Build/Play/Shape

Croydon’s Open House Festival kicks off with a two-day family takeover of The Queen’s Gardens with Build/Play/Shape, where children can build a giant cardboard skyline, design spacecraft inspired by Croydon’s space-age towers, and clamber through a touring adventure playground complete with a mud kitchen and den-building.

Where: The Queen’s Gardens, Park Lane, Croydon CR0 1YJ

When: 12 to 13 September, 12pm to 5pm, free drop-in

More information: programme.openhouse.org.uk

In addition to Build/Play/Shape, Open House Festival’s Croydon programme runs across nine days, from 12 to 20 September, and extends well beyond The Queen’s Gardens. A highlight this year is an 18-metre mural by South London artist Vic Lee, marking 750 years since Croydon’s Street Market first received its royal charter, while the Museum of Croydon opens a major new exhibition, Shaping Croydon: Architecture and Ambition, tracing the borough’s evolution from post-war planning to its brutalist landmarks. Elsewhere, guided tours take in the borough’s historic pubs, the Tudor-era Whitgift Almshouses, and Fairfield Halls, offering a fuller picture of the architecture and communities that have shaped Croydon over the centuries.