Shopping for baby stuff in London

[Weathergirl1]

We're planning a trip to London in the next month to have a look at the big ticket items - specifically prams/car seats. Our main aim is to look at John Lewis in Oxford St as it's got much more range than our local store!

While we're there I thought it would be worth looking at any other shops we don't have here. In particular Mothercare as ours closed down a few months ago and as we don't have a car, the nearest ones to us are all on retail parks so hard to get to! I've been on Google and see that there are stores in Westfield White City/Stratford (both which would be easy to get to from Oxford Street!) and one in Brent Cross which looks a lot bigger than either. Can anyone in the London area advise whether it would be worth going out to Brent Cross over the two Westfield ones?

Mamas & Papas are in both Westfields too so I guess the question is whether Brent Cross is really worth the extra trek or not?!

Any other shops in central London you'd recommend looking at?

Harrods is amazing for baby stuff, including clothes.

I'm not really looking at buying clothes at the moment but thanks for the recommendation for Harrods!

Anyone else got any specific advice about the Mothercare branches in my OP?

If you book ahead John Lewis do a free personal shopper service for parents to be... they take you through each area of baby stuff you’re interested in - prams, car seats, nursery furniture etc... let you have a play with some of the products and if I remember rightly give you a voucher for a cake in the cafe after. Anything we liked the look of he added to a list that we could access on line after. There was no pressure to buy and it was great to get some info on the different options.

I haven't been to Brent Cross but the advice we got at the JL in Stratford was amazing. The mothercare in Stratford is ok but not huge (not like the ones in retail parks) but from what I remember it had an ok range of prams. Didn't ask for advice in there as JL had been so good.

I think JL has it covered for baby gear, but I’d probably try and get some maternity clothes in person as well because I hate online clothes shopping.

There's a place called Anita's House that sell everything!

anitashouse.com/

You don’t need central London, shops are far apart in terms of what you need to go see- a faff and an expense. Just go to a shopping centre with a mother care and a John Lewis- Bluewater, Brent Cross, Westfield Stratford, Westfield Shepard’s bush.

Pls don’t get a consultation at a fancy baby store- sounds like a fast way to spend a lot of money on schmutter you won’t use. Someone I know got sold a burping chair apparatus thing- I mean seriously rub your child’s back!

When I went to Harrods, there was barely anything there.

Friends rave about the A3 baby barn but I haven't been so can't comment.
www.a3babybarn.co.uk

However, I think you'll just get bamboozled wth all the stuff. It might be easier to narrow it down by pre-research. For a car seat, we got a baby one initially but then Joie Every Stage. I'd really recommend the latter as it's just one seat that you can use from birth till they don't need a seat any more.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers Sounds ridiculous

Maybe others can correct me but I find mothercare is very overrated. For prams John Lewis in oxford street is very good. Ikea has loads of nursery stuff, worth checking there too before your trip. Completely unrelated geographically but we have bought a lot from Winstanley's Pramworld and been very happy.

One things I would recommend is trying on maternity/feeding tops while in London, they have seraphine and Jojo at John Lewis and uniqlo has a maternity range too now. H&M larger stores stock maternity stuff too so you could try the one in Oxford Circus. You might struggle to find much local to you that you can try on, a lot of nursing stuff is online order only. Have fun!

There's no point going to Brent Cross if you're going to Westfields etc.. it's similar just a big shopping centre.
All sounds exhausting. I live under 20 mins from Brent Cross and rarely go these days.

Another thing- get advise from whichever shop on buggies, car seats etc but google the item you want before buying, you find lots of different costs depending on where you buy it from

Where do you live? Central London isn’t really the place for baby shopping IMHO. I second the suggestion of Bluewater upthread.

Hello!
Westfield white city is our local and imo is great for baby shopping. Larger JL than Brent Cross. Mothercare isn’t huge but has good choice and there is also a M&Ps too which is well stocked. Enjoy!

Hi all, thanks for the updates - super helpful. We don't own a car (we hire one if we need one) so out of town shopping centres aren't on my radar (I don't consider hiring one just to go a shopping recce to be really necessary!!). John Lewis Oxford Street is huge which is why we were considering that as a first option (they were great when we did our wedding list & pretty central too so I can pop into a couple of other places while we're there that aren't for baby stuff!). I will look into the shopping experience appointments @DBP1234 at your recommendation - I had seen they do them on the website 😄

I'm not too fussed about a tube ride out to be honest, we can come into Liverpool Street station on the train and that's not too far from Stratford on the way round. I was just wondering if Mothercare there was any good (Google reviews for Westfield White City Mothercare weren't very good) or whether it might be worth the trip out to Brent Cross? But it does sound like Mothercare isn't necessarily going to be that useful if we've already covered our bases at JL!

We're not planning to buy anything on this trip but Googling can only tell you so much - we really want to see items in the flesh - especially pram systems as we're probably going to want something quite specific as I'll be using it daily to walk into town.

@badg3r thanks for the tips on maternity wear! You're right, our local stores don't stock it (I just ordered some basic vests from H&M with a complete guess at sizes). I've so far been picking up JoJo & Seraphine on eBay where size guessing isn't that costly 😀

@JoJoSM2 ah, we saw the Joie Every Stage seat on Which? I think. We probably will try and get something like that - I think Britax do something similar too. The thought of buying a seat every year when we don't own a car and it's only going to get a small amount of use makes my eyes water with the expense, especially as there's not a 2nd hand market for them!

We did a nursery appointment at John Lewis on Oxford Street and it was great (although they get booked up quite far in advance). They added all the items we looked at to a list and then we were able to go away and do our own research/wait for sales on the bits and pieces we were keen on. We haven't needed to go anywhere else. In terms of maternity clothes, the H&M on Regent Street has a small selection in the basement, the big Topshop has a section although it's mainly jeans and there's also some in New Look towards the TCR end of Oxford Street.

@Weathergirl1 we have no car and the Britax multi stage seat- it's a beast to carry but serves us well.
You won't get maternity wear at H&M Oxford Circus, it's all the teen ranges. Regent street might have some, but it's worth checking online and maybe ringing the branch. The ones in Westfields might have more.
Top shop at Oxford Circus did have some maternity stuff once upon a time, I don't know if they still do.
Uniqlo do maternity???? I am agog!

@DustyDoorframes ooh that's helpful 👍 is it actually carryable with a newborn in? I know the usual group 0 ones are because you see them all over the place but I'm wondering about transport home from the hospital. DH can do that heavy lifting 😉 (won't be clear on logistics until nearer the time but will likely be taxi, hire car or my parents picking us up - parking fees are extortionate at the hospital!).

@mynameiscalypso you're right, they do get booked up - no weekend appointments now until September 😲. Don't really want DH to have to take holiday for a weekday one so I guess we will just go and look. I expect there'll be a partner available to ask questions if we look a bit confused!

Try Peter Jones in Sloane Square.

Oh hang on @Weathergirl1, the one we have is for after stage 0 up until age 9. So probably I'm thinking of a different one! The normal stage 0 ones are so easy for the non-car brigade that I'd go with that (and mine has circulated between me and several other non car friends, so it's not felt like such a waste)

We think the nursery section in JL in White City is lacking compared to others (eg Kingston) but they do have a mamas and papas there too. We live in SW London so went specifically to Westfield for the bigger M&Ps as there's a Mothercare and JL in Kingston. The h&m in White City also stocks a good maternity range, although as do Kingston and Wimbledon. To be honest unless you're looking for anything specific in Mothercare that you can't find elsewhere then you probs won't need Mothercare as well. Or if you do really want Mothercare then you could go to the one in Croydon (v easy 15 mins to East Croydon on the train from Victoria then a short tram hop) as that also has IKEA next door.

You'll likely find that the White City Westfield is a less stressful shopping experience than the Stratford one. I hate shopping but genuinely enjoy shopping at white city as it never feels busy even at peak times whereas Stratford (and shopping centres generally) always usually feel busy if you're there on Saturday afternoon.

Would also recommend doing a JL nursery appointment as you get 2 hours to just focus on specific things (eg pushchair) and you also get free stuff, haha. You don't have to buy anything although we found it useful having the list and then being able to transfer it to our own spreadsheet.

We don't have a car and got an Uber to the hospital then my parents came down to London and picked us up when we left. We've got the Mothercare Ziba car seat (which you can't buy in store anyway!) as it got a good review on which. We didn't want to get anything expensive as we didn't anticipate using it much - it's been used 4 times in 4.5 months. Once he's bigger then we will get a multi stage one.