Is London over-rated as a day out?

[londonstufftodo]

I don’t know if I’m being unimaginative

I’ve got two kids, a ten year old and a one year old. Today we went into London and it was alright but nothing special. We went to Kings Cross as it’s convenient for us, to have a mooch around. There is lots going on, outdoor cinema etc but it’s busy and I just felt like it was a lot of effort for not much gain…maybe I’m doing it wrong?

Oh perfect

There’s so much to do there, and so much of it free! Even if you just go to St James park and horse guards parade etc!

What toddler? She's got a year-old who'd be in the buggy and a 10-year-old.

There aren't many farms, swimming pools or bouncy castles so you are better off waiting until they're older.

Perhaps they'd enjoy a ride on the boat along the Thames? You can get on at London Bridge. Just don't go at commuting time as it will be rammed.

Oooh thank you

Ooh son will love this!!

Get tube to Battersea Power Station. There’s quite a nice playground with climbing next to the power station. In front of the power station there is a nice area for playing and chilling. There’s always lots going on for families at the power station over the summer.

You can walk to Battersea Park which is lovely, lots of playgrounds, one has a baby area and an area for older children (next to the football astros) so ideal for both of your kids. There’s a nice cafe on the boating lake there. You can hire a pedalo. There is also Battersea Park zoo which is great for your 1 year old and has a little play area. Next to the zoo there is a great bike hire place where your 10 year old could rent a range of different bike type things.

You could then walk over Chelsea Bridge to the National Army Museum. They have an amazing soft play in the basement.

North Greenwich is step free (lifts), there's cable car, trampoline park (with area for little one), O2 for eating, park to run around, small playground in the park.

For a farm, there’s Vauxhall city farm that you could walk to from Batter Power Station. Choose the route on the river path when walking there though.

When mine were those ages we had one trip where we used cabs instead of tube - with all of us I don't think it was much more expensive - and so good with buggy - plus if you're on own, cab driver will help with buggy. They could also watch London from a comfy cab. I'd be going to Buckingham Palace then maybe one other place, then home.

You can! Looks like a nice easy hop. We come into Waterloo so usually just go straight to Canary Wharf from there so I've never really looked at boats from LB.

That said I think the Northern line is one of the worst for noise - but they're all pretty loud in parts tbh.

Coram Fields is a short walk from King's Cross which would appeal to both, or Kensington Gardens is another lovely park for children to play. It can be worth seeing if there are any theatre shows for kids on - you often have a Julia Donaldson show somewhere. We took a group ranging from age 3-10 to see stick man a few years ago and they all enjoyed it. The Peacock theatre sometimes has "my first ballet" type performances from the national ballet, I'm not sure I'd have braved that with a teeny one but I took my 8 Yr old to swan lake at Easter and there were loads of families with toddlers.

If you are able to go with just the 10yr old the world is your oyster as you can easily hop on and off buses. Museums, China town, the sky garden for incredible views of the city (free but book a timeslot), the tower

Oh and from TCR (which is really interesting now in its post-Elizabeth line reincarnation) it's a pretty easy walk down to Covent Garden which others have mentioned. Have yours been to the transport museum? It's not cheap but the ticket covers a full year and it's probably the most child friendly museum I've ever been to. We went with ours from babyhood onwards.

Why would you go to London to go swimming or soft play? You may as well be in Hull.

Also why go to kings cross hoping for 'activity farms' you may have noticed London isn't overrun with farmland. Although there is a thing called London Zoo (and a petting zoo in Vauxhall)

Thank you @Ophy83 lovely suggestions

Like I said, I mean child friendly activities, could be park or playgrounds too or child friendly museums, I’m just giving an idea of what they like to do together. I am aware London doesn’t have huge amounts of farmland 😃

Thank you @JassyRadlett Some great ideas o will add

If you are going to insist on limiting yourself to one line and step free then you are doing just that... limiting yourself

Tubes are fairly quick everywhere. Or use the buses, they're very frequent and you can tap in with the Oyster card the same as the Tube

@londonstufftodo

There are some small farms you can visit in London, they are good fun and popular with children. They especially like the run up to Christmas with the donkeys. Hackney and Spitalfields are not far from Liverpool Street and Mudchute is not that far from there.

https://hackneycityfarm.co.uk/

https://www.spitalfieldscityfarm.org/

https://www.mudchute.org/

Im more inclined to take the bus from one of the accessible stations. I don’t want to do multiple tube journeys and navigate the crowds, hope for a seat etc. One tube journey to an accesible place like Tottenham Court Road, Battersea park or London Bridge plus boat or bus is okay but multiple tube journeys with a very wriggly toddler and a dreamy ten year old (who isn’t much help) is just more hassle than it’s worth IMO.

That was a reply to @ButWhatAboutTheBees

TCR tube is walkable for Leicester Square, Covent Garden and Piccadilly. Would they like the M and M or Lego stores? The National Portrait gallery can be made fun with a task. We used to play games like count the bottoms ;-) The Transport Museum is good. I will have a think of more.

@londonstufftodo
The boat is very easy to get to from London Bridge - I usually walk through Hays Galleria.
I've seen a massive queue for the boat back from Greenwich though on a sunny weekend afternoon, so I'd probably go in the morning, or stick to weekdays.

Thank you

@CulturalFactors weve never been to the M and M store but I think they’ll like that

@CatsLikeBoxes good advice, we will be skipping it at the weekend!