Westminster / South Bank / West End
The National Gallery · Photo: Diego Delso
A day in the middle of London that costs nothing but your packed lunch: a Thames-themed playground by Parliament, the timber playground behind the London Eye, a picnic in the National Gallery's family space, the Covent Garden street performers and a hidden wildlife garden.
Playground · 10:00–10:45 (45m)
Sandpit, chimes and a river-shaped water channel. Public toilets.
A Thames-themed playground in Victoria Tower Gardens, right beside the Houses of Parliament, with a sandpit, swings, a wide slide, chimes and a water channel shaped like the river. Its railings illustrate moments in Thames history. A short walk from Westminster sights and free to use.
Photo: royalparks.org.uk
Playground · 11:00–11:45 (45m)
Long run of logs, nets and balance beams; ages 2-11.
An enclosed timber adventure playground in the riverside gardens right behind the London Eye, built as a long run of logs, nets and balance beams. It is free and well used, so it is a handy place for children to let off steam before or after the wheel. The gardens around it have big lawns and mature trees.
Photo: jubileegardens.org.uk
Museum · 12:05–14:00 (1h55m)
Eat your packed lunch in the family social space, then a free drop-in or a wander.
An indoor museum in London, aimed at ages 4 and up.
Photo: Diego Delso
14:10–15:00 (50m)
Catch a street performance on the piazza.
The historic market hall and cobbled piazza in the West End, where licensed street performers draw crowds through the day. Families tend to combine it with the London Transport Museum on the same square and a bite to eat in the surrounding streets.
Photo: coventgarden.london
Nature & gardens · 15:10–15:40 (30m)
Quiet community wildlife garden to finish.
A volunteer-run community wildlife garden tucked behind the Phoenix Theatre, just off Charing Cross Road. It is a quiet green pause from the West End crowds, with occasional children's storytelling and nature sessions.
Photo: Ewan Munro from London, UK
LondonHighgate / Hampstead
Ancient woodland with a big fenced playground in the morning, lunch at a 16th-century house overlooking a hillside park, and an afternoon at Kenwood among Rembrandts and sweeping lawns that run down to the Heath. Free from start to finish.
Highgate Wood → Waterlow Park → Lauderdale House → Kenwood
LondonWalthamstow / Tottenham
Reservoir paths, bird hides and herons in the morning, lunch in the cafe inside an old engine house, then a short walk to Markfield Park where volunteers fire up a huge Victorian beam engine on steaming days. Free all day, and built around the engine's open Sundays.
Walthamstow Wetlands → Markfield Beam Engine and Museum
LondonRotherhithe / Bermondsey
Feed the goats at a riverside city farm, climb a man-made hill on an old dock for a free view across London, picnic in the woodland strip beside it, then go down the shaft where the Brunels dug the first tunnel under a navigable river. Small, low-cost and away from the crowds.
Surrey Docks Farm → Stave Hill Ecological Park → The Brunel Museum
