Seven Havering places open free this September, from Bower House to Rainham Hall. Dates, times, which need booking and the one walk capped at 20.
Seven places in Havering open their doors free of charge over the next three weekends, across two national festivals and one local programme that runs alongside both. Only one of the seven needs booking, and that one is capped at 20 people a session.
Heritage Open Days runs from 11 to 20 September and is England’s largest free history festival. (Heritage Open Days) The Open House Festival, London’s architecture equivalent, overlaps it from 12 to 20 September. (Open House Festival programme) Between them they have six Havering entries. Upminster Windmill is on neither programme, but the volunteers who run it have put on their own Heritage Month open days on the same weekends.
Here is everything that is open, by date.
Saturday 12 September
Rainham Parish Church of St Helen and St Giles, The Broadway, Rainham RM13 9YW. Open 10am to 4pm, drop in, no booking. Grade I listed and built around 1170 by Richard de Lucy, the church has a Norman chancel arch that its Open House entry calls one of the best preserved of its kind in the country. The walls are septaria and flint-rubble, both local materials. There are accessible toilets, seating and baby changing. (Open House listing)
Wennington Parish Church of St Mary and St Peter, Wennington Road, Wennington RM13 9DX. Open 10am to 4pm, drop in, no booking. The present building dates from roughly 1190 to 1248, though a church stood on the site by 1042 to 1044, when Edward the Confessor confirmed the parish as belonging to Westminster Abbey. Nearest station is Rainham, and the 372 bus stops nearby. (Open House listing)
Upminster Windmill, visitor centre at 89 St Marys Lane, Upminster RM14 2QL. Open 10am to 4pm. Entry to the visitor centre and gardens is free; a tour of the mill itself costs £6 for adults and £2 for under-18s, paid on the day. Children must be at least a metre tall and able to manage the stairs unaided, and everyone touring the mill needs flat, fully enclosed shoes. Sails turn weather permitting. (Friends of Upminster Windmill)
Sunday 13 September
Upminster Windmill again, this time 11am to 4pm, with hands-on activities about the families of the village Upminster used to be, and old fashioned games on the green. Same pricing: free grounds, £6 and £2 mill tours. (Friends of Upminster Windmill)
Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 September
Romford Town Heritage Walks, starting at Havering Museum, 19-21 High Street, Romford RM1 1JU. 11am to 1pm on both days. This is the only one on the list that requires booking, it is capped at 20 people, and tickets are free through Eventbrite. The format: meet guide Jane at the museum for a short history of Romford, then walk the town centre for an hour, no more than a mile, and return to the museum for refreshments. (Heritage Open Days listing, Eventbrite booking)
Tickets were still showing as available on the morning of Friday 5 September.
Saturday 19 September
Bower House, Orange Tree Hill, Havering-atte-Bower, Romford RM4 1PB. Open 10am to 4pm, drop in. This is the standout building on the list and the hardest to see the rest of the year. It is Grade I listed, built in 1729 to a design by Henry Flitcroft, and its staircase carries murals by Sir James Thornhill, the painter of the Painted Hall at Greenwich. The house was built partly from the remains of the royal palace of Havering Bower, and a plaque on the entrance hall fireplace records the fact. There is parking, toilets and drinking water on site, and handrails on one side of the stairs. Bus 375 serves it; the nearest station is Romford. (Open House listing)
Rainham Hall, The Broadway, Rainham RM13 9YN. The National Trust puts its own hours at 11am to 4.30pm with last entry to the hall at 3pm; the Heritage Open Days entry lists 11am to 4pm. Either way it is free and needs no booking. Built in 1729 for a merchant, the hall has had more than 50 households in 300 years, and volunteers give an overview of its history before you look round the exhibition at your own pace. There is no parking at the hall: the Trust points visitors to Rainham Tesco, which gives customers three hours free, or Rainham station, both under five minutes’ walk. The three-acre community garden is free all year. Capacity on the day is 60. (Heritage Open Days listing, National Trust)
Rainham and Wennington parish churches both open a second time, 10am to 4pm, same terms as 12 September.
Sunday 20 September
Bell ringing and open tower at St Andrew’s, 222 High Street, Hornchurch RM12 6QP. 11.30am to 2pm, drop in. A mini-ring is being set up in the churchyard so visitors can try ringing, and you can climb to the ringing room, where a video camera shows the bells, which date from 1779 to 2014. The peal boards record ringing for the Platinum Jubilee and the Coronation. Free parking on site. The organisers are clear that the tower staircase is narrow and unsuitable for wheelchair users or anyone with walking difficulties. (Heritage Open Days listing)
And one more, after the festivals end
Upminster Windmill, Sunday 27 September, 11am to 4pm. The volunteers are marking four seasons since the mill reopened to visitors in 2023 by naming the refreshment area. Free grounds, £6 and £2 mill tours as before. (Friends of Upminster Windmill)
What it means for you
Three practical points, in the order they will bite:
- Book the Romford walk now if you want it. It is the only thing on this list you cannot simply turn up to, it takes 20 people, and it runs on a Wednesday and a Thursday rather than a weekend.
- Saturday 19 September is the busy day. Four of the seven venues open on it, and Bower House and Rainham Hall are the two you are least likely to get into at any other time of year.
- Check how you are getting there. Rainham Hall has no car park at all. Bower House and St Andrew’s both have parking. Rainham station serves both Rainham churches and the hall.
Two of the openings carry access limits worth knowing before you travel. The tower at St Andrew’s is reached by a narrow staircase, which the organisers say is unsuitable for wheelchair users. Rainham Hall’s own accessibility note says the hall is not wheelchair accessible either. Its garden, café and coach house are, and the coach house shows a film and 360-degree virtual tours of the upstairs rooms.
Rainham Hall has three other free events around the heritage weekend. Global Village lands first, on Saturday 6 September, with free entry to the hall itself. On the bill: acrobatics from India’s Circus Raj, a Bollywood dance session, storytelling, henna painting and music from the Heritage Brass Band from India. It is run with the Essex Cultural Diversity Project and supported by the council. Then a Pooch Party in the community gardens on Saturday 12 September, 11am to 4pm, and an autumn discovery walk on 23 September, free but with booking advised. (National Trust events)
For more things to do locally, see our guide to things to do in Romford, and for getting around, Romford roadworks and travel.
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