Please go to the Diary Room...National Trust to open Big Brother house to the public

If you’d like enter the Diary Room, bounce on the overstuffed furniture and marvel at the close confines of a reality TV experiment that has last over a decade, now might be your chance as the National Trust is set to open the Big Brother House to the public for one weekend later this month.

On Friday 27 and Saturday 28 September the set of the Channel 5 (formerly Channel 4) residence that has created so many new celebrities and endless tabloid gossip will be open to the average Joe to explore.

The Big Brother house, located at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, will open its doors for 80-minute guided tours which will include a session in the Diary Room and an exploration of the hyper-colourful living areas internal and external spaces (including the astro-turfed garden and hot tub).

The National Trust, which will offer a guidebook to the Big Brother house, gives the public access to buildings of historical heritage and importance – but it has a reputation for being rather stuffy.

Other landmarks on its September Open Days timetable include Leith Hill, Surrey – the childhood home of composer Vaughan Williams -, Blickling Estate in Norfolk,  Corfe Castle in Dorset, and other houses of cultural importance that are wildly different from the Big Brother house.

Explaining its decision on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the Trust’s London Director, Ivo Dawnay, said: “It’s about time the Trust was a bit funnier. The Big Brother house is a special place. It says something about the epoch we’re living through.”

Tickets will be issued on a first come, first served basis via the National Trust website. Admission is £16 or £12 for Trust members. Tours will leave every half hour between 10am and 6pm.

The Big Brother tour is part of the Trust’s London Project which aims to engage younger and more urban audiences.