Please help with our London trip for country bumpkins!

[Eatsleepwork]

We are going to London in a few weeks (me, dh, 2 yo, 6yo and 10yo). We arrive in Paddington at 10am and need to kill time until 1pm when we need to be in Kensington area.

We are then staying in Stratford and have until 3pm on Sunday free when we need to be back at Paddington.

Any suggestions that fit in with our times/ plans would be brilliant. Dc are quite happy wandering about and I'd love to do some shopping but I think dh will veto that! Other than that we've thought about Madame Tussaud as do have blue peter badges for free entry. I love it around the London Eye area.

Please offer any tips or recommendations, either for places to go or best way to travel around.

You haven't got a huge amount of time between 10 am and 1 pm, so I'd suggest, if the weather is nice, that you go straight from Paddington to the Diana Memorial Park (the Peter Pan Park) in Kensington Gardens (free). Nearest tube Queensway, though you could also walk there from Lancaster Gate. (It's not very far from Paddington so you could go mad with a taxi.)

Then you are already in the right neck of the woods to get to Kensington - basically you just walk out the other side of the park and there you are.

If it's belting down you van always either go into Kensington Palace (adults pay but kids are free), or just go into the Orangery and have some tea.

Everytime I've driven past Mme Tussauds there have been massive queues. Also it takes ages getting round London so be warned. I would go straight to the Kensington area and then, depending on time, go to one of the museums (natural history or science are very child friendly)

Museums or the parks. Don't think one year old and six year old will be interested in waxworks.

As PP suggested, the walk from Paddington through Hyde Park brings you out in Kensington. Assuming good weather, I'd either bring a picnic lunch, or pop to M&S / Sainsbury's at Paddington and buy the same.

It can easily take a good couple of hours if you have a good play in the park / wander round the public gardens at Kensington Palace.

Wet weather alternative could be tube from Paddington to South Kensington, then a look at one of the museums (Science / Natural History etc.).

Thanks, all really useful. 6 yo would absolutely love waxworks as the Star Wars exhibition opens this weekend but I think timing and cost is not on our side!
Looks like one of the parks might be our best option, thanks

This is the Diana Memorial Playground (aka the Peter Pan Playground) that I mentioned:

www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens/things-to-see-and-do/sports-and-leisure/diana-memorial-playground

Somebody has done a nice little 4-minute youtube vid of the park, which shows you how huge it is and what lovely stuff it has in it:

That looks fab, thanks. Using my limited geography skills, it seems walkable from Paddington- is that right? Weather forecast looks ok (fingers crossed) so think a park picnic would be perfect
Now just to fill Sunday morning!

From stratford you can easily get to the Emirates cable car over the river to Greenwich the kids would enjoy that and greenwich is very nice to amble about in. There's the park observatory and a nice market
You might have to book the cable car but all the info is on the tfl website

Honestly Tussauds is a nightmare- full of teens taking selfies with the models. Hell on earth! Greenwich market on Sunday is good for a wander, and the O2 us also interesting to have a look round and there are loads of restaurants there

It is walkable but not super convienient as lots of main roads/ traffic lights to cross. Easiest is take the 94 or 148 bus straight to outside the park near Queensway. The play park is in northwest corner of hyde park.

From there you can walk through park to Kensington but it depends on where your going. Ie High Street Kensington is straight outside park, but South Kensington is a good trek so best to get a bus or jump back on tube

Stratford has the discover story centre, it's great! The changing exhibition is based on oliver Jeffers books at the moment (much more interactive than an exhibition,but I'm not sure what they call it!) Has a nice garden with climbing frames etc and a cafe, they have a website, check it out, sorry can't link at the moment

Or Sutton house in homerton is really close to stratford, it's a national trust house, Tudor I think, the oldest surviving house in London. Well worth a look.