Plan for 4 days in London with country mouse teens

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

I grew up in London about 1000 years ago. 16 years in SW1 then a few years in SW11 until I went to uni 100s of miles away. I have no family left in London. I don't love London, and since DM moved out 20 years ago I have no family there anymore. I go down for a day or 2 for work every 2 or 3 months, and am always happy to go home,

The DC however, really want to go to London, and I think that's fair enough. We did go for a weekend about 10 years ago, spent most of it in the Nat History Museum, and neither of then remember it. They are 12 (DD) and 15 (DS) and have grown up in a Yorkshire Pennine village and think that my 4 storey office building in Leeds is a skyscraper.

I'm thinking of taking them for 3 or 4 days in their Easter Holidays. Probably arriving LKX about lunchtime on the Tuesday and coming back on the Friday afternoon.

I need a plan to show them round.

I'm more than happy to run around on buses and tubes, not worried abut navigating and travelling at all. I can do the Westminster/South Bank/Covent Garden, King's Rd/South Ken Museums big hitter highlights. Is Camden Lock still the place to go ? I really like the look of the Novelty Automata museum in Holborn.

DS (15) loves history - Tower?
DD (12) loves colourful and bold art -Tate Modern?

We'd stay in a SW London Premier Inn probably.

Train travel on Friday afternoons can be horrendous, if you can avoid it and travel other times midweek or even on Sat morning your journey will probably be more pleasant.

British Museum, Museum of London, walking tour for dc1
Tate Modern, Southbank centre, Shard for dc2

Royal Academy has a good range of art.

Your kids will want to see your old haunts! Even if they pretend not to.

My teens still love Camden & it's still the best pocket money sink-hole in London.

Crown jewels is always worth it. It's been jigged around a bit since Charlie came in too. If they have Blue Peter badges it's free for them.

People love Covent garden for reasons I've never understood. I can see it's a nice building I'm just not sure what you're meant to do there! But the kids will like it.

Went with my kids earlier this week. I’d highly recommend the sky garden which is totally free but you need to get tickets 3 weeks in advance.
from there it’s an easy walk to the tower and tower bridge. We walked over the bridge and did HMS Belfast which was great if they are into war stuff (or even if they aren’t).

Do a short walking tour. I did a walk from St James's Palace to the Palace of Westminster taking in various palaces along the route. There's a huge variety of guided walks available, they are cheap and sometimes free with a tip. It was a couple of hours, I learnt lots and enjoyed a nice lunch afterwards feeling I had worked for it.

I'd seriously consider taking a boat trip from Westminster up to the tower, I always think it's a fabulous way of seeing a lot without a great deal of effort

They might enjoy a London Rocket boat trip which is quite exhilarating.