Eltham
Eltham Palace · Photo: [Duncan]
An Art Deco millionaire's house wrapped round a medieval great hall where Henry VIII grew up, complete with a gold bathroom and a pet lemur's heated cage, then a free historic park with a Tudor barn cafe, moat, ponds and a play area.
Historic House · 10:00–12:45 (2h45m)
House, moat-side gardens and a playground. Daily 10:00-17:00, last entry 16:30.
A 1930s Art Deco millionaire's house built onto the medieval great hall where Henry VIII grew up, run by English Heritage. Kids tend to love the pet lemur's heated cage and the gold bathroom, and there's a playground and moat-side gardens outside.
Photo: [Duncan]
Nature & gardens · 13:00–15:30 (2h30m)
Lunch in the Tudor Barn cafe, then walled gardens, the woodland glen and the play area.
A free historic park around a Tudor barn and medieval moat, with walled gardens, ponds, a woodland glen and a play area. The barn runs a daytime cafe, so it's an easy lunch and run-around after Eltham Palace.
Photo: Danny Robinson
LondonSouth Kensington
Dinosaurs in the morning, a garden picnic at lunchtime and hands-on science in the afternoon, all within a five-minute walk of each other and all free to enter. Because everything is indoors except the V&A garden, it holds up in any weather.
The Natural History Museum → Victoria and Albert Museum → Science Museum
LondonGreenwich
Walk beneath the copper hull of a Victorian tea clipper, graze the street-food stalls at the covered market, peek up the spiral stairs of the Queen's House and finish by climbing Greenwich Park for the view across to Canary Wharf. Everything is in one compact riverside town centre.
Cutty Sark Clipper Ship → Greenwich Market → Queen's House → Greenwich Park
LondonGreenwich / Canary Wharf
A morning on the slopes of Greenwich Park and lunch at the market, then a hop across the Thames to Canary Wharf for the free London Museum Docklands and its Mudlarks play gallery. Ends with a short wander in the covered roof garden above the Elizabeth line station.
Greenwich Park → Greenwich Market → Uber Boat by Thames Clipper → Museum of London Docklands + 1 more
