Summary
Getting there
Very easy on the trains. District line to South Kensington. The new trains on the district line are really open and so very easy with children and buggies. Be aware that there are steps and no lifts from the platform at this station however… If you are on your own with a buggy, just hang around at the bottom or top of the steps looking helpless and someone will offer to help you soon (I do not think Tfl staff are allowed to).Lunch
We had lunch as soon as we got there. You can eat on benches in any non-carpeted area of the museum. Or you can go and sit in the cafes. I took a picnic. It was busy enough so we had to walk around a bit before we found somewhere we could sit.
Toilets
What did we see?
One end is a sort of sensory paradise, with lights, mirrors, textures, audio, various interesting musical instruments etc. They both loved playing the instruments, particularly the keyboard like electronic creation that is built into a cut out in the wall. My 3 year-old really loved the floor mats with cut out letters, and my 16 month-old was obsessed with the bean bags and mini wheelbarrows, and also the hanging rubbery yellow string!
There is a snug in the middle, that they both enjoyed hiding in.
And, most impressively, there is a huge water play system. There are plenty of aprons to keep the water off their clothes, but I’d still recommend bringing a spare set of clothes just in case… In fact, quite a bit on the water system doesn’t really work, the rotary pump is broken, the water fan thing doesn’t turn, the bubble machines don’t do what they are clearly meant to, and there is was water leaking from pipes where it should not be all over the place – it could do with a fair amount of tlc. But it’s testament to the strength of the original design idea, that even given all that, there is still loads of fun to be had with this: there are lots of boats to launch down, a hand pump, gates to open and shut, like on a canal.
One of the lovely things about the water system is that one end of it is much lower, so although the advertised age group for “The Garden” is 3-6, my 16 month old could have played with this for getting on for an hour. In fact, I was really impressed about how much of the whole room was suitable for the youngest one.
What else did we see?
After a long stint in the Garden, we went and had a look around a few other exhibitions. Exploring space has a real size model of the lunar landing module and both of them enjoyed looking at that for a surprisingly long time. The 3 year had lots of questions – I think they’ve talked about space quite a bit at nursery, so she was already pretty clued up. We also enjoyed looking at the cars and early steam engines in Making the Modern World.What didn’t we do?
- Flight We tried to have a look around flight, but my 3 year old wasn’t that keen. I think I’ll try up here again in a couple of years.
- Fly kids – A flight simulator for children. This is £2 and looks a bit like one of those postman pat vans that you get at the seaside!
- Wonderlab – The successor to Launch Pad. This is a paid exhibition so I will go back and make sure we spend a good amount of time there (didn’t want to tack it on the end of the day and shortchange myself). 3s and under go free, £8 for children, £10 for adults.
All in all, we had a great time. They could easily have spent much longer in The Garden, there are so many different things to take their interest. And there are lots of galleries that we didn’t get to try, so we will definitely be going back soon.
Budget £0 (+ travel costs)
Admission to Museum: £0 (some of the other exhibitions do charge)
This garden is over on the Rive Droite (East bank), and I think is at the heart of a regeneration project. I’d say that they need one or two more gardeners to keep on top of things – there were areas that were almost going wild. However, it wasn’t busy at all, and my 1 year old enjoyed the freedom that I could give him here. There were a lot of interesting flowers for them to enjoy and there are also raised ponds with water habitats – we saw lots of tadpoles. It’s a linear park, so we took the tram to the Le Jardin Botanique stop, and walked through on our way to the Darwin Eco-système.
This is well worth a visit. It is a former military site that is now pioneering an alternative vision of city life. It calls itself a “full-scale innovation crucible”. The only place I can liken it to is the Bussey Building in Peckham. There is a restaurant Don’t do what I did and assume that on a week day in term time, it will be easy to get a table without reservation at the Magasin Général (the restaurant there). It was heaving and we had to get a sandwich from the cafe next door, so we missed out. There is a lovely outdoor but roofed area with sofas/pub benches, a coffee/beer bar, and plenty of flat space for children to run around.
Lovely gardens very close to the centre, with a lake and pretty bridges going over to a playground in the centre. There are signs up everywhere asking that you don’t feed the ducks which is a shame… but we enjoyed saying hello to them. The playground in the middle has a good range slides and climbing frames suitable for children of all ages. And… there is a merry-go-round.
