London Toddler

One great thing about London is the number of free museums and most of them have areas dedicated to entertaining kids. One of the best museums that caters for todders is the Science Museum and is well worth a visit with your toddler.

The Garden - dedicated area for under 5s in the basement
The Science Museum has a dedicated section for the under 5s called The Garden in the Basement. The Museum states that the area is aimed at the 3 to 6 age group with lots of activities suitable for the under 3s. We took our 23 month old son and he loved it.

The activities in the basement include water play to splash about in. There’s a mini water play area with boats, floats and water squirts to play with. There are orange raincoats to put on to protect their clothes from getting wet.

There’s a section with big polystyrene building blocks to make big towers and a wheelbarrow to push the blocks around in. There’s an area dedicated to building with lego and building hats to wear on the “construction site”. There are smaller building bricks to build structures too. There’s musical instruments to play and a puppet show area where you can play with the puppets and put on your own puppet show. There’s also things to touch on the walls and mirrors to see your reflection.

The Launchpad and the rest of the museum
The Launchpad is based on the 3rd floor and is aimed at the under 13 age group. However, it may be worth having a look in there with your toddler. Our little boy liked the wall of bubbles and my husband and I liked the thermal imaging camera.

There is definitely a lot of space throughout the museum where your little one can toddle around. There are also lots of buttons to push and levers to pull which are always exciting to a toddler.

When to go
We went on Saturday lunchtime and it wasn’t the best time to go as it was extremely busy. If possible it is probably best to go on a weekday or if you have to go on a weekend or on a school holiday try and go early to avoid the crowds.

Pushchair access
The science museum is very good for pushchair access with lifts and lots of space. There is a buggy park just outside The Garden so you don’t have to take your pushchair in with you.

Cafes and eating
There are lots of cafes throughout the Science Museum including one in the basement next to the Garden, but for some reason there were no highchairs at this cafe. The only cafe that I noticed had highchairs was on the ground floor.

There was also a huge area in which you could sit and eat your own food right outside the Garden in the basement and there were other indoor picnic areas throughout the museum. I think this is an excellent idea as you can cut costs by bringing your own food and there was a lot of room for people to sit. However, again there are no highchairs and it was a bit of a nightmare trying to keep a 23 month old running around in between having mouthfuls of food which did not make the most relaxing lunch. On retrospect it may have been better to put our son in his pushchair while we were all eating.

Other facilities.
There are lots of toilets and baby changes so you won’t get caught short.

Getting there
The nearest tube is South Kensington. There are quite a few steps to go up and down and you would probably need help with a pushchair. However, if you do go on your own you could ask the tube staff to help out and normally a passerby will always help out somebody with a pushchair.

In summary, this is definitely worth a visit and you could combine your trip with a look in the Natural History Museum next door.

For more information visit the Science Museum website