What to do in London with 7/8 year old?

[Greenbutterlfy566]

Does anyone have any advice on things to do on London with a 7/8 year old . (In winter)

Thanks in advance

Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Transport Museum
Tower of London
A show? Lion King?

What does the child like?

So many museums to choose from and many free so you could spend 45 minutes in V&A and 45 minutes in science museum

St Paul’s is free to go inside and have a taster
Then on to the sky garden - again free but magnificent views and I preferred to the wheel

Hamlets toy shop on regent street

Year 3 exhibition at Tate Britain?

Museum of London is brilliant, there's a great fire of London section which is very good. All the museums are great though, and free!

Skygarden, Lego store as well

Thanks so much everyone I’ve taken note of all the things mentioned.

We liked Shrek's adventure

So much! All the sights, ride a London bus, see a show, transport museum, in fact any number of museums, hamleys, the rainforest cafe etc etc. My kids had a great time splashing about in the dancing fountains at Granary Square near Kings Cross. Killed an hour while we waited for our train and, unsurprisingly in February half term, we had the place pretty much to ourselves!

We go regularly with our 7 year old twins.
We enjoy...
Theatre, Wicked and Matilda are fab!
A long slow stroll along the Southbank. There are great food stalls, a carousel and the Tate Modern (free).
St Paul's Cathedral
Camden Market
Greenwich Market
Hamleys and a walk down Regent's Street, Oxford Street and Carnaby Street.
Covent Garden, the London Transport Museum is there.
A walk around Leicester Square and Chinatown.
Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Walk from Trafalgar Square down the Mall to Buckingham Palace and St James's Park.
An afternoon tea at nice hotel.
Mine love a browse around Harrods and Liberty it's mostly for my benefit
Sky Garden is good for free views of the city but you need to book.

Amazon do a London sticker book that you can stick stickers onto places once you've visited them, there is also bits of info on each place. My kids enjoy filling these in.

Hms Belfast is good and much emptier during the winter months!

Tower Bridge Experience is a lot more fun than you'd expect.
Hamleys can easily take an hour to wander round.
Always street theatre around Covent Garden/Southbank

I’ve gone with mine twice this year. We went to Harrods food hall, a Thames cruise (great even in winter), Greenwich market (there’s a fudge place there when the owners are lovely and gave a whole 20 minute demo on fudge making), Tower bridge experience, science museum, natural history museum, the bodies exhibit (my then 6 year old loved this!), find a random playground and go for hot chocolate and cake after, there are loads of other museums as well like the transport museum, museum of London, go to Chinatown to browse the shops and have dinner.

Thanks so much again everyone I’m still jotting things down lol.

Is it a lot busier on weekends than weekdays in January/ February?

London is always a lot busier at weekends. But I wouldn’t let that put you off - you’ll still be able to get around fine.

Skygarden booking opens 3 weeks before the day so if you want to do that make sure to book!

Transport museum is a rare not free museum btw. The maritime museum at Greenwich is good and you can get the clipper down to it.

London Transport Museum

tutankhamun exhibition looks great.

Get the I spy book and rack up as many points as possible!

Postal Museum and the Mail Rail
HMS Belfast
Tate Modern (turbine hall is great for a run around or even picnic if it is raining) then over the Millennium bridge to St. Paul’s

M&M shop is always popular!

The London eye was a big hit with our 6yo

Also, if you email tour MP, they'll put you on the list for a free tour of the Houses of parliament. We took our 6yo and whilst some of it was lost on her, other bits really landed. She is much more engaged with the idea of democracy and gets excited when she sees Parlaiment on the news (you get to go and stand right at the govt benches). We enjoyed it too. Did I mention it was free?!

Dancingqueen the tutankhamun exhibition is really great, but was so, so busy when we went that there was no time to linger at anything, you got elbowed out of the way or had to try to see past the umpteen phones taking photos.

Greenwich observatory and museum is fab. South bank always lovely, go across tower bridge and have dinner in st katherine's dock to see all the lovely lights. Agree re general museums, natural history is fab but loses interest fast, science museum more hands on. V and A I think is older kids up imo. Inamo restaurant is gimmicky, so/so food but so exciting for kids. Monument for your age child v climable and likely to do great fire in school, so great link. Tower of london is fab, tryand get on a beefeater tour, they are super knowledgeable and answer all the random shit kids ask.

Ride on the Underground. I loved it when I was around that age, and learning to find your way around, and using the escalators and ticket barriers, is a useful life skill to have.