Please help with nervous solo London trip

[NeatFreak]

I'm taking ten year old dd to London next week and am panicking a little... We will arrive in paddington at 11, going to see billy Elliot at Victoria palace at 2.30 then travelling back from paddington at 8pm.

I have no idea of distances between all these venues or the best way to travel- can anyone please give me an idiots guide for the day and give suggestions for somewhere snacky for lunch then a child friendly meal near paddington? I can cope with the day if I know where and when I am going

Take the circle or district (green or yellow) line from paddington. Will take around 30 mins I think.
I would suggest you just get to Victoria even though you will have time to kill there if you are nervous.
There are about a thousand snacky lunch places everywhere you look.
It sounds as though you may be from somewhere quite remote so you could try 'yo sushi' in Victoria station. It's not exactly exciting but food on a conveyor belt still has novelty value to me!

I am keeping it simple and boring as you say you are nervous. If you want to explore any more you could try going to green park and walking through st james park. See the palace and the pelicans?

You could google for a branch of Giraffe - not exactly haute cuisine but great for kids

Sounds good, thanks.
I hate sushi but dd likes it so I might compromise. She also wants to see the London eye but I think that might confuse things too much!
We aren't too rural but don't go to London very often and dh is normally there to direct me!

So it'd be a good idea to go straight to victoria from paddington and eat lunch there before walking to the theatre?

Buy a zone 1-2 one day travel card for yourself, your DD will travel free. It's always best to get this on your main travel ticket as queues can be long at mainline stations. Then look for the wider ticket barrier to walk through with DD.
When you come out of Victoria Station it is a bit of a building site. Billy Elliott theatre is in front of you and to the right is a massive Pret a Manger with an enormous upstairs. You can look out at the Billy Elliott theatre across the road.
Afterwards you could catch the number 24 bus along Victoria St past Big Ben, Downing St and Trafalgar Square (allow 30 mins in case traffic is bad). Get off there, look at lions etc, go to Leon on the Strand or mooch round Covent Garden then catch the Bakerloo line back to paddington from charing cross (set off about 45 mins before your train departs to be on the safe side).
Hope you have a great day!

If you want sushi, I'd go to Wasabi, either the branch on Victoria St almost opposite the theatre, or the kiosk in Victoria Station, then walk to St James's Park (5 minutes walk behind the theatre, past Buckingham Palace) to eat it if it's nice weather. If you want really good sushi, walk down Victoria St to Strutton Ground market and there's a dodgy-looking basement called Ichi-Riki which is a sushi restaurant.

I agree it would be best to get to Victoria and eat round there - loads of places depending on how much time you have, and can easily kill a bit of time in St James Park and looking at the palace.

After, you could get the 24 to Trafalgar Square and walk down Villiers St to Embankment and cross the river to the Eye and South Bank and then get the Tube from Waterloo back to Paddington, or the 507 straight to Waterloo, then wander down to the Eye. If you actually want to go on the Eye, then book tickets in advance and plan to buy takeaway food from nearby rather than fit in a restaurant meal after (allow 45 min from Waterloo to Paddington) - there's plenty of it, often some great food markets on the South Bank.

Thanks all

I'm going to try to plan it all properly today so this is very helpful. I'm not nervous about London in itself, just the travelling and timings of everything.
I have three hours between leaving the theatre and our train home- would this give enough time to go to the south bank from Victoria then back to paddington? I suspect not

If you haven't left anything in the cloakroom and leave promptly, then you could be in Waterloo within 20 mins - the 507 goes from one of the bays in front of the station. Then Waterloo is on the Bakerloo line for Paddington, so you'd have over two hours there. Well worth it IMO.

Personally I'd get to Victoria via the Bakerloo and Vic lines, changing at Oxford Circus, as the District/Circles are often crap.