The best family days out in and near London

From museums to urban farms, our expert picks where to spend a day with children in London

Visiting a major city as a family requires careful planning. There are short attention spans to consider, hungry bellies, volatile emotions, and space and access needs. The good news? London is well-versed in offering family-friendly options. 
With this list I’ve tried not to include the obvious; you won’t find Madame Tussauds or the London Dungeons (for those, see our guide to the best things to do in London). In their place are urban farms, local parks and swim spots, community-run activities and museums that are slightly off the tourist dial – perfect for avoiding the crowds during half-term breaks.
In winter, London is at its festive best, with the twinkling lights of Hyde Park Winter Wonderland and museums boasting blockbuster exhibitions. In summer, the city’s parks are alive with a festival atmosphere.
Enjoy London as local families do, and get stuck into everything it has to offer.
And for further London inspiration, see our guides to the capital’s best hotels, restaurants, nightlife, shopping and things to do. For family-focused places to stay, check out our guide to the best family-friendly hotels in London.
While the Natural History Museum might get all the plaudits (for good reason) it also gathers the crowds, but the London Transport Museum is safely off the radar and for no good reason at all. The play zone caters to children aged nought to seven with mini cars and buses and outfits for dress-up, while older children will love the chance to try their hand at fixing a bus in the future engineers gallery. There are, of course, plenty of full-size vehicles to pretend to be the driver of – cars and buses from 1945 to present-day models. If it sounds geeky, that’s because it is. Embrace it.
Contact: ltmuseum.co.ukPrice: From £22How to get there: Covent Garden underground station is nearby
Set within leafy Regent’s Park, London Zoo was first opened in 1828 and is run by a global conservationist charity (the Zoological Society of London), so while the entry fee might feel a little steep, you are in fact donating to a worthy cause. Well organised and accessible, with picnic areas and a food court at the centre, you could easily spend the whole day here exploring the animal kingdom. Penguin beach is a highlight; watch the playful Humboldt colony as they leap, fly and dive around England’s largest penguin pool. The Grade II-listed walk-through aviary – a groundbreaking piece of architecture when it was built in 1961 – now houses cheeky colobus monkeys that swing overhead. The zoo’s reputation was recently bolstered by the artist Banksy, who sprayed his animals escaping mural on the entrance shutters earlier this year.   
Insider tip: In cooler months the lions are prone to hiding themselves away, except for at scheduled meal times.
Contact: londonzoo.orgPrice: Adults from £27, children aged 3-15, £18.90How to get there: Camden Town station is a short walk from the zoo
This imposing brutalist building belies a wonderful haven of creativity inside it. Part theatre, part exhibition space, there’s always something interesting to see and do at the Southbank Centre. Installations and exhibitions at the Hayward Gallery are often multisensory, encompassing movement and music with themes related to the cultural calendar, such as Black History Month and London Literature Festival. Look out for Rug Rhymes poetry and singing sessions for under-fives on a Friday (from £4).
Insider tip: On the terrace facing the Thames there’s a yellow spiral staircase. Climb it to find yourself in a secret rooftop garden with a bar that also sells ice creams.
Contact: southbankcentre.co.ukPrice: Free to enter. Events and exhibitions often carry a charge from £4How to get there: Waterloo is the closest station
Kings Cross has transformed in recent years and is now home to a host of spaces perfect for families. In summer, take a wild walk through the urban wetlands, Camley Street Natural Park, a habitat for birds, butterflies and frogs with its canalside café, or cool off in the fountains outside Central St Martins college and take your pick of restaurants, from popular Indian favourite Dishoom to the weekly food market on Fridays and Saturdays. If the weather is poor, Club Curling is a neon-lit playground of curling lanes, where children under 12 play free of charge when accompanied by an adult.
Contact: kingscross.co.ukPrice: Club Curling (£9 per adult), Camley Nature Reserve (free)How to get there: Kings Cross station and underground
Home to free-roaming chickens and ducks, as well as goats, sheep, donkeys, llamas and pigs (piglets if you’re in luck; litters are born between October and March), this volunteer-run urban farm at the centre of Hackney is open every day except Mondays. A cobblestone path leads from the farm to a wild secret garden and a rustic café, popular with the yummy mummies (and daddies) of the neighbourhood and their broods. A vegetable garden, café, restaurant, shop and ceramics studio are also on site.
Insider tip: The on-site café, Frizzante, hosts Thursday evenings with live music and dinner made with homegrown produce on long tables, agriturismo style.
Contact: hackneycityfarm.co.ukPrice: Free How to get there: Cambridge Heath or Hoxton are the closest stations
The highly anticipated Young V&A (housed in the former Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green) opened in July 2023 and was awarded the Art Fund Museum of the Year prize a year later. The entire museum is free and everything is geared towards kids. The design is thoughtful and fully accessible; prams can get around without having to use the stairs. The main museum is split across two levels and set around an interior courtyard with a wave-pattern mosaic floor. There are rooms for play, a theatre with costumes to try on and a design space on the upper level for older children, while for under-twos there’s a space full of bright, tactile objects and obstacles to explore.
Insider tips: Workshops are designed to give children of all ages the ability to design, play and explore, but do book in advance as many are free and, therefore, popular. 
Contact: vam.ac.ukPrice: FreeHow to get there: Cambridge Heath or Bethnal Green stations are both a five-minute walk 
Opened in 1820, Regent’s Canal was once a key industrial transport route and today 45-minute long-boat rides from Little Venice to Maida Vale offer a leisurely way of understanding the city’s make-up. Children will enjoy spotting monkeys and wolves on the river bank as you pass through London Zoo, and adults will enjoy playing “spot the mansion” as you glide past elegant stately homes with their gardens tumbling down towards the waterway. Disembark at Camden to immerse yourself in the hubbub of its famous market, with street food of questionable quality but plenty of atmosphere and musical history to soak up along the river bank.
Contact: londonwaterbus.comPrice: From £17How to get there: Board at Browning’s Pool near Warwick Avenue tube station or West Yard waterbus wharf at Camden Lock, a 10-minute walk from Camden tube station.
Boasting more than 40,000 living plants, Kew is west London’s iconic botanical gardens, with the temperate Victorian greenhouse and trails to explore through wooded areas filled with fragrant Corsican pines, oak and chestnut trees. Christmas is the main event to see here, with an impressive light show over the lake and fireworks display. Kew often runs collaborations with children’s book authors – The Gruffalo’s Child trail was a past hit, while screenings this year of Julia Donaldson’s Room on the Broom are sure to sell out quickly.  
Contact: kew.orgPrice: Under-fours, free; children aged 4-15, from £4, and adults from £10How to get there: Kew Bridge Station is served by several major train lines
London’s theatreland is revered the world over, but for those with short attention spans and prone to restlessness, you can’t beat the Unicorn Theatre near London Bridge Station. The largest children’s theatre in the UK, it puts on new shows and adaptations of classics, often using puppetry, song and dance to engage ages six months to 13 years. Full of colour and sound, these multisensory performances are creatively tailored to specific age groups. Think your toddler won’t sit through a 30-minute performance? The lack of typical theatre seating encourages movement and interaction, and emotions of all sizes are accepted with warmth.  
Contact: unicorntheatre.comPrice: Prices vary and some performances are free; check the websiteHow to get there: London Bridge station is a five-minute walk
You can spend the whole day exploring Greenwich, starting out on deck at the Cutty Sark to explore the famous tea clipper’s 150-year history, followed by the Maritime Museum with its large floor map and push-along boats, swashbuckling outdoor playground and children’s exhibition wing. Stop for lunch at Greenwich Market, and then walk up to the Royal Observatory to catch a show at London’s only planetarium (booking essential) and for spectacular views of the capital. 
Insider tip: On Sundays during term time (excluding December and January), the Maritime Museum hosts free drop-in sessions where museum staff and artists guide families around the collections.
Contact: rmg.co.uk Price: Cutty Sark and Royal Observatory, adults, £20; children four to 15, £10,; under-fours, free. Royal Museums Greenwich day pass, £30 for adults and £15 for children. Under-fours go free. Maritime Museum (free)How to get there: Greenwich is on the DLR
Come summer in the city, there’s truly little better than a London lido, and Brockwell has one of the best. The pool and café, manned by local pizza chain Four Hundred Rabbits, sits on the edge of a vast park that is home to a Victorian walled rose garden, a children’s splash park, community allotments and the annual Lambeth Country Show, complete with best-in-show vegetable competition and south London’s answer to Crufts. Because of its setting, the pool – refreshingly chilly year-round – does get busy during a heat wave, so book ahead to secure a spot. Over-fives only.
Insider tips: The annual summer Lambeth Country Show is a real hoot. Live music, pop-up bars, rides, street food and camel racing (yes, really) are all part of the fun. 
Contact: brockwelllido.com; fusion-lifestyle.com; lambethcountryshow.co.ukPrice: £8 for an adult’s swim session, £5 for children aged five plusHow to get there: Herne Hill station has direct links to Victoria 
Every south Londoner’s secret weapon when it comes to family weekends, the Horniman was first opened in 1890 to house the private collection of Frederick John Horniman. Today the collection has expanded to include a natural history room with its famous taxidermy walrus, art and antiquities from around the world, a musical room and a small aquarium, as well as regular exhibitions (this year’s Lego dinosaur exhibition was a blockbuster sell-out). On Sundays there’s a food market with hilltop views of the city skyline and, in the grounds, there’s a well-kept garden, a small farm with goats, giant rabbits and llamas, and a temperate butterfly house. 
Insider tips: Look out for the family-friendly daytime raves hosted by Big Fish Little Fish in the band stand. Entry is ticketed and you’ll need to book ahead.
Contact: horniman.ac.ukPrice: Free for the main collections, From £9 to enter the Butterfly House and from £6 for the aquariumHow to get there: Forest Hill station is just down the hill, though it’s a steep one
It might sound like a disaster waiting to happen (children plus delicate ceramics), but Clay Time runs children’s pottery workshops for ages eight and up, and is well versed at embracing chaos and channelling it into creativity and focus. A not-for-profit community organisation, classes should be booked in advance and include clay moulding, tile painting and even learning to throw on the potter’s wheel. Welcoming and engaging teachers are on-hand to guide little (and big) hands, and creations made can be taken home after they’ve been fired in the kiln (typically a one-week turn around for collection).
Insider tip: If you live in the capital, buying classes in blocks can be more cost effective than as a one off.
Contact: claytime.londonPrice: Painting sessions start from £15, making and paint classes from £25How to get there: Finsbury Park (10 minutes) or Arsenal (five minutes)
Boasting 2,400 hectares of ancient woodlands, ponds, glades and trails to explore, Epping is in Essex, but still managed by the City of London and simple to reach, with easy access from three Tube stations. In the thick of the forest you can sometimes spot skittish fallow and ​​muntjac deer. There’s a somewhat incongruous seafood shack here too, at High Beech. Don’t hesitate, the platters of oysters and fruits de mer are as fresh as they come; the shack owners have great connections with seafood suppliers and the prices are more wallet-friendly than in the capital. From Epping station you can also catch a classic red London bus to Epping Ongar Heritage Railway to ride steam trains into the Essex countryside.
Insider tip: Try on period costume, and get a cracking view of the forest, at the 16th-century Queen Elizabeth’s Hunting Lodge, near Chingford, before picking up a coffee at the next-door café and strolling down the hill to Connaught Water to feed the ducks. 
Contact: efht.org.uk; eorailway.co.ukPrice: Free to visit the forest. Prices for the railway start from £20 for adults and £8 for kidsHow to get there: Epping station is on the central line. Consult the Epping Forest website for information on parking near one of the forest’s visitor centres
The former home of Henry VIII is a wonderland of Tudor excess and baroque splendour. Explore the home where the drama unfolded, take a whirl at the infamously tricky garden maze and lay siege to the Magic Garden, a wonderfully designed playground with a dragon’s lair where children can reenact the history they’ve learned along wooden walkways, gardens and climbing towers. 
Contact: hrp.org.ukPrice: adults £27.20; children age 5-15, £13.60How to get there: Hampton Court station is just 35 minutes from London Waterloo
Knole Park is just 40 miles from central London, but here, amongst the rolling parklands of Kent’s last medieval deer park, you’ll feel a world away from the city. The 600-year old Knole Estate is managed by the National Trust, so pre-book tickets to tour the property, which feels very Downton-like, poking noses into the 365 rooms heavy with tapestries and art. In the grounds, fallow deer roam freely. Don’t mistake their unbotheredness for friendliness, they are still wild animals after all, but perfectly safe at a distance. There’s a café on site and a designated picnic area. 
Contact: nationaltrust.org.ukPrice: Free to enter the park. Enter the house from £6 for adults, £3 for ove-5s. Under-5s go freeHow to get there: Sevenoaks train station is a half hour walk from the park. If you buy a ticket to the estate you can park for free.