Child friendly Cafe in Westminster/Waterloo area

[liamsdaddy]

I'm taking my little boy (2.75 yrs) for a day trip to London and giving his mum the opportunity for some "her" time :)

We are meeting up in Westminster before playing in St James Park and heading to the aquarium with the SIL/BIL. Don't really want to travel too far away from that area.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a decent cafe in that area for lunch? - I'm thinking sandwiches/cake/coffee lunch. In the ideal world it would be nice if somewhere had a children's toilet but I suspect thats pretty unlikely (we can make do with a disabled loo). Somewhere with play facilities would be ideal too.

My fall back plan is to hit a cafe nero/pret a porter but I'm wondering if I can do better?

A search of MN found a few people suggested Giraffe, which sounds nice but from what I can tell they don't do sandwichs! We don't need a full cooked meal as we will be hitting the local carvery when we get home!

I was also going to say Giraffe but see you don't want sit down. There is a sandwich place in St James' Park but may not be open and you may not want ot sit outside.
There is an EAT next to Giraffe that does sanwiches etc.

Sorry not 'sit down' but 'cooked meal'

Loads of options on the South Bank, a little east of the aquarium. Branch of Eat, various cafes in all the venues i.e. Royal Festival Hall; Hayward Gallery - plenty of clean toilet facilities and safe pedestrianised area for letting off steam if needed. Have found all places round there absolutely fine for under 5's, without going to expense and queue-fest of Giraffe

Any cafe in London will be child friendly but there aren't any in the immediate vicinity of the aquarium.

When you have finished there I suggest you head East along the river towards Gabriel's Wharf (which is on the other side of Waterloo bridge, 10 min walk max). There will be a number of places there. Or even go to one of the eateries in the National Theatre complex.

' Any cafe in London will be child friendly' You haven't been in the Costa , Pret or Starbucks without a customer toilet or the Cafe Rouge with no baby changing then. Depends on what you mean by cafe and what you mean by child friendly. I can think of a number of places in London that I wouldn't take my children back to for a range of reasons.

Go into the Royal Festival Hall itself. There is a big foyer and the ballroom area which is great for small children to run around in (unless there is a lunch time concert), good toilets and changing facilities, and a cafe selling sandwiches.

Or you can get sandwiches from 'EAT' - or even M&S on Waterloo Station Concourse and eat them discreetly at tables at the back of the RFH, alongside the ballroom, near the see-through galss lift!

EAT is a chain sandwich cafe underneath the RFH.

If you're in St James' Park, there's a very nice cafe there by the lake. Not cheap but really nice cakes and you can sit outside and watch the swans.

Oh really? Am surprised that some of those big chain cafes don't have wcs.

But tbh I was thinking more along the lines of being welcoming to children rather than providing nappy changing rooms (which, lets face it, you can do almost anywhere if you need to).

It's not a cafe but the Slug and Lettuce at Waterloo (v close to London Eye and aquarium) is very child friendly, you can get sandwiches etc.

Or as someone else suggested, Gabriel's Wharf is lovely, it's tucked away a little, several little cafes and a fab Pieminster which was incredibly welcoming to DD.

Or you could always picnic on the grass outside the Tate - if the weather allows it!

Thanks for your responses everyone, I'll have a look into some of those. Yes, I was thinking along the lines of being welcoming to children as well.

Since DS is potty trained don't need a nappy changing area - in the ideal would would have a special childrens wc with a slightly lowered toilet and sink plus a toilet seat that he won't fall through. Only ever found one of those so far. As I said, we can make do with me holding him above.