Summer holidays in London - Let's make this the definitive thread

[lisalisa]

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Puff: yes, and yes. I haven't been recently, so don't know if they are filling the pool up, but I presume so. And I'm sure it'll still be free, it's a public playground.

we were at coram's fields today, it was fabulous. lots of lovely shade. they turned on the fountain in the middle of the paddling pool about lunchtime. the pool filled up gradually over the course of the afternoon.

sounds brilliant - definitely on my list then. Thanks

Nothing beats SE London's Oxleas Woods so long as you have plenty of refreshments and Tigermoth's ds2 with his notorious bag-o-guns
Our big project this summer is to walk the Green Chain Walk (in bits, using the plentiful public transport links)
But we will also be doing Pauper's Walk (Thameside from London Bridge to Charing X, with plentiful scooting opportunities)
And getting the train out from London to do Lullingstone Roman Villa and paddling at Eynsford in the the Darenth.
Can you tell money is tight in our house this summer...
Loads of great ideas on here. It's at times like this you do feel cross with the lack of lidos/paddling pools in SE London - we used to have three, now down to one

Southwest London:

Tooting Bec Lido has a great wading pool for little ones with a large grassy area for picnics; expect to queue on hot days but in my opinion it is worth the wait! Large pool for older children and adults plus cafe.

Morden Hall Park in Morden/Wimbledon - beside Deen City farm which is a small city farm with the usual animals - entrance is free. Right beside is the park (free entrance) with a lovely rose garden with a shallow stream running through which small children can wade and play in while mums laze about on the grass - also has cafe with childrens menu and a garden centre - lots of parking near the garden centre and buggy friendly walks in the lovely park. (see National Trust website)

Eddie Catz in Putney - you have to pay but it is a lovely clean playzone type place on the High Street with a nice cafe and a playzone. Air conditioned!! Great for under 5s. www.eddiecatz.com

I've skimmed this thread so sorry if I reapeat myself.

SW London- Battersea Park has a little zoo which is lovely - can park there as well. I adore Battersea Park

Dulwich - the Horniman museum is great for kids - although the stuffed animals are in need of a little TLC. Made me laugh a lot.

Central London - Rainforest cafe in Piccadilly - cheesy and any parent's nightmare (you have to go through a shop to get to the restaurant). Kids love it though. Book ahead as it's always busy.

Oh good - what about the cats?

next time you are there -- have a look at them - it's quite funny. sorry for diverting the thread

If you're going to the Geffrye, I found a lovely organic pub just up the street from it. The Fox, it's at 372 Kingsland Road, and they love kids. Weekdays, kids eat free (with a grownup eating, I think? I don't think you can just send in a kid). Anyway, lovely place, no idea what it's doing all the way up there.

Mile End Park has its fair on tomorrow, which is in the Ecology bit (just south of Roman Road, west of Grove), which is a lovely fair, not stalls selling naff plastic stuff, but people demonstrating willow weaving, there's a dog show, but it's people showing off their mutts, not posh dogs. The food is good, it's very mellow and very easy.

There seems to be a lot of classical music on in Tower Hamlets this summer, too. I think most Sunday afternoons, there are bands in the bandstand in Vicky Park (east side of the park, pretty close to the SW corner of the east side).

I've never been to the Geffrye , sorry. I just rode past it (again) while rushing home from the pub, and thought "oh yeah, that's the Geffrye, I must find out what's on there and find out if it's worth going to".

I have it confused with the Horniman in my head, as they're both strangely-located London museums that I know nothing about. Stupidly, as the Geffrye's quite close to us, while the Horniman is miles away.

No fear, I would have realised what you'd meant if I'd seen the first message on its own.

Princess Diana playground with the full size ship and teepees. Fantastic

the geffrrye garden & cafe are good, i'm not that keen on the museum itself..... will try out that pub though nqc, it's very close to us .

Oh, HC, the pub is very nice. I had a 1/2 pint of posh beer, a fancy salady thing with fish in it, big bowl of really nice chips, green beans, a "children's meal" of Toulouse sausages and mash, which was not gross at all, and two children's portions of ice cream (fed me and both DSes, post-swimming and ferally hungry). It was £25. Which is pricy for around there, I guess, but not actually expensive.

And there were crayons, and toys, and everything. The owner has a toddler.

sounds good. kingsland rd is a bit of a wasteland in culinary terms (except for the fabulous vietnamese places nearer shoreditch). hey, are you around on monday, nqc, we're having a trip to yumyums. see here

Oh, pants, hadn't seen it, but have co-op meeting that night. Hope to make next one?

Yeah, I accidentally ended up there - we went swimming at Britannia, and then I didn't want to bike through the hoxton street market again, so went a funny way, and then turned the wrong way on Kingsland Road. And was thinking, "hmm, am I going north?" After a few blocks I turned around, and looked at the restaurants as I went by, thinking, "hmm, I am starving to death, but these all look rancid". And then I saw the Fox!

I wouldn't say the food was amazing, but it was certainly nice.

i seem to spend my life at britannia.....

I've just started going. I felt guilty for not taking DS2 swimming, and he refused to consider a non-beachy-style pool, so we tried there, a few weeks back, and he really loves it. We seem to go once per week at the moment, early in the day.

We went this morning with both boys, and had a lot of fun. It's a bit of a slog from mine, but doable, and I don't mind the exercise.

We'll have to keep an eye out for you. When do you generally go?