Places to visit in South London with a toddler

[squashedfrogs]

Can anyone suggest places to take a toddler for a few hours entertainment? Indoor and outdoor suggestions would be welcomed considering the downpours lovely summer weather that we have been experiencing recently.

Many thanks in advance

Can anyone help with this please? I need some inspiration.

sorry can't help but great websire is www.dayoutwiththekids.co.uk/

Whereabouts in South London?

Wetland Centre in Barnes
Kew Gardens

Anywhere within a shortish bus/tube ride from Bermondsey would be good.

Thanks for the responses, I was gearing myself up for nobody to notice this and got distracted by other threads!

Horniman Museum

Stroudgreenie beat me to it - you need the Horniman museum. Forest Hill or Honor Oak overland stations. Tis fab and FREE! Cafe is okay for toddler food, there's tons to do and just across the road is a playground with a new mahoosive sandpit. You could happily spend best part of a day in the two places.

Battersea Park Children's zoo (not a zoo of children, but a petting zoo of small furry, toddler friendly animals) DS loved it.

Ooooh HeadFairy are you feeling any little twinges of sadness about moving out of London?

(have been lurking and occasionally contributing to your threads for a while now).

Not really, every time I climb up the two flights of stairs carrying bags of shopping and a reluctant toddler I think how lovely it'll be to pull up in our drive and walk in to the front door without needing crampons and oxygen! (I can only do this by moving out of London, can't afford London any more)

I reconcile any doubts with the thought that I can get to Waterloo in 25 mins from the station that's 5 mins walk from my new house (and ds loooooves trains so he'll be happy as when we do come up to town)

From Bermondsey?

• Mayor's assembly and the fountains around it

• The Unicorn Theatre (just down the road) look out for under 3 shows

• Surrey Quays Farm (road before the Tunnel)

• Greenwich park (great playground and boating lake)

• Horniman Museum in Forest Hill as suggested

• BFi on Southbank has great children's days (not for now but in a couple of years) the last Sunday of the month I think

Horniman, Dulwich Park and hire a bicycle with a toddler seat and cycle round and round, Greenwich - you can go back and forth under the river in the foot tunnel which, if your toddler is anything like mine will think is very exciting

Another surprising one squashedfrogs... the turbine hall in the Tate Modern... especially when they've got some exciting installation the little ones can explose. My friend and I went there the other week with our two ds's (22 months and 17 months) and stupidly I'd forgotten to check if there was anything on... there wasn't but ds and his friend had the most fantastic run around. The hall is hoooooooooge, and they just giggled and ran around like loonies until they were totally worn out. Great!

Ooooooh, 30 mins to Waterloo HeadFairy! Hmmmm. Might just have to re-think this whole stoically London-or-nowhere stance of mine.

I'm with HeadFairy - if you're in Bermondsey and it turns out to be rainy, I would definitely head to Tate Modern. I've been there with toddlers, and they love it. Lots of space to run about, nice child friendly cafe on the ground floor, and there are often things for small children to play with near the hub where the escalators meet.

Mintyy - ok just checked, it's 40 mins, but we're on the Gatwick line (we're going to Redhill) so the trains are really regular.

What sold it to me was the fact that for the same money as my tiny two bed flat in Battersea I can get a large 3 bed Victorian detatched house with a lovely garden and loads of space. That's got to be worth a 40 min train drive in my book.

Apologies for hijack

Oh! . I accidentally drove through Redhill the other day. Its not that far from Croydon, really, is it?

OP - sorry - yes Tate Modern also brill. And you can see the Golden Hind (near London Bridge station), Borough Market and Shakespeare's Globe theatre and fantastic views of St Paul's and Tower Bridge all in a quick ten minute walk. Make that 30 minutes if you're with toddler .

Not far at all Mintyy, though I'm not a Croydon fan, I grew up there and was pretty glad to get the hell out....

Not putting Redhill in the same bracket as Croydon at all HF. What I meant was, I was surprised to find Redhill was so close to London.

Few days ago I was driving down to visit poorly Mum (SE London to Winchester). South circular gridlocked, so I went via Croydon, then found myself heading out to Brighton, turned right at Haywards Heath . Anyway, very happy your move is going well for you and will look out for updates on your new life in Surrey.

That's ok, I wasn't too upset at your bracketing Redhill with Croydon I think what helps is that it's on the Gatwick line so the trains are regular and fast... Reigate, just down the road isn't and it's a much slower line.

Back to the op... It's a bit of an expensive one, but the London Eye? Ds loved it (so did I, someone else was paying )

On a similar theme, London Aquarium? Actually that's really expensive, I'm waiting until ds is a bit older and will appreciate it more (he'd love it now, but I would like him to appreciate it more iyswim)

Definitely the Horniman. There is a fabulous stuffed walrus. And you can look up its stuffed bottom. Hours of entertainment, believe me.

Thank you all for the suggestions, they are all very helpful. Without being local it's hard to know what there is to do (and which ones are worth going to!) so other people's ideas and thoughts are very useful.

Just walking along the river is good too (I discovered this walking from the Tate Modern to Waterloo station) ds loved looking at all the boats and as it's well away from roads you can let them run around a bit. And it's free!

Great thread. Can I add Morden Hall Park - it's National Trust so has loos and a tearoom but its free! It also has a petting farm and the river Wandle.

For that matter Crystal Palace Park is AWESOME having life size dinosaur statues, lakes a big playground with large sandpit area. Lots of areas large enough to let a toddler wander off while still in clear eyesight.

Dulwich Park is like CPP but with a nicer tho pricier cafe. Loos nicer too and had peddaloes for hire but no dinosaurs.

Crystal Palace Park also has a petting Farm (free but check opening times in advance).