Heritage Open Days Barnet 2026: three churches open free

Three Barnet buildings will open their doors free of charge for Heritage Open Days, the festival that runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 20 September, and one of them is offering 17 separate guided tours across all ten days.

The festival describes itself as England’s largest festival of history and culture, organised by volunteers, with every event free to attend. Searching its own event listings from each Barnet postcode district returns three entries inside the borough, all of them churches: St Mary-at-Finchley, St John the Evangelist in Friern Barnet, and Christ Church North Finchley. Two of the three need no advance booking at all.

St Mary-at-Finchley: 17 tours over ten days

The largest programme in the borough is at St Mary-at-Finchley, 26 Hendon Lane, N3 1TR, which the organisers describe as the oldest building in Finchley. Tours cover the Grade II* listed church and its churchyard, run for about two hours, and are capped at 20 people each.

Tours start at 10:00 and 14:00 on Friday 11, Saturday 12, Monday 14, Tuesday 15, Thursday 17, Friday 18 and Saturday 19 September, and at 14:00 only on Sunday 13, Wednesday 16 and Sunday 20 September. Pre-booking is preferred, through the church’s Eventbrite listing, and booking closes on 20 September.

What the tour covers is more specific than a walk round a nave. The churchyard’s monuments include an obelisk to Major John Cartwright, the campaigner known as the “Father of Reform”, and a Georgian sundial that the church says appears in a 1793 watercolour of St Mary’s by JMW Turner. The church is also working with the London Borough of Barnet and its neighbour Barnet Mencap on a wider project: repairing the leaking roof, conservation work on seven Grade II listed monuments, a community garden that Barnet Mencap will use for horticultural learning and social groups, easy-read and audio heritage guides, and the digitisation of the churchyard and burial records. St Mary’s says it is the first church in the Diocese of London to take part in the Church of England’s National Burial Survey.

One strand is worth watching if you walk locally: a historic footpath intended to connect seven local schools and link St Mary’s to the Capital Ring and the Dollis Valley paths, forming a five-mile circular route.

The church has two more September dates of its own, listed on its news page: community gardening on Saturday 12 September from 10:00 to 12:00, and a Healthy Heritage Walk on Sunday 13 September at 14:00, a five-mile walk leaving from the church entrance on Hendon Lane.

St John the Evangelist, Friern Barnet: one afternoon only

St John the Evangelist, Friern Barnet Road, N11 3EQ, opens once, on Saturday 19 September at 14:30. The format is a talk in the Parish Centre followed by a guided tour of the building, running about an hour, with cream teas and refreshments served afterwards. You book on the day, and numbers are capped at 20.

The church was designed by the Victorian architect John Loughborough Pearson and finished by his son Frank Pearson in 1911, after his father’s death. The organisers list it as Grade II*, built entirely of stone and vaulted throughout, with an apse the church says was inspired by the 13th century Cistercian abbey church at Heisterbach in Germany. The stained glass is by Clayton and Bell, and the 1896 organ by Henry Willis, who built the organ in the Royal Albert Hall, is separately listed Grade I as a historic instrument.

Parking on site is limited, though the organisers note free kerbside parking in the surrounding roads.

Christ Church North Finchley: no booking needed

Christ Church North Finchley, 620 High Road, N12 0NU, opens on Sunday 20 September from 14:00 to 17:00, with no booking required, the easiest of the three to drop into.

The building dates from 1867 and is Gothic Revival in style. The afternoon includes floral displays, activities for children and refreshments, and the church is building it around three people from its own records: Catherine Ironside and her link with Iran, Henry Stephens and his part in founding the church, and John Parr, who the church says was the first British soldier to die in the First World War.

What it means for you

If you can only make one, the choice is really about format. St Mary’s is a booked two-hour guided tour with a hard cap of 20 places per slot, so it rewards planning. Christ Church is a three-hour open afternoon you can walk into. St John’s sits in between: turn up, but turn up on time, because the talk starts the tour.

If you are travelling on Friday 18 September, check your bus first. That date and Monday 21 September are both on TfL’s list of Barnet bus strike days, and Friday 18 September carries two of St Mary’s tours. The organisers’ own directions to St Mary’s are Finchley Central on the Northern line, a five-minute walk away, or buses 13, 125, 143, 326 and 460, none of which is on the strike list.

If you want more than three buildings, the nearest events outside the borough are close. Burgh House, Keats House and Fenton House and Garden in Hampstead all open on Sunday 13 September, 2 Willow Road opens on Thursday 17 September, and Headstone Manor in Harrow is running several events across the festival. Details for all of them are on the festival’s event search.

Three entries is a thin showing for a borough of Barnet’s size, and the listings we searched are those published on 13 August, so it is worth running the festival search again nearer the time. For the rest of the year, our guide to things to do in Barnet covers what is open week to week.