Fifty-seven free openings across the district from 11 to 20 September, 22 in Leamington. Forty-two need no booking; two do. Times, places and what to book.
Buildings that are normally shut, or that normally charge, open free across the district from Friday 11 to Sunday 20 September. Warwick District Council counts more than 50 free events and openings.
The festival’s own printable list for Warwick district carries 57 entries. We counted them and read every entry. Two of them, both for St Mary’s Allotments on Radford Road, are the same site listed twice, so the real figure is 56.
Where they are:
- 22 at Leamington Spa addresses, including Lillington
- 20 in Warwick
- 3 in Kenilworth
- 12 in villages and further out, from Barford and Cubbington to Wasperton
The number that matters more is the booking one. Of the 57 entries, 42 say pre-booking is not required. You can simply turn up. Twelve say booking is preferred, two require it, and one audio tour is booked on the day.
The council’s “hidden gem” runs twice, and only twice
The council’s release points at 50 Bedford Street, where the Chairman, Councillor Pam Redford, was given a pre-festival tour. She called the building “a hidden gem, with a unique sporting history, just waiting to be discovered”.
That is The Leamington Tennis Court Club, a real tennis club a couple of minutes from the Parade. The release does not say how narrow the window is. The festival listing does. There are two tours:
- Monday 14 September, 2pm
- Friday 18 September, 11.30am
No booking is needed for either. The club’s own note says the building sits just past the Bedford Street car park, on the left before you reach Regent Street.
What you can walk into in Leamington
Twelve of the 22 Leamington entries need no booking. The main ones:
- Leamington Heritage Day, All Saints’ Parish Church, Victoria Terrace, Saturday 12 September, 10am to 3pm. Local societies show their latest research, and the church tower is open to climb. Run by Leamington History Group.
- Victoria House, 59 Willes Road, Saturday 12 September, 10am to 3pm.
- St Mary’s Allotments, Radford Road, Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, 10am to 4pm. There is almost no parking on site; the organisers point people to Newbold Comyn car park or Leam Terrace.
- The Polish Centre, 54 High Street, Sunday 20 September, midday to 3pm.
- St Mark’s Church, St Marks Road, Saturday 12 September.
- St Peter’s RC Church, Dormer Place, and Holy Trinity Church, Beauchamp Avenue, both on several days.
One Leamington event is not on the Heritage Open Days district list at all. The H.B. Dunn’s Pharmacy 200th anniversary runs at 31-33 Oxford Street on Saturday 12 September, 9am to midday. It is free, with heritage displays and blood pressure checks. The chemist started at 87 Regent Street in 1826 and moved to Oxford Street in 2014.
What to book, and where
Only two entries in the whole district actually require booking, and both are in Warwick:
- Lord Leycester, 60 High Street. Free admission on Monday 14 September, 10am to 5pm, last admission 4pm. Book at lordleycester.com.
- Market Hall Museum, Market Place. A 1pm talk on Thursday 17 September about Daisy Greville, the Red Countess. Book through warwickshire.gov.uk/heritageboxoffice.
Ten of Leamington’s entries say booking is preferred rather than required. Eight of those are Leamington History Group tours, and all of them book through leamingtonhistory.co.uk/events. They include the Town Hall, All Saints’ Church, Victoria House, a Rock and Roll Leamington walk on 19 September and a talk at the Band Factory on 15 September.
The other two are worth knowing about:
- Leamington Station tours on Saturday 12 and Saturday 19 September, at 10.30am and 2.30pm, run by the Friends of Leamington Station. Meet about ten metres to the right of the station entrance.
- Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum at the Royal Pump Rooms, with tours at 11am, 1.30pm and 2pm on five days.
Kenilworth gets three, Warwick gets twenty
Kenilworth’s share of the district list is small. All three need no booking:
- Kenilworth Abbey Museum and Heritage Centre, Abbey Fields, open 2.30pm to 4.30pm on 12, 13, 19 and 20 September. Guided tours of the abbey ruins run at 3pm on the first weekend, and you register at the museum from 2.30pm. This year marks 760 years since the siege of Kenilworth.
- St Nicholas Church, Bridge Street, open 9am to 5pm every day of the festival. Teas from 2.30pm on Sunday 13 September, coffee both Friday mornings.
- St Barnabas Church, Albion Street, also 9am to 5pm daily.
In Warwick, the Collegiate Church of St Mary opens its tower and Victorian ringing room, with tours at 10am and 11.30am on Saturday 12 September and 1.30pm and 3pm on Sunday 13. Groups are capped at 12. Hill Close Gardens, the restored Victorian detached gardens off Bread and Meat Close, opens 11am to 4pm on 19 and 20 September, last entry 3.30pm, with two hours of free parking if you register your car at the machine.
Three that need a car
The council’s release names four attractions in one breath. Three of them are not a walk from Leamington town centre, and one is not even on the Warwick list.
- Chesterton Windmill is on the district list but its postcode, CV33 9LB, falls in Stratford-on-Avon district. It is about four and a half miles from central Leamington. It opens 10am to 4pm on 19 and 20 September, no booking, and the organisers warn you should expect to queue for a roughly 20 minute visit inside.
- Packwood House at Lapworth is in Warwick district, about ten miles out, and has its own listing rather than a place on the Warwick area list.
- Bagot’s Castle at Baginton is also in the district, about six miles away, open 10.30am to 4pm on both weekends, last entry 3.30pm. It too is listed separately.
Baddesley Clinton, the National Trust house the council also names, is about eight miles from Leamington and opens on Sunday 13 September.
What it means for you
If you only do one thing, Saturday 12 September is the day with most on. All Saints’ hosts Leamington Heritage Day, the pharmacy anniversary runs on Oxford Street that morning, Victoria House and the allotments are both open, and there are station tours and church tower tours in Warwick.
If you want the tennis court club, put 14 or 18 September in the diary now. Two tours is all there is.
Book the Lord Leycester and the Market Hall Museum talk before you travel, since those are the only two the district cannot let you walk into. For everything else, the honest answer is that a booking is a courtesy rather than a requirement.
The council says a printed guide listing every venue and its opening times is available from libraries and visitor information centres.
Planning to drive in? Our guides to parking in Leamington and Leamington roadworks and travel cover the car parks and what is closed. For the rest of the month, see things to do in Leamington.
Sources: Warwick District Council, 2 September 2026; Heritage Open Days printable area list for Warwick and the individual event listings, all read on 3 September 2026; Leamington History Group events. District boundaries and distances checked against Ordnance Survey postcode data via postcodes.io.
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