Museums for a 3 year old

[Iamserious]

Hi, I'm a mum for a 3 year old. What museums can I take him to in London? I'm in east London and he goes to nursery 5 days a week. So something that can be enjoyed on weekends.

Don't mind driving. I've never taken him in tube. I'd ideally like to drive him to the place.

Thanks

My daughter loved the Story Centre: discover.org.uk I'm not sure whether it still has the fairytale land downstairs. That was her favourite part.

London Transport Museum was a big hit when DS was about 4/5.
And I second the Discovery story centre too
I'd save Natural History/Science museum etc until he is a bit bigger if I were you.

Transport museum, and the interactive bit at the back of the science museum

London Transport works well. My DS also loved the Twist museum near Oxford Circus and Frameless near Marble Arch. I absolutely wouldn't drive to any of them though!

Transport museum definitely

Maritime museum has a great play area and east from east london

postal museum and transport museum look great

Museum of childhood, Bethnal Green. Now V&A something or other. My son adored it at 2 - I’m sure it’s still great. Xx

The Docklands museum in Canary Wharf is nice, and has a bookable play section for young children. The young V&A in Bethnal Green is worth a visit, but get there for opening as it gets very busy and you won’t want to be stuck in the queue.

It's not so close to east london but the RAF museum is a big hit with our DS

Seconding Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green & Docklands Museum - both a 5 min walk from public transport & we enjoyed many happy hours at both. Happy Days ❤

The Horniman has lots of different bits. Lovely little aquarium.

Years ago when the kids were tiny we lived in London- the Horniman Museum was a big favourite, is that still there?

The maritime museum in Greenwich is great for little kids too. Gosh, I miss having little kids to take to museums 😞

Don't drive, are you crazy?! Take the tube like a normal person.

Postal museum. Has role play. If going at weekend think you'll need to book as it can be booked out for parties.

For the postal museum I really want to take my two children but the walk from the tube seems quite substantial for little legs that won’t go in a buggy. Can anyone shed any light to how much of a trek it is?

It's a bit of a pain. We went to Farringdon with a 4 year old and a 3 year old. We took the buggy for the 3 year old and I had to carry the 4 year old for a bit.

Yeh it looked in a bit of a random place- whilst I could grab a taxi there from a station, doubt I’d get one back

The basement bit of the science museum is great there is water play etc.
maritime museums has a play area called ahoy that you can prebook and is really good.

We didn't rate the transport Museum. Not much for a 3 year old except a bus you can "drive" and a little play area. Also SUPER expensive. The RAF museum in Hendon is amazing if he likes planes - there are 6 hangars full of them! It's free too (although about £7 parking).

@OnlyFoolsnMothers You could hail a black cab back via Freenow or similar. The Postal Museum was my son's favourite at 3. You need to do a ride on the Mail Rail plus a Sorted play session as well as the museum itself. Brilliant.

OP - get the tube! The tube is great fun for toddlers.

We also like Discover Centre (really good value annual memberships too), the Maritime Museum and the Docklands Museum (book Mudlarks in advance). I think the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum are a bit too busy to be enjoyable at the weekend for that age tbh. My son quite liked the Museum of the Home too.

I took a dinosaur obsessed 3 year old to the Natural History Museum. He loved it.

So much so I had to take him back the next day!

Tube is part of the adventure - don't drive.

Maritime Museum in Greenwich is fab for that age - has a huge map and an indoor play area. The play area in Greenwich Park is also fab.

Discover Centre in Stratford is great (has indoor and outdoor spaces)

Horniman Museum is a bit further afield from East London but our kids loved the taxidermy and butterfly house .

Postal Museum has an interactive indoor play area where kids can run a sorting office and deliver post etc.

Docklands Museum is also good for pre-school age with a mini soft play, building area and water play (bring a spare top for that!)

Second all the above plus the national army museum v popular with my 3 year old. If has a soft play you can book and quite a lot of interactive exhibits.

Museum of Docklands involves a trip on the DLR which my toddler absolutely loves. Agree that postal museum is worth the trek - the train is amazing. Can also combine with a trip to Coram's fields which is a lovely playground.

I have been to the natural history museum with my 3 year old and he really likes it, so disagreeing a bit with some who say wait - I'm sure he'll get more out of it when he's older, but it's super keen on dinosaurs already. He also loves the science museum which has a great play area for little ones and lots of vehicles to look at/he likes the space bit. The garden at the V and A is fab with toddlers in the summer.

And yeah we do have a car and drive to some stuff locally but I'd never drive to any of these places. Toddlers love the train/bus/tube. I think you could occupy my 3 year old all day just on the bus if you wanted to!