What London museum for a 3 year old?

[Albgo]

Was thinking of taking my (nearly) 3 year old for a day trip to London. I'd rather not go to the Aquarium or zoo, but was wondering if other museums might be a bit too grown up for him?

Go to the Maritime museum at Greenwich , it’s right near Greenwich park which is lovely and you can get there by the Thames Clipper .

A trip on the clipper boat is an amazing idea - thank you I think he'd love that.

The Transport Museum?

The Horniman Museum in Southeast London is great as well. It has a butterfly house, an aquarium, some farm animals etc, We love visiting

Transport museum

I was going to suggest the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, but I see it's closed for redevelopment.

I don't know what would interest a 3 year old. How about the British Museum? Loads of big things to gawp at on the ground floor (Egyptian and Assyrian galleries). More colourful things in the other galleries. There are a couple of activity trails for 3-5 year olds:
www.britishmuseum.org/visit/family-visits/museum-explorer-trails

Agree with London transport museum

We recently took my 4 year old to the science museum and there is an interactive section on the bottom floor that is free but also on the top floor is a section you pay extra for (which we didn't do) that has amazing reviews.

After there we went down the Thames on the Uber boat. Wanted to do the emirates over the Thames too but ran out of time.

Have fun...I was shattered the end.

4 year olds favourite part of the day was the escalators - worth the trip then!

Not a museum, but Mudchute Park and Farm? Took my DCs there around the same age, you can get there on the Docklands Light Railway too so if you get the front seat you can pretend to drive the train!
Mudchute farm

Definitely the transport museum.

We went to the natural history, science and horniman a lot when dd was that age

If it’s not too far - the Discovery Centre at Stratford is perfect for a 3 year old. Otherwise agree with others and would say definitely transport museum!

Transport museum is brilliant for kids this age although a bit pricey as you have to buy annual passes. We went loads when our kids were that age as we would drop off there whenever we wanted to do anything that involved going anywhere near central London.

Maritime museum is free, a really good play bit and this combined with a walk in Greenwich park /playground, looking at the cutty sark and the Thames path (there are a couple of bits you can walk down to the beach and throw rocks) this is great day out we did many times.

Museum of London in dock lands is also great for that age- nice interactive soft play bit and then a walk around Canary Wharf and the all important ride on the DLR.

Horniman museum also very good with the little aquarium and mini farm in the lovely grounds.

Science museum is fab but I always found it a bit overwhelming at that age. Same for the natural history- although out of the two science is better for younger kids.

Postal Museum is also good- nice interactive bit for under 8s and the ride on the mail rail is fab but again a bit pricey as you need to buy an annual pass (less than the transport museum though).

The Postal Museum is great for that age. You can book a slot in its lovely play area too.

The Science Museum is also brilliant and so interactive.

Museum of London Docklands has a really nice interactive gallery for younger children and could be accessed by Uber boat to Canary Wharf one way and DLR the other - both modes of transport seem appreciated by small children

We visited the science museum last week and Ds aged 10 - who has learning disabilities and is mentally about 5- found it really dull! The interactive bit is quite good but there isn’t much to it and there’s whole floors dedicated to the history of clocks (!) and technology from the 1980s which sent us all to sleep. I appreciate some people might like that….

The transport museum is really good. And of course the Natural History museum is good if your little one likes animals and dinosaurs. The building itself is amazing and very exciting to look at.

I think I have failed at museums though as the thing Ds enjoyed the most when we went to London was a visit to Harrods where he loved looking round all the expensive chocolates and food in the food hall!

London Transport Museum is awesome for preschoolers. My 4 & 2 year olds loved it and we spent hours there.

If you do decide on Greenwich you could do the teddy bear planetarium show for kids nearby www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/planetarium-shows/teds-space-adventure

museum mum on Instagram is fantastic especially for up to date news on how museums are, some things they have are not kid friendly or understaffed a couple of days. She has lists of what special events are happening in different places. At the Tate there’s an artist based thing where you can put sticker dots up on this white environment.

instagram.com/museummum
museummum.com

My kids at 3 would take a quick look around but get bored quick so were more interested in quick visits and space to run. They liked the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and the animal room but whizzed around and had no interest in anything else. They much preferred things like going on the tube or a boat and having ice cream. Still a fun day but not what I would call a day visiting a museum.

If you're near the Army museum in Chelsea that was quite popular with DS at 3. They have an army themed soft play and games throughout the museum (a marching game, squash the weevil, crawl under an army jeep etc). It's not massive but they don't have much attention span at that age anyway - it's more about getting them familiar with museums in a positive way.

Btw the army museum is free but there is a small charge for the soft play, which can be booked in advance.

@Weepingwillows12 my 7 year old is still a bit like that in a museum!
in my experience doing museums in a ‘proper’ way kicks in about 8/9.

Have a look at some of these: www.kiddieholidays.co.uk/21-things-to-do-in-london-with-a-toddler-for-under-5/

Cutty Sark
The science museum