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.

s, fancy queueing for an hour just to get into the NHM...

Some people don't have a choice. Believe it or not there is life outside of London. We generally manage to visit with the kids no more than once every couple of years. That would be a school holiday day out, if we went with the intention of visiting the NHM then we would have to put up with the queue no matter how long it took. We can't just pop along on a Saturday afternoon!

GoodbyeToAllOfThat yes completely, I'm very proud of the city I live in (born and bred Londoner) but I am pretty sure most, if not all, native Londoners feel frustrated sometimes. Just because it's expected and normal doesn't mean it isn't annoying!

YANBU.

I get Crowded Pavement rage too. Why does the world insist on ambling when I need to get somewhere fast?

If you're a proper Londoner you'll know all the snickety cut throughs and alternative routes. Bit daft when it's all rather predictable to just get het up and walk the tourist routes.

Not sure you can expect other people to use other stations. The museums probably state south ken as the nearest. They might not be Londoners like you and not so confident of getting around.

But really, whilst parents shouldn't be letting their dcs scoot up and down busy pavements and need to stop faffing at ticket machines I am not really sure what you can do about it apart from find a different route, go to work earlier or suck it up as part and parcel of working in London.

I do understand, I live in Oxford and summer here is totally unbearable.

i bet you wouldn't take your DC out of school for a museum trip, OP

or if you did you'd be starting another thread about the huge fine you'd got for doing it

suck it up, Buttercup

yes of course, that makes far more sense...let the people who have no idea where they are going walk further and spread out over a wider area.

and if you are happy for them to visit are you suggestion a curfew...or a lock-in at commuter times?

You really are not doing your BP any good...wait 'til Easter. ;) And August BH.

Not saying there isn't life outside of London, most of my friends live outside London now.

If you are visiting London with children there are many more fun, stimulating and interesting things you can do besides the museums. I think it also partly frustrates me because people flock to these main touristy bits when there is so much more going on in other parts (that's not to say the museums aren't lovely).

oh right, just keep it for the locals, yeah?

I would, actually. My mum used to take us out of school all the time when we were kids.

Would LOVE a commuters only tube time to be honest. That's the other thing I don't understand. Why travel at rush hour? On the rare occasions I do take DS into central London we leave after 10 and come back either before 4 or after 7.

suggesting, not suggestion.

and what chazzer said... you should know how to avoid the tourists.

YABU. We used to live beside a very busy tourist spot, and at certain times of the year it was heaving. But the attraction was there before we moved it, we knew what it would be like and we just had to live with it. We have since moved to a much quieter place and tbh, I miss the buzz if our old area.

If it irritates you that much, look for another job.

JennyOnTheBlocks I didn't say keep it for the locals, I'm happy for tourists to visit the museums. I just meant there are loads of other places that are lovely to visit with children and it's a shame all the focus is on one small area.

they should go to the Winchester Science Centre instead www.winchestersciencecentre.org/

oh right, just keep it for the locals, yeah?

Yes. Armed guards.

If you go on a school day then you're surrounded by school parties. It's busy whenever you visit a museum.

*before we moved in!

But you probably know about them because you are from London. I hate crowds so rarely go to big tourist attractions but dd1 has been bugging me about the science museum for ages so probably will make it an inset day visit.

feel for people who live in Bath - the tourists and language school kids is enough to put someone off living there

people flock to these places because they are interesting, dry and part of all our history

that's why they are free to enter, because really the exhibits belong to us all.

twofalls these things are easy enough to research on the internet!

People are misunderstanding me anyway. I don't have objections to tourists visiting these places. My objection is to the fact they are not considerate to those around them (a wider problem I expect) and to the fact that some choose to travel during rush hour when they don't have to.

Try living in Cornwall in the summer.

I often wonder why so many offices seem to be based in the tourist areas of London when they really don't need to be. OP, obviously I don't know your situation so this might not be the case for you - I appreciate that some organisations really do need to be that central - but I know lots of people who work in offices which (in my uneducated eyes) could really be based anywhere but instead are somewhere in central London.

I also work in central London (not South Ken) and I think it would be bloody brilliant if we could relocate to Wimbledon or Croydon or Ealing or Stratford or really anywhere that would take us in the opposite direction of all the other commuters and tourists. Whenever management tentatively suggest it though, it's met with absolute horror by everyone else, so I seem to be on my own there!

Sorry, not that relevant to the thread but just got me thinking...

I used to live in Cornwall and left an extra 30 minutes travel time to allow for motorhomes and mud-wary grockles clogging up the lanes. It was a pita but if you live and work in a touristy place, it's tough shit, really.

Schools shouldn't be so strict about taking children out for a day during term time. Parents and children could have some lovely educational days out working in partnership with teachers to support school projects and/or children's interests. Would be a big win-win all round (and you wouldn't have such a squeeze getting home!)
But education has become too ridiculously political for many to see it this way, and parents (as well as teachers) are no longer trusted. Heads too no longer trusted to make such decisions wisely.
The system sucks.