Heritage Open Days in Thanet: what is open, and what to book

Heritage Open Days opens buildings that are usually shut, and this year Thanet's programme leans towards working life rather than grand architecture. It runs from Friday 11 to Sunday 20 September 2026 and every event in the district is free. The awkward part is that it is not one weekend but two, with midweek openings in between, and a handful of venues want you to book while most do not.

Choose quickly

• Needs booking, and the system changed this year: Quex House and Gardens, Birchington.
• Registration requested, not required: The Grange and St Edward's Presbytery, Ramsgate.
• Open longest, ten days straight: Ramsgate Tunnels and the Droit House exhibition, Margate.
• Best for a walk rather than a queue: Westgate-on-Sea High Street Stories.
• First weekend only: Italianate Glasshouse, Ramsgate.
• Second weekend only: Montefiore Synagogue and the Sea Captain's Garden, Ramsgate.

Thanet District Council counted 36 free events when it announced the local programme on 18 August 2026. The national theme is "Everyday Histories", which the organisers describe as exploring stories of working lives, from learning a craft to establishing routines and cherished rituals. In Thanet that has meant railway staff, sea captains, publicans and nurses getting as much attention as the listed buildings.

Details below were checked on 2 September 2026 against the Visit Thanet programme and each venue's own information. A few venues still had opening hours marked as to be confirmed, and times change, so check before making a special journey.

Book first: Quex House and Gardens, Birchington

Sunday 13 September, 11am to 4pm. Entry is free, but the Powell-Cotton Museum has introduced timed arrival slots this year and asks visitors to pre-book a free slot through its own website. Its listing warns the day can be exceptionally busy and that people without a slot may have to wait to get in.

The museum is marking the Powell-Cotton Trust's 100th anniversary as a charity with a new Quex House tour and a pop-up exhibition, alongside the natural history dioramas and the walled kitchen garden. There is on-site parking and step-free access, though the house itself is only partly accessible to wheelchair users.

Registration requested: The Grange and St Edward's Presbytery, Ramsgate

Friday 11 to Monday 14 September, 10am to 4pm, except Monday the 14th which closes at 1pm. Booking is not essential, but the Visit Thanet listing asks visitors to register through Eventbrite, where the event appears as Pugin's Grange.

Augustus Pugin built The Grange for himself in 1845 and produced work there including designs for the House of Lords. St Edward's Presbytery next door followed in 1850. On Saturday 12 September the Thanet Youth Chamber Choir performs at 11am and 11.40am, and those performances need no booking. Both buildings have steep stairs above the ground floor, so the upper rooms are hard going for anyone with limited mobility.

Open the full ten days

Working People of the Isle of Thanet Through Time, Droit House, Margate. 11 to 13 and 15 to 20 September, 10am to 5pm. Archival photographs from the Sunbeam Collection, which was the dominant commercial photography business along the Thanet coast and is now held by the South East Archive of Seaside Photography. The portraits include musicians, publicans and nurses. The venue is the Thanet Visitor Information Centre on Stone Pier, it sits on one level and the entrance is accessible.

Ramsgate Tunnels. 11 to 20 September, 9.30am to 4pm. A free exhibition called Tracks, Trams and Town, covering railway working life in the Victorian era, women's work during the First World War and family life in Ramsgate in 1940, with hands-on trails for children. It is step-free, with a car park nearby. Worth being clear about one thing: the underground tunnel tours are a separate paid ticket, booked separately. The free part is the exhibition.

Westgate-on-Sea High Street Stories. 11 to 20 September, with no booking needed. Illustrated posters in the windows of independent businesses along Station Road, each explaining the building it sits in. It is self-guided, so you can do it in twenty minutes or stretch it across an afternoon, and the station and bus stops are central.

First weekend, 11 to 13 September

Dickens House Museum, Broadstairs. Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September, 1pm to 4.30pm, and again on Friday 18 and Saturday 19. The cottage was Dickens's model for Betsey Trotwood's home in David Copperfield, and the collection includes letters he wrote about Broadstairs and his writing box. There is a step at the entrance with a ramp available. The ground floor is accessible and the upstairs rooms are not.

Italianate Glasshouse, King George VI Park, Ramsgate. Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September, 10am to 4pm on both days. The restored glasshouse was put up in 1832 in the grounds of East Cliff Lodge, Sir Moses Montefiore's estate, after being bought from Bretton Hall in Yorkshire. Local artists are exhibiting in the garden and the greenhouse across the weekend. Access is through King George VI Memorial Park, with on-street parking nearby.

Second weekend, 18 to 20 September

Montefiore Synagogue and Mausoleum, Ramsgate. Friday 18 September, 11am to 3pm. David Mocatta, the first Anglo-Jewish architect, designed the synagogue and it opened in 1833. Both buildings are Grade II* listed.

Sea Captain's Garden, 146 High Street, Ramsgate. Saturday 19 September, 10am to 4pm, with no pre-booking. This is the Ramsgate Historic Quarter's open day, held on the site of one of the town's lost mansions, with walking tours pointing out the houses the sea captains lived in. Cannon Street car park is nearby and free on Saturdays.

The Wonderworks, Margate. Sunday 14 and Sunday 20 September, 10am to 3.30pm, free for Heritage Open Days. This is Hornby Hobbies' visitor attraction, with models, kits and displays about British toy making, and a cafe on site.

If you only get one day

Sunday the 13th packs in the most: Quex House and Gardens in Birchington, and the Italianate Glasshouse on its second and final day in Ramsgate. Book the Quex slot first and build the day around it.

Saturday the 19th suits anyone who would rather walk than queue, with the Sea Captain's Garden and its tours in Ramsgate and Dickens House open in Broadstairs.

Visit Thanet holds the full list with a page for each venue, and printed programmes are available at venues and visitor information centres. For Quex, book through the Powell-Cotton Museum's own site rather than a third party.