London, UK
Highlights
South Kensington
Kensington
The West End
South Bank
The City of London
Greenwich
Docklands
London markets
Harry Potter Studios
Why visit London?
For a global city with marvellous museums, eclectic restaurants, art, culture and educational activities.
Getting There and Around
We prefer to travel by train to get to London, where a car is more of a hindrance than a help. We book advance train tickets well ahead of time using our friends and family rail card.
The railcard costs £30 for one year or £70 for three years and gives a 33% discount for adults and 60% discount for kids. Given the cost of rail tickets, the railcard quickly pays for itself after just a couple of trips.
With a railcard, the total cost of return train tickets from Sheffield to London for 2 kids and 2 adults is usually between £100 - £150, and the journey takes 2 hours.
To get around in London we walk and use the excellent public transport system which is world class. We wish the rest of the UK had such a comprehensive, high quality, affordable and frequently serviced system!
Tapping in and out with contactless card payments is by far the easiest way to pay for public transport on London. With kids (under 10s travel for free) you can use the family gate at the ticket barriers to get everyone through at once.
Harriet grew up and works in London, and we have visited many times, both before having children and with our kids. This blog post brings together some of our favourite places to go and things to do in London with children.
Accommodation
We’ve tried various chains of hotels but Premier Inn is our favourite because their hotels are consistently clean and safe; and their free wifi, family rooms and free children’s’ breakfasts provide the best value for money when travelling with kids.
We have stayed in four different Premier Inns in London.
Croxley Green - well located for visiting family in our case, and convenient for the Harry Potter Studio. (£75 per night)
Kings Cross York Way - convenient for tube and rail travel, particularly the Eurostar. This PI is modern with good customer service and is one of our favourites (£92 per night).
Farringdon - well connected by tube and rail; close to St Paul’s, the City, and the Barbican. Excellent customer service. (£140 per night).
Leicester Square - convenient for Soho, Chinatown and Covent Garden. We liked this one least as we found it to be noisier, older and more expensive than other PI locations. (£150 per night).
South Kensington
London’s museums are vast in number, scale and variety. The universal admissions policy means that permanent collections are usually free to visit, and temporary exhibitions are often well worth paying for. South Kensington is home to a number of brilliant museums. Our favourites with kids are the natural history and science museums.
Natural History Museum
The natural history museum in South Kensington is the most visited attraction in London.
Our curious kids love the dinosaur exhibitions, minerals and volcano and earthquake sections. Anyone who is interested in nature and the world around them will find something they like here! Entry is free although some special and temporary exhibitions are paid for.
The museum is huge. It would easily take a day at least to see everything but we usually limit our visits to a half day because it is always crowded and overwhelming.
Science Museum
Just across the road from the natural history museum is the science museum which is one of our favourite museums in London. It’s free to visit, and the free exhibitions are fantastic. We think it’s great for young children, older children and adults alike.
Our kids love the space collection and when they were younger enjoyed the pattern pod and spent ages in the garden water play area. It’s worth paying extra to visit the Wonderlab which has a fantastic collection of hands on activities and experiments.
Kensington, Hyde Park and Holland Park
London is lucky to have some fantastic green spaces. There are a number of large parks as well as numerous squares and gardens in the centre of the city.
Kensington is home to a number of lovely parks and playgrounds.
Our favourite outdoor spaces in (or near) Kensington are the Diana Memorial Playground (often busy and best visited during the week and outside of school holidays), and the Adventure Playground in Holland Park. Both are free to visit and suited to a wide age range of children.
In Kensington we also quite like the Design Museum. The building itself is beautiful, although the content inside is a little sparse. The museum has exhibitions on product, graphic, fashion and architectural design, as well as an archive and reference library, and an auditorium for talks and lectures. There are free displays as well as paid-for and ticketed temporary exhibitions.
Leighton House, around the corner from the Design Museum and Holland Park, is worth visiting if you are in the area. The building was the home and studio of painter Frederic Leighton. It houses an impressive collection of art and antiques, and the building itself is a work of art.
The West End
One of our favourite things to do in London is to simply stroll around, people watch, and soak up the atmosphere.
The West End areas around Soho and Covent Garden are great for this - Chinatown, Carnaby Street, Seven Dials, Old Compton Street.
A family tradition is to walk through the West End, indulge in a hot chocolate at Bar Italia, and pick up provisions from Camisa and Son deli.
If you can afford the high prices, consider taking the kids to a West End theatre show. Musicals are popular and our children loved The Lion King. Of course there is more to London theatre than ‘theatreland’ in the West End, but the high concentration and quality of the shows in this area makes it a good place to start for theatre lovers.
South Bank
For a great walk with fantastic views and loads to do, first take the tube to London Bridge and then, starting at Southwark cathedral, walk along the south bank of the Thames taking in Borough market, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Tate Modern, Millenium bridge and the National Theatre, finishing at Waterloo station.
London has a multitude of brilliant art galleries where the permanent free to visit collections are outstanding. It’s hard to choose a favourite but we like the Tate Modern, for its collection of modern art and its often interactive temporary exhibitions.
We also love the Tate Modern for its cool gift shops and for the amazing views over the Thames from its observation deck.
The City of London
The City is an intriguing mix of history and modernity. The Museum of London is currently closed, as it moves to a new site. The museum’s collection has 6 million objects dating from prehistoric times through to modern day London. When it reopens, it will be a great place to take children interested in social history and life in the ‘olden days’.
The Barbican centre, next to the old Museum of London site at the London Wall, is a must place to visit for anyone interested in placemaking, architecture and design.
As well as hosting excellent plays and concerts in the arts centre, the Barbican estate has 2,000 apartments, charming green spaces and waterways, and is an icon of brutalist architecture.
The City of London has some spectacular modern architecture, sitting alongside historic buildings and monuments. While the area has a distinctly commercial feel, with few activities aimed specifically at children, it’s still interesting to walk around and look at the buildings.
The City is home to numerous tall buildings and a number of them have observation decks open to the public, providing views across London.
We haven’t yet been to the Skygarden or Horizon 22 (free to visit but tickets must be booked in advance), but during a recent trip to London we did visit 120 Fenchurch Street.
The rooftop garden at 120 Fenchurch Street is beautifully designed with far reaching views over to Docklands, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, and St Paul’s. The peaceful garden felt human in scale despite the tall buildings surrounding us.
It’s possible to take in lots of interesting sights just by walking a short distance in the City. St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England or the Royal Exchange, for example, or the Monument to the Great Fire of London near Pudding Lane where the fire started.
The Guildhall has been used as a municipal building for hundreds of years and stands in an impressive public square, and also houses a Roman amphitheatre.
There are a number of great markets in (or close to) the City to get lunch - Leadenhall Market in its historic markethall building; Cowcross Yards; Exmouth Market; and Leather Lane Market. Postman Park, in between St Paul’s Cathedral and Farringdon is a lovely spot to eat lunch purchased from any of these fantastic markets.
Greenwich
A fun way to arrive in Greenwich is via the Clipper boats along the Thames.
Once in Greenwich, admire (or get tickets to climb aboard) the Cutty Sark ship.
Walk up the hill to the interesting and historic Royal Observatory. You can use the national rail 2-4-1 offer to get discounted entry tickets. The Planetarium costs extra, with some shows aimed specifically at children.
The Observatory is a small building but but the displays are informative and our kids enjoyed learning about the work of the astronomers and seeing the clocks and telescopes. We all had fun jumping across the prime meridian. The Royal Observatory garden is a peaceful gem.
Greenwich park is very pretty and the views from the top of the hill over London are great.
Back down the hill and through the park towards the river, the free to enter National Maritime Museum has lots of fun exhibitions and activities for kids including the Ahoy play area and Cove playground.
Docklands
Across the river from Greenwich, on the north side of the Thames is Docklands. This is an area rich in history, and now dominated by skyscrapers where uber rich people with unfathomable amounts of money make more money.
There are a few novel ways to reach Docklands that kids would enjoy.
A foot tunnel under the Thames will bring you out at Mudchute park and farm with lots of farm animals.
Alternatively arrive by Clipper boat, tube (including the new Elizabeth line), or the Docklands Light Railway.
The free Museum of London Docklands which has an expansive collection and does a very good job of telling stories of the area’s history.
Split over three floors, there are tonnes of exhibits and artefacts, including walk through sets. This social history museum caters very well for kids and is engaging and fun. The staff, including visitor volunteers, were all helpful and friendly.
From the Docklands Museum walk over to the Crossrail Roof Garden, a free, well designed and peaceful space.
The new colourful Crossrail station is pretty cool too!
London Markets
Does any city in the world do street markets as well as London?
There are numerous markets throughout the city centre and suburbs, many of them historic and fascinating. Here are some of our favourites:
Borough - for food from around the world
Spitalfields - for clothing, jewellery and street food stalls
Smithfield - for meat and fish
Leadenhall - for the historic setting
Exmouth - for affordable lunchtime eats
Leather Lane - for great street food
Strutton ground - for a good value lunch in Westminster
Colombia Road - for plants, flowers, bagels and coffee on a lazy Sunday
Portabello road - for antiques and collectibles at the weekend
While visiting Strutton Ground market don’t miss nearby Regency Cafe - a traditional greasy spoon in a beautiful art deco setting. It’s featured in many films and TV shows and has a lot of charm.
Harry Potter Studios
We have visited the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio tour in Leavesden twice. Coming from the north of England we have driven down the M1 to the studio both times (parking is free).
It is also easy to reach from central London via tube to Watford Junction and then a free shuttle bus. There are also tours operating from central London - Golden Tours’ packages include transportation and entry tickets and so would be a useful option if general sale tickets have sold out.
Timed tickets must be booked in advance and they sell out far ahead of time. At the time of writing, a family ticket for 2 adults and 2 children costs £172.
We really enjoyed the self guided studio tour which has sets, costumes, props and special effects from the movies.
All the sets are inspiring but we thought the Gringotts Bank and Diagon Alley sets were awesome, and the model of Hogwarts Castle is impressive.
We’ve visited at Halloween and Christmas and loved how the studio was themed differently for the season each time.
Be warned, the merchandise in the shop is very very expensive, even by gift shop standards.
To save money, and time queuing for food, we would recommend taking a picnic (there are spaces where you can eat your own food).
For an additional (and free) Harry Potter experience, check out the special platform 9 and 3/4s photo opp at Kings Cross station.
Final Thoughts
Harriet grew up in London, still has family there, and travels down from Sheffield for work once a week. We have visited London many times, both as a couple before children and with our kids from when they were babies.
London is a world class city, up there with Tokyo, Sydney and New York. London has a fantastic public transport system (that the rest of the UK is justifiably envious of), and a mind boggling choice of theatres, galleries, museums, restaurants and outdoor spaces.
We love the variety and quality of things to do. One could spend a lifetime in London and never experience it all.
