I think y=this year was the 20th open house weekend, when buildings not normally open to the public open their doors for one weekend only. The problem with having done this for 20 years is that I have now visited most of the ones I am interested in. This year I focused on Lincoln's Inn Fields.
The house next to the Sir John Soame's Museum was open.
This was originally a speculative development built to be rented out. Interesting to my mind for how small the rooms are and how much space is taken up by the staircase.
Then over the road to the Royal College of Surgeons.
In addition to the stately rooms above, this is also home to the Hunterian Museum, a splendid home to a medical collection, with skeletons (the skulls of Siamese Twins for example) endless specimens and other medical curiosities. (Photography not permitted - you will just have to visit.)
The center of Lincoln's Inn is of course a leafy garden.
And at the other end you get the Inns of Court - what the place is best known for - the barrister's chambers.
St Clement Danes stands just before the Royal Courts on a bit of a traffic island. But it is one of London's prettiest churches internally - built by Christopher Wren, destroyed by the Luftwaffe, rebuilt and now the Central church for the RAF.
My last proper visit during the weekend was to the Royal Courts of Justice, a wonderful Victorian Gothic confection with winding corridors and spaces - well worth exploring. Would make a brilliant setting for a really extravagant party.
I ended up in front of St Paul's with the striking new tourist information centre.
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