London - other than the science museum or Aquarium - where shall I take them?

[ThomCat]

I just can't think where to go with them tomorrow.

It's going to be raining so undercover.

I have a 5 yr old but with SNs, she can walk a bit now but she's not your average 5 yr old. And a 17 month old.

We go to the science museum a lot with them as it's perfect really but only just been there so thinking of going somewhere else but where?

Went to the aquarium the week before last and recently been to the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.

Any suggestions?

Museum of London or Docklands Museum
Lots to see and plenty of space to run around in
Also likely to both be less busy than the South Ken complex
Plus the Barbican has undercover walkways so even if it is bucketing down they can stretch their legs in the fresh air

Discover in Stratford is wonderful

www.discover.org.uk/

Thanks for the suggestions. Shall have a google and a think, xxx

transport museum is closed 'til autumn . we had a good time at the natural history museum recently (& our children are v. similar ages to yours tc).

Yes we went to the NHM in he morning and then onto the science museum for the afternoon.
They had a fab time and DD2 really loved banging on the display cabinets and shouting at the animals inside!

Might just go there again but I'm tempted by Discover Starford. I think Aloha reccommened that to me a long time ago as well.

discover is v. good. and you can park in the big multi-storey across the road. it's not enormous though, nothing like the scale of the big museums.

Is Discover good for 15 month olds (walking but not talking bar a few words)? She's not going to be able to 'create a story' is she? Struggling to work it out from the website.

If the weather isn't complete crap, there's a fun fair on at the edge of Hampstead Heath. DD and I stumbled into yesterday by chance and had a very nice time. There are some gentle rides suitable for young ones. Otherwise, might be worth checking out the less 'kid popular' museums to see what's on - like V&A, Tate Modern, Portrait Gallery, etc.

Not sure any of those would suit, but at least some ideas...

i think ds was probably about that age when i first took him csws. there's lots of climbing & toys, i think you'll have a great time (and under-2s used to free ).

My mother used to find the children liked a trip to Harrods but perhaps that was more for her than them and she'd take them into completely empty London churches and light candles in wet weather. All free. Natural history museum, free too nowadays.

Sounds lovely to me Xenia but don't think the girls would approve just yet, a few more years and hopefully yes.

Think I'll suggest Discover to DP if not we'll fall back on reliable on Science Museum with a bit of Natural History thrown in.

natural history museum

True. 17 month year olds are hard to take anywhere. if this rain stops the London parks are lovely. We had a good few outings to Kew Gardens and they have big indoor glass houses and if it's fine loads of space to run around and play.

Second Tate Modern - they have a carousel display this weekend which sounded good. We also went to the Imperial War Museum today which was surprisingly good (good submarine display for the two year old) but DS loves nothing better than pretending to be in the WW1 trenches...

A bit further out, but the Horniman is a great museum.

Thanks for all the suggestions. It's rubbish when it's poring down outside. And have to say that it looks like the sceience museum is going to be hard to beat for my 2 right now. That basement area really is the perfect place for 2 young ones to charge round playing all afternoon.