London MNers - is this bonkers?

[StrictlyAFemaleFemale]

Hi.
I'm planning on taking DS 11 to London for 3 nights in October. He has ASD so Id like to get a studio appartment - that way I can make breakfast and simple dinner that I know he will eat. Its also important that he can retreat if it all gets a bit much - sights, sounds and smells etc.

In terms of program I was thinking

• one day at museums (nat history, science)
• one day in the east (greenwich, big slide at the olympic park)
• one day in the city - tower of London.

Now Ive found a couple of studios, one by Cannon Street station, and one by Monument. I know Londoners hate Monument, but its an easy ride from Liverpool St (for the stansted express), dlr goes east, district and circle lines go west to the museums, so we wont be changing trains there. We can walk to Monument, Tower Bridge, St Dunstan in the East, Sky Garden etc.

Does that sound reasonable and practical or really foolish because of the huge underpass tube situation?

I think either will be a great place to stay, location wise.

Sounds great.

Location sounds easy.

Check the museum websites as they often have autism "relaxed" sessions which mean they open before opening to the public. Should say on their website.

I would download a taxi app in case you need to get back to appartment quickly if it's all a bit much.

Have a lovely time!

Sounds good. I would be nervous of the Tower of London as am guessing it involves queues and waiting but maybe your ASD child is better at that than mine!

If you need to get from Monument to the DLR, I’d walk on the surface to Bank & go down from there. Much nicer than the trek underground.

Is he okay with noise? I imagine during the day there will be quite a lot of noise from cars, sirens etc in both areas. I know you're planning to be out and about a lot so it may not matter hugely.

Sounds like a fantastic itinerary. If you need other ideas for the city you could go to the bank of England museum, which is quiet so may suit your child, and you can see if you can lift a gold bar. Also the actual monument monument! And there is another museum nearby I can't remember what it's called but ifs got a roman archeology dig unearthed in part of it

@Perfectlystill

Sounds good. I would be nervous of the Tower of London as am guessing it involves queues and waiting but maybe your ASD child is better at that than mine!

I went at the end of the Christmas holidays and there were no queues at all, not to get in, nor to see the Crown Jewels. We didn't book. Went on the spur of the moment and walked right in. Maybe we were just lucky. Perhaps there will be more international tourists now.

Omg validation from strangers online is so nice! Thanks all!

@doadeer those are 2 very good tips - thanks!

@Perfectlystill he is very good in queues.

@EmpressaurusWitchDoesntBurn noted!

@mynameiscalypso I think he'll be ok. He loves police and trains, busses etc. We live in rural Denmark so those are very rare occurences here.

@SouthOfFrance my ancestor lived on the square overlooking monument! So thats definitely on the list. Bank of England sounds AMAZING! Is the other museum the museum of London?

Museum of London (St Paul's) is great and so is Transport Museum (Covent garden)

You may find the commuter boat along the Thames useful/peaceful for some of your journeys. London eye combines nicely with Tower of London if you use the boats and if course you see Houses of Parliament then too.

And there is another museum nearby I can't remember what it's called but ifs got a roman archeology dig unearthed in part of it

Yes! The Guildhall. Free entry and it’s got the remains of an amphitheatre underneath. You can go down there & explore it.

Theres also the Mithram which is free and an incredible sensory experience. We all loved it but my one with SN responded particularly to the clever sensory elements

Sounds fine to me. Btw I walk from Liverpool Street down past Monument and over London Bridge on my way to work. The distances are short and you can easily avoid any station by walking to the next one.

@Caramellatteplease

Theres also the Mithram which is free and an incredible sensory experience. We all loved it but my one with SN responded particularly to the clever sensory elements

The Mithraeum is amazing. You need to book well in advance though, or used to anyway!

When I took my two asd dc to London they struggled with the tube however loved the open top bus tour it was a great way to see London without being in the crowds. They also like the river cruise for the same reason.

Yes! The Guildhall is great @StrictlyAFemaleFemale - has an art gallery upstairs and the amphitheatre downstairs (which is my favourite bit). I have previously combined a visit there with a trot across to the Mithraeum www.londonmithraeum.com/ which is also absolutely worth a trip - although it is small and the tour doesn’t last all that long, it’s super interesting and well put together! Definitely recommend dropping in for a visit as long as DS is ok with darkness and shadow images and whispers.

And I also second @SouthOfFrance ‘s recommendation for the Bank of England Museum, it’s fantastic but please do check opening hours (it’s currently closed for a refresh, but I seem to remember they had funny opening hours before that).

I agree with PP that your plans sound sensible and well thought out. The day in Greenwich etc. should work really well on Day 2 as a nice outdoors trip (weather permitting!) to break up the days of indoor activities and all that stimulus. Your boy is lucky to have such a thoughtful mum* planning all this for him.

Does DS have a decent set of headphones or ear defenders? I live in central London and have ASD. Although I’m very used to the busy-ness of city life, I couldn’t handle it without the ability to block out people’s chatter, or people playing horrible tinny music thorough phone speakers, or tube train brake noise (that one can be really overwhelming) on my work commute. I appreciate 11 is still young enough to wander off, so perhaps you’d want to agree with him to link arms with you if he’s wearing ear protection (as he might not hear if you call for him if he wanders a bit).

Hope everything goes well for you, and if it does it would be lovely to get an update here after your visit.

*assumed you’re Mum from your username; but then I’m not actually a bear.

Depending on how well your DS deals with new/different things, and how easily they get tired, your itinerary could be a bit much. You could easily spend all day in either the Nat Hist or Sci museums, maybe both would be a bit much?

If you're getting the tube from Monument to South Ken in the morning to get there nice and early, during the week it will be busy with commuters, and at the weekend, even more so with tourists. You can easily wait 5 minutes to get off the platform and up the stairs at South Ken. Buses take a lot longer, but are much easier to hop off if getting tired/overwhelmed.

YY to both the Mithraeum and the bottom of the Guildhall: I do think one of the joys of London is those little unexpected windows into history. I also think both as they are more manageable and bitesize than the larger museums. When we went to the Mithraeum numbers were quite limited and the last bit is in groups, so we spent a while sitting quietly in the low light waiting for our turn, and it was perfect for ds (also autistic). Agree with others suggesting headphones/a hoodie or ear buds - ds is used to London but can find the noises overwhelming and often needs to do some blocking out.

One other thought: both science and nat hist museum on one day is a big shout: they are both BIG museums! Could you look online first and decide what appeals? Choosing some quieter galleries might help dissipate things if it gets too much. For example, my two love the minerals gallery at the Nat Hist - www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/galleries-and-museum-map/minerals.html. Its pleasingly retro, always quiet and a bit different.

Why do you say Londoners hate Monument? I'm a Londoner and I quite like Monument!

You can easily walk between Liverpool St and Monument, it's a very short walk. It's probably easier/quicker to walk from one to the other than to go into one station, travel, back out the other station.

Monument (for district and circle) and Bank (for DLR), although two stations, they actually join together underground, so you can change from one to the other without coming out, if that helps.

For your itineraries: The museum day sounds great. But I would group together Tower of London and Olympic Park into one day, and put Greenwich separate. The journey between TofL and Stratford (Olym Pk) is shorter and easier - I live half way between the two
Take district line from Tower Hill, change at Mile End to the central line then one stop to Stratford. The change is the easiest possible, you get off the district line train, take two steps forward and you're on the central line platform.

Be warned, a large part of the Bank branch of the northern line is shut for 4 months.
It's news to me too that we don't like the Monument
Last time I went to the Tower of London we didn't queue, we did book though.

I love the Natural History Museum, but it can be a bit bonkers (I'm an autistic adult, and it can overwhelm me). If you're going to be around South Ken anyway, I love the V&A, but it's perhaps not the most interesting museum for children.

For smaller, less busy museums, I would highly recommend the Museum of London by the Barbican and the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, which is BRILLIANT.

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is, I think, one of my favourite museums of all time - a wander round there followed by a picnic in Greenwich Park is a great way to spend a day.

It's news to me too that we don't like the Monument

I think what we don't like is the long underground walk between Monument & Bank stations.

Update for you all.

We did it. Arrived Tuesday, took train in, then tube to Cannon St. Checked bags in to left luggage place. Then I wanted to get the tube to embankment to start sightseeing but he had a meltdown about trains. Went to Wetherspoons and had food instead. Walked down to Monument but he didn't want to go up it. Then checked in.

Wednesday we took the river bus (great suggestion from one of you) to Greenwich and went to the observatory. Was planning on going to the Olympic Park but he just wanted to go back to the hotel instead. We got off the boat at the Tower and walked back.

Thursday. He was awake really early so we thought we'd try and beat the crowds. So we went sightseeing at 8am. We did fake 10 downing street, were the only ones at Trafalgar Square, saw buck palace in the distance, walked down Whitehall to Downing St but couldn't see Larry the Cat. Went past the square, abbey and big Ben and took the boat back from Westminster. After a rest at the flat he wanted to do the big slide but all the tickets were gone, so we walked up to the Bank of England museum which was also a very good call by one of you. That evening we went to Kings Cross platform 9 3/4.

Friday. Natural history museum. As a pp said it was bonkers. He was quite interested in lots of stuff, and held out pretty well I thought. Loved the dinosaurs, and the birds, loved the minerals and blue whale. We played pokemon for a bit. After a couple of hours we went to the ampersand hotel for a dinosaur tea which was AMAZING and totally worth the price tag. He tried quite a lot of new things. V proud of him.

Saturday took the bus to my sister's and hung out with them, then back to Stansted and home on a late flight.

Thanks so much for all your inputs - we had a great time! I didn't appreciate how much the journey over took out of him. But he was quite happy to see the sights very superficially.

Sounds like a great trip! Glad you enjoyed yourselves. London is full of interesting stuff so you should return asap!!