Please show off your London hacks and tips!

[evtheria]

Giddy with the thought of restrictions easing, we booked 3 (refundable) nights in London for autumn. We are not familiar with the city, and it will be the first time for our DS (who will be 7 by then).

What are your best tips and tricks for London visits? What should we splurge on? What should we miss? What did your young kids love? Do we go to Harrods or Hamleys for a gawk?
I’ve read a great MSE article with helpful info, but know Mn is full of founts of knowledge! Thank you in advance

And Pizza Union at kings cross (no shortage of pizza in London!) it’s no frills but super cheap & good

@alexdgr8 He likes cakes and ‘being fancy’, whether he’ll ask for afternoon tea after this, who knows! The Shard looks really cool, it is on my list of options after a friend had her afternoon tea there.

Several people on here have recommended the Science Museum - whilst we won’t have time to visit all of them (we’ll be doing the Imperial War one, as that’s DP #1) we are now definitely going to go and try out the kids’ section!

We’re staying on Euston Rd, I booked not really knowing the different areas of London but it’s rated well for walkability on Tripadvisor so I’m hoping we manage to get around a fair bit!

@nancy75 Absolutely zero interest in Tussauds from any of us and I’ve heard enough about the Rainforest Cafe to try avoid it!

@Titsywoo I love pottering about little areas, especially the ones with independent shops that we wouldn’t get up here, we’d like to keep time free to be able to just stroll about aimlessly too.

My Dd has always loved a fancy afternoon tea too, we took her to the Dorchester when she was about 7 - she thought she was the queen
What else does your ds like?

I think the Claridge's tea would be a bit full for a young boy. Check out Fortnum and Mason, they have I think three separate tea offerings there, so one will be appealing, and all will be lovely.

Right now with Covid the last times the museums were open you have to have a timed booking, even for the free ones, so check on that before your trip.

The British Museum should be amazing if he likes museums. They have a Family desk where you can check out activity backpacks free of charge. They're aimed at different ages and themes, so there's one for the Egyptian area, another for Sutton Hoo, etc. They have stories or scavenger hunt type things for the kids to do. Really well done.

V&A is super interesting and has some of everything. Textiles, armor, 19th century Japanese pottery... One of our favorites is the room of fakes - it's a display of artwork that was thought to be genuine for a long time and at some point proved to be forgeries. It's fascinating.

Now I want things to hurry up and open, I miss it all!

*Claridge's tea would be dull. Not sure what would be a full tea 😂

Gelupo ice cream is just behind Piccadilly Circus. Beautiful little ice cream parlour. Grown up flavours!!

Close to the IWM is archbishops park which has a zip wire, you have to book online, good sized play park too. Close by for a drink with good views is Temasis dock, an old converted Dutch barge on Albert embankment, decked out with fairy lights, it's quite quirky and kitsch but lovely. It was my old local and I miss it!!

So glad you started this thread OP - hoping to plan a trip from Scotland with DH & DC in the next 12-18months so these tips are fantastic - thanks everyone!

The no. 24 bus passes lots of interesting sites.
You can take the Thames Clipper from one Tate to the other.
Don't take the tube for one or two stops, especially Leicester Square to Charing Cross. Much quicker to walk.
Some quite nice restaurants do free meals for children.
The M&M shop is full of horrendously over-priced tat, but I guess it's fun if you're 7.
Walk through a Royal Park.
Don't try to fit in too much in one day!

Re afternoon tea, my SIL wanted to have one after her graduation that would also be fun for her kids. They did this and rated it. In South Ken so could tie in with a museum.

ampersandhotel.com/eat-drink/the-drawing-rooms/science-afternoon-tea/

@nancy75 I can imagine! Dorchester looks splendid. DS is into Pokemon, street sweepers (please, don't tell me there’s a sweeper museum!), books, playgrounds small or large, and Paddington. If there was a Paddington-bear-themed afternoon tea that would be ~chefs kiss~.

@LemonMeringueThreePointOneFour Everyone has given so many good ideas it’s going to difficult to narrow down our list! But yes, though DS is a great walker and loves days out in cities we’re trying to keep this a holiday for everyone so being quite flexible on what we ‘must do’.

I hope other posters do get their chance to return or take a trip there, seems like there’s a few of us interested in an exciting London break.

There is a Paddington pawprint trail starting in Paddington station at the bronze Paddington statue and tracks the other Paddingtons to be found locally.

Ours are 18 and 26 now but we were regular visitors when they were young. I was a born/bred Londoner but only really discovered it as a “tourist” when they were kids.
The Shard is a rip-off. We went up because we had The London pass but it’s no way worth the regular fee.
Monument on the other hand, they loved.
The round London open top bus tour is brilliant.
Tower of London, fantastic.
Museum of London, fantastic and free.
A walk along the South Bank, stopping to watch the skateboarders, also brilliant.
City River Cruises to Greenwich, excellent.
Science Museum, brilliant and free.
Natural History, brilliant and free.
London Zoo is tired (some of the enclosures are tiny by modern standards and quite upsetting) and overpriced.
Our kids found Hamleys disappointing. Much more basic than you’d expect and everything seriously overpriced.
Kew Gardens is fabulous, really child friendly with well thought out, imaginative play areas, indoors and out.
Our kids loved Borough Market for lunch/dinner.
London Transport Museum/Covent garden, fabulous. The museum is really geared at kids.

Probably lots more I’ve forgotten. You’re going to have the best time.

I agree with @nancy75, as your ds hasn’t been to London before, you can fill your time very easily with the main tourist attractions, Buckingham palace and changing of the guard, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden is excellent and a chance to rest your feet while you watch a street entertainer.

Our dc liked going on the London eye. And we tend to spend half a day in one of the museums, although eldest dc can’t be doing with this so much now she’s mid teens. We always see a show while we are there and I’m hopeful that by Autumn they will be reopening. Matilda is great and they really enjoyed Annie. I don’t think Charlie and the chocolate factory is running anymore, But Mary Poppins was in London just before lockdown, so I’d expect it to be there once everything reopens. (That’s my all time favourite).

The dc love the tube, just so different from any other type of travel They normally use I think. We tend to get on a London bus and see where it takes us, we normally see a few touristy things en route and then jump off near a tube station and find our way back.

Just a thought, When my dc were in year 2 (I’m sure it’s year 2), so about 7, they have all done about the Great fire of London. One year we went to London coinciding with the topic so We took them to Pudding Lane and saw the monument that commemorates it which they liked as it was relevant to what they had done at school.

The Dc have never really been big foodies, so we’ve always just bobbed in to Pizza Hut or similar for tea in London, but as they are getting older and more adventurous, I think we will be branching out a bit more and I will be looking at some of the eating suggestions that have been made here.

@Iamonlyme

There is a Paddington pawprint trail starting in Paddington station at the bronze Paddington statue and tracks the other Paddingtons to be found locally.

Thank you!

He’s got a shop😃

And I can imagine how much a Paddington costs 😩

I love the British Museum, been on many school trips there as a parent helper. Looking at the crystal skull or seeing an Easter Island Head used to fascinate the groups of kids I was trusted with, also stopping to speak to the volunteers who let the children handle artefacts. The teachers were happy as long as I took them to the Mummys on the top floor which was why we were there.

The British Museum is close to Forbidden Planet too as it is near Holborn instead of South Ken.

I have also been on school trips to The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green with the Reception class and it took a lot to keep their interest for the whole day, so it is probably just a half day trip max for younger children.

As I live in an outer London Borough we have been all over with both our three children and school trips. While we enjoy the Natural History Museum it is just a crowded, we had annual tickets to the Science Museum interactive area and that is really worth it.

The Tower of London is good too, but it would depend on the time of year and what is on. They used to have dressed up performers telling history, My kids loved and we had annual tickets for years, never really bothered with the massive queue to the Crown Jewels.

I found they got tired easily, so do short bursts and then sit down or play before you move on to the next activity.

I love travelling around on the top deck of the buses and looking at statues and carvings in the buildings and reading all the blue plaques.

If you ride the DLR and end up in Stratford, the Olympic park is a nice area to decompress away from the bustle of the City, but don't go on a West Ham Home match day.

I would agree with City Garden over the Shard, have horrid memories of spending ages trying to occupy three bored children at the top of the Shard while DH spend ages looking at the view. He didn't return the favour either for me to have a look.

The City Garden is also very close to Leadenhall market which was used was a location for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films

Have a lovely visit, London is a beautiful and diverse City, no matter how many times you have been there, there is always something new to discover.

Aqua shard at the shard is good value and you get to see the views ( it's not right at the top though). They do a themed afternoon tea, current one seems to be Peter Pan but might have changed by the time you visit. Can't vouch for the taste/experience as never had tea but had a lovely lunch there.

You can also visit a number of the locations in the Paddington films if your son enjoyed the movie for example Gruber's shop is actually Alice's Antiques on Portbello Road, the Brown's house is in Primrose Hill

My kids have always happily spent a couple of hours watching the entertainers in Covent Garden. The ice cream parlour at Fortnums is also a favourite place and my sister took my daughter for afternoon tea at Kensington Palace a couple of summers ago, which was a big hit.

Lovely thread, thank you.

@evtheria if you want a really nice afternoon tea, have a look at The Savoy. It might not be the first place that comes to mind as child friendly, but I’ve been there several times and it’s very relaxed and family friendly. I was there at Christmas and the pianist let a little girl sit with him and try her hand on the piano, and if you are there at Christmas it’s famous for its Christmas decorations.

Otherwise there are lots of themed afternoon teas more specifically aimed at children. There’s also an afternoon tea on a double decker bus which although obviously v touristy might be fun.