to hate every single parent and child crowding up South Kensington during half term?!

[misspantomime]

I work in the area and every single evening during every single school holiday it takes me 30 minutes more to get home because a) I cannot walk down the streets as they are too crowded and (b) I cannot get into South Ken station due to crowding and also due to parents letting their kids walk down the road either on scooters or at 0.00000000005 MPH and also not knowing how to use the ticket barriers properly.

I am a Londoner and we are notoriously intolerant of people who can't use the underground properly but even so I never truly knew rage until I started working round here. There are queues all the way down the road. For the fricking science museum.

MrsDumbledore

dont let one poster make you feel bad

Tourists = revenue = economic growth= tax = nice schools and hospitals, move to a shit hole and see how you like it!

My advice, get off the tube at Gloucester Road, its an extra 5 minutes walk thats all and you miss the crowds

PM me if you need directions!

Yes- and once you have been to Leeds come to Glasgow. We love tourists. Last year ( Commonwealth Games ) was memorable for us. Train stations busy, cafes mobbed, streets thronged, lots of people to give directions to.We loved it. We were so sad to see it end.

I'd rather my dcs were fick than ever again brave a famous museum in half term.

Last time I was in the National Portrait Gallery my ears were assaulted by a mother educating her dcs and everyone within a hundred yard radius, too. "DO YOU KNOW WHO THAT IS, DARLING?" "WE READ ABOUT THEM LAST WEEK - YES, IT'S THE BRONTES, DARLING" all the while casting sidelong looks at me to see if I was impressed with their superiority. I had the last laugh when Darling whined, "Can we go in the cafe, now?"

Actually it's just as bad in term time. I think the curator of the Imperial War Museum said it was unpleasant for visitors when there were four hundred school parties swarming through (reminds me of that scene with the ants in The Poisonwood Bible...).

Lula, it's bloody brilliant isn't it, apart from tourists? I always reckon they should have put up signs after they put the anti-terror barriers up outside the Treasury and Foreign Office - tourists on one side, people trying to get to workplaces on the other.

My geeky London secret is that when I walk from Waterloo to work, I walk on one side of the Jubilee Bridge in the morning, and the other in the afternoon, so I get both views. The next day I alternate so that I see the views at different times of day.

London is ace.

A tip for those of you with small boys - Go on the DLR. They're operated by computer so If you nab the front seat, it really does feel like you're driving the train. The track is quite bendy in places, a bit like a rollercoaster. And it's free for under 11's and isn't packed like the tube. DS1 and I used to spend many happy hours riding round on it.

I feel bad now, I am going to the NHM tomorrow with my 3DC and my friend and her 3DC.

But I am a Londoner (zone 5), who has spent 20 years working near tourist attractions ( Tower of London and St Pauls), so I do understand just how frustrating tourists can be. For us it was the coachloads of people who just blocked the way. I don't think they all realised that we got 60 minutes for lunch max, and that involved getting to a shop, buying and eating the lunch, or that blocking the pavement for 5 - 10 minutes could be the difference between seeing the DC before they went to bed, or getting home after bedtime.

We are travelling there after the rush and I will be doing all I can to get us all back on the tube before 3pm at the latest so we will be home before the evening rush hour starts. All my DC have their own Zip Oyster Card (children's oyster) and I have already put cash on my own so we are ready to go through the barriers quickly.

Not looking forward to the crowds, but this is what happens if you give 6DC the choice for destination for a day out (I wanted the Bank of England Museum), someone at weightwatchers this morning recommended that I use the entrance by the Science Museum instead of the front one and hopefully the queue will be shorter. We have tried going on Inset days instead but the museums seem packed whenever we go.

AndyWarhol my small GIRLS also love to feel like they are driving the DLR. I don't think gender is at all relevant to that.

What a snob !

I worked at the V&A for years and used to get really pissed off with all the pesky visitors cluttering up the corridors of my museum. Now that's unreasonable.

Sixgeese you will be fine, you sound like you will be aware of your surroundings and considerate to others. I hope you and your DCs enjoy your trip.

To all the high and mighties: chill out, for the record my OP is clearly an exaggeration. I very obviously don't literally hate these people, I just feel like I do when I miss my train because someone is hovering at the top of the escalator like a lemon.

BeCool Point taken. DD also loved it but didn't want to ride it all day like my boys did/do.

I feel your pain! I live in Gloucester Road and its a right pain in the b-hind

We love popping into central London, except when all those pesky frowny faced, muttering, apoplectic, raging commuters are streaming up the pavements like chuffing storm troopers. It's one of the reasons we stick to the touristy areas- strength in numbers, don'tcha know.

Commuters could be considerate and go home earlier, or later, or sleep under their desks, Japanese stylee, so they're not barging about when we have to travel, experience the city, look at the sights, generally soak up the ambience and figure out the tube and see whether it's actually worth getting an Oyster card.... Humm

Just as well you haven't got lots of Italians coming over to mill about and clot up all over the place OP, I think you'd have a seizure!
Try getting an ambulance though that

Maybe chillax a bit? Get a IV of Valium packed lunch for the week?

Try living in Devon during the summer holidays.

I live in Wimbledon and used to work right next to the AELTC. For two weeks a year we are inundated with tourists generally slowing us down and getting in our way. I love it. Being part of a national institution is great. If I didn't like it I'd move elsewhere.

I'm taking the DCs to the NHM on Friday. I wasn't going to take their scooters but...

Just as well you haven't got lots of Italians coming over to mill about and clot up all over the place

But we do! And Spanish schoolkids. And German families. And American pensioners. And all the other groups under the sun.

Try living in Devon during the summer holidays

:) I bet you are drowning in London office commuters destressing

Jassy I used to do that when walking over Westminster or Lambeth Bridge!

There must be millions of tourist pics the world over with my grumpy face in them. When I first worked in Westminster I tried to be considerate and get out of the way of people taking photos but after a while I got sick of zigzagging to work.

I think they need to have permanent teams of tourist helpers, like the Games Maker people they had during the Olympics. London was even more brilliant during the games, despite the massive influx of people, because the lovely, lovely volunteers kept it all under control.

Venus not sure why you feel the need to feel to be patronising. people rant about way worse things on MN. have lived and worked in london and most londoners feel this way, it's not unusual or unreasonable IMHO.

But we do! And Spanish schoolkids. And German families. And American pensioners. And all the other groups under the sun.

I think Sun might be a bit optomistic. To see people behaving really badly under the sun, just look at Brits abroad. Tit for tat, although I actually think the rest of the world drew the short straw!

Oh dear. I am not in London this half term but over the years have spent time during school holidays visiting the museums with children, I have four and 3 grandchildren. I would just like to say sorry I will try to avoid busy times in future.

tom, yes, Brits abroad are not always an edifying sight.

Suck it up OP, try working in Cambridge where I am constantly tripping over tourists taking photos of my office approx 50 days a year.

50 weeks a year! 50 days would be ok!