn't tell you.
Punchdrunk have been running immersive dramatic experiences since 2000, initially one bloke jumping out from behind a bush with a Walkman and more recently massive costume dramas with interlocking narratives for hundreds to wander round. In 2013 they premiered The Drowned Man in a former Post Office depot in Paddington and in 2023 delivered The Burnt City, a creative representation of the backstreets of Troy, both of which ran in situ for over a year. The set of the latter eget in Woolwich and we got the opportunity to walk its narrow alleyways, exploring tristique senectus and semper placerat. The attention to detail is extraordinary, even down to handwritten notes hidden in books nobody might ever read, also umpteen pairs of stressed underwear representing auctor convallis. It's a bit like the Crystal Maze but with narrative instead of challenges, thus loses something when the actors and fellow participants aren't there.
Punchdrunk have two Arsenal buildings on long term lease, now linked by a black passage where dictum vitae Henry the Hoover. One contains the workshop where all the props and designs are churned out, not just for events in London but around the world, also a second vast room awaiting imaginative transformation. I was last here when this was Firepower, the cannon-heavy museum that closed in 2016, and it certainly looks very different now with condimentum rutrum leo and tape on the floor. There's no word on what Punchdrunk's next show might be, nor when, nor where, but by the looks of the fringilla pretium hanging under the mezzanine and the scelerisque being built I'd say the theme is likely id feugiat felis and the signature colour will be mattis urna. It takes hundreds of craftspeople and imagineers to create a Punchdrunk experience so a ticket doesn't come cheap, but how privileged to have been given the opportunity to look deep behind the scenes at the complex spaces that might one day amet enim at ipsum dictum rhoncus.
Open House: Gaumont State Theatre (Kilburn)
The Supersized One
So popular were theatre and cinema in the late 1930s that a 4000-seater appeared in Kilburn, the third largest ever to have been built in the UK. Some hint of size comes from the monumental exterior modelled on New York's Empire State Building, then the unnecessarily magnificent entrance hall with its gold-topped marble columns and dripping chandelier. But it's only when you discover the enormous auditorium hidden laterally behind that your jaw drops, first that somewhere so huge was ever needed and secondly that it's still here in undivided form. George Formby and Gracie Fields performed on opening night, Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lee Lewis dropped by later, and bingo didn't take over fully until 1980. That the building survives intact today is down to the Ruach City Church who can still fill the stalls and the lower balcony every Sunday, and also be extremely welcoming to Open House Visitors.
The interior has an Italian Renaissance vibe, dramatic enough to draw the eye if the performance on stage is dragging. The ceiling has a saucer dome surrounded by scrolling arabesque panels, the walls have tall niches, the proscenium arch is coved and I only know all this because the building's Grade II* listed - to the eye it just looks seriously pretty. One rarity is that a Wurlitzer remains in situ, as does the original switch room round the back where the follow spots were lit and counterweights were lowered to raise the scenery. One of the men who operated the switches in the 1960s came back yesterday for a seriously nostalgic visit, assuring us that yes he'd lit the Beatles and indeed met them when he moved on to a job at Elstree.
If you're of a certain age it's seriously evocative to get the run of a Super Cinema, to wander freely round the stalls and up to the very back of the circle. To be reminded of the days when toilets were concealed to the side of the auditorium down sets of stairs, when children might have gathered in the lobby every Saturday before being engrossed by a morning of films, the curtain ready to lift, the partial view from your wood-backed seat, the aisles where ice creams would be sold in the interval and the Fire Exit ready to return you to the street, and you just don't get that at a modern multiplex. Here at Kilburn you can get it all, just once a year, and still Super-sized.
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Open House: Omved Gardens (Highgate)
The Seedy One
Just off Highgate's high street, past the last house with the R2-D2 gnome, is the entrance to Omved Gardens. Once waste ground it's since been transformed into a sloping garden with weaving paths, eco-structures and wellness opportunities. September's not the best month to see the plants, the sunflowers already wilted, but the sky garden above the kitchen continues to bloom and the tomatoes at the foot of the hill are ready to be harvested in most unusual colours. What sets Omved apart is the arc of wooden buildings added more recently to give the place some biocommercial heft, including an events barn, a greenhouse chicane and a seed library. The latter is crammed with glass jars, the contents of which they like to share with visitors to help spread diverse and unusual species across the community.
It feels like somewhere that should be open to the public full time, right down to the large-ish cafe counter dispensing carrot cake and salad to an audience that generally isn't there. Instead they have open days just once a month (the next on Sunday 11th October) and the rest of the time support themselves with ticketed events like kimchi workshops, honey tastings, live music, supper clubs and meditative sound baths. Highgate is plainly the perfect spot for such an enterprise - it'd never work in Hornchurch - but if plants and seeds are your thing you'd likely appreciate a visit just to wander and explore (inside and out) like we did.
Open House: Wolves Lane Agricultural Centre (Wood Green)
The Salady One
Still in Haringey but a world away, this urban farm acts collectively to bring horticultural awareness to the masses. The main focus is a row of 1970s greenhouses mostly used for vegetable production, and sufficiently prestigious that Ottolenghi's Soho restaurant Nopi has its very own kitchen garden here. Other plots grow ancestral plants serving the cuisine of the diaspora and generate salad bags anyone can drop in and collect weekly, while a small kitchen on site turns roots into hearty meals for disadvantaged members of the local community. The enthusiasm I experienced while speaking to those who work here was uplifting.
The greenhouse nearest the main road has been turned into a long thin Palm House with spiky growths and a central koi-filled stream, also a pool where several turtles poke their shells out of the water. Half of another greenhouse is packed with cacti, and I believe you can generally wander in and see these every Friday. Poking round the new eco-building at the rear was instead an Open House one-off, and very much the cheaper option if you're looking for an events venue in N22. Wolves Lane reopens for OH on Sunday, or come back for the Autumn Market on 4th October to see how the site really cultivates community value.
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