to add an item to your Itinerary basket.
Heritage Open Days starts next week
2nd September 2026
Heritage Open Days, the annual celebration of the nation’s heritage, gets underway on 11 September. In Reading, over the following nine days, 35 free events will showcase the buildings, people and landscapes that have shaped our local communities.
Reading’s programme, which is co-ordinated by REDA, includes walks, talks, guided tours, access behind the scenes, a chance to have a go at something new, trace your own family history or just explore a historic building that you walk past every day.
This year’s festival has an emphasis on the ordinary lives, working days and small acts that quietly shape the place we call home. Many of the events taking place in Reading as part of Heritage Open Days 2026 will reflect this theme of ‘Everyday Histories’. A number of the events are fully booked. At the time of writing, the following events are among those still available:-
- Find out what it was like to be a gardener on a landed estate at Caversham Court Garden
- Hear about the differences between working in Jacksons Department Store and the Oracle shopping centre
- Join a nostalgic student RAG parade walk as part of the University of Reading’s centenary celebrations.
- If you’ve never been to the National Trust’s Basildon Park, then take advantage of their five days of free opening to see what the mansion house and 400 acres of grounds and gardens have to offer
- Reading Temperance Tavern – the Rising Sun Arts Centre was originally built as a temperance house. Take a tour and try a temperance drink
- Find out more about the everyday lives and culture of Reading’s Ukrainian community, established here since 1959
- Learn how to play the organ. And not just any organ, but the Father Willis organ on the stage at Reading Concert Hall.
- Find out more about Roman Reading at Reading Museum
- Research your own family tree at the Family Research Centre
- Visit some of Reading’s historic places of worship such as St Giles, St Mary’s the Quaker Meeting House and St Michale’s in Tilehurst
- Learn about millwrighting at Watlington House
- Pop into Brock Keep to find out how a barracks became an arts centre
Alex Brannen, REDA, said: “Heritage Open Days are a great way to find out about the history on your doorstep or your own family history. This year, Reading has events spanning centuries of local history, from the Romans to the Middle Ages, Georgian, Victorian and 20th century history. Every event is free to visit and perfect for the curious-minded.”
Heritage Open Days take place from 11 – 20 September 2026. Details of all the events are online at whatsonreading.com as well as on the national festival website heritageopendays.org, which has full accessibility, travel and opening details.
