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Our definitive guide to the capital's best sky bars for booze with a view It’s a tough task, but somebody had to stroll the streets of London, eyes permanently cast skywards for signs of fun being had many floors above. But we are servants to you and if a cocktail or two slides our way during this arduous task, then so be it. The result is all that matters, and here it is: The Definitive Guide to London’s Best Rooftop bars. We had rules, of course - we won’t allow members bars or private hotel terraces (cocktails for the many, not the few!), we shan’t accept entirely covered spaces (that’s a room, not a terrace!) and we absolutely will not even contemplate ground-floor drinking (the closer to Heaven, the better!) To head straight for your local area, use the tags below. And if we’ve missed somewhere, let us know in the comments… CENTRAL NORT H SOUTH EAS T WEST ______________________________ CENTRAL LONDON Radio Rooftop The Strand The tenth floor might not be the highest roof top venue on this list, but Radio Rooftop's location on The Strand means it's got some of the best views around. From the corner spot it enjoys, you'll be able to sip drinks while looking out across the River Thames towards the Royal Festival Hall and London Eye in one direction, The Shard in another, and the whole of the city and Canary Wharf on the horizon out east. It's a beautiful spot atop the equally swish ME Hotel, and the cocktail menu here is first class. 336-337 Strand, WC2R 1HA, www.radiorooftop.com Savage Garden Fenchurch Street Positioned above the Doubletree Hilton Hotel near Fenchurch Street station, Savage Garden is a welcomingly quirky rooftop venue smack-bang in the middle of an otherwise corporate swamp. It claims to be "London's wildest sky-high destination," which is a bold claim, but with cocktails including the Diablo ("hotter than a chilli pepper") and the Savage Spritz ("more of a blitz than a spritz"), they're at least dedicated to trying to prove the point. There are actually two terraces here - the Wildside, which sits under a retractable roof and caters more to private events, and the Beefeater-sponsored Pink Gin Terrace right on top of it all, from which you'll get all of the city's skyline and the added bonus of an unbeatable view of the Tower of London. Floor 12, 7 Pepys Street, EC3N 4AF , www.savagegarden.co.uk LSQ Leicester Square No prizes here for the biggest rooftop - LSQ offers more of a balcony than a full-blown terrace, but this is all about location, location, location. The LSQ stands for, we presume, Leicester Square, and this place occupies a position overlooking the famous tourist spot - one of the busiest areas in London - which somehow makes it all the more relaxing, knowing that down below there's a never-ending battle for floor space. They're open from breakfast until evening, but it's probably at its most popular in that all-important pre-theatre period, when grabbing a space for food and cocktails is never easy. Mark LSQ down as your secret antidote to queuing for two hours for a table at Slug & Lettuce. 9th Floor, Hotel Indigo, 1 Leicester Square, WC2H 7NA , www.lsqrooftop.com The Amano Covent Garden The German-based Amano hotel group knows a thing or two about rooftop bars. They've got no less than THREE sky-high venues in Berlin as well as a further three ground level terraces in the same city - these guys appreciate the merits of an outdoor beer. So it's no surprise that their brand-spanking new Covent Garden hotel has a Skybar with its own roof terrace that boasts clean, modernist design. Inside, it's all sharp corners and low-level furniture that make sure the floor-to-ceiling windows around the whole bar become the focal point, where you can sip cocktails while the sun sets over central London. Drury House, 34-43 Russell Street, WC2B 5HA, www.amanogroup.de Garden Rooftop Charing Cross Perched atop the Assembly Hotel on Charing Cross Road, Garden Rooftop really runs with the theme - a ceiling full of tumbling flora makes it feel like you're boozing in a garden centre, but there's no doubting the greenery gives a welcome touch of colour to what is a typically grey London sky in the background. We have to be honest, this one snuck into the list despite having a roof, but large windows that slide open to turn the whole area into a covered balcony just about won us over. And with cocktails including Bricks in the Sky , The View , Tenth Floor and Rooftop Delight , it's like they've been trying to get our attention, so welcome to the rooftop list, Garden Rooftop! Assembly Hotel, 31 Charing Cross Rd, WC2H 0LS, www.gardenrooftop.co.uk Jin Bo Law Skybar Aldgate No, Jin Bo Law isn't a firm of barristers with such a penchant for cocktails that they've opened their own bar on the roof (though we're claiming copyright on that sitcom right here and now), it's actually the golden wine cup in the dynasty of imperial China, and a term used today to describe children who are cherished by their families. With that in mind, leave the kids at home and head to this golden wine cup in the centre of town. You'll be greeted by the awe-inspiring sight of the bar, shrouded in a golden metal lattice wave that points towards the terrace outside. As the name suggests, this is an 'East meets West' bar, which in simple terms means cocktails you know, infused with ingredients you probably don't. Pushing the boat out? Go for the Expense Me - a sharing cocktail featuring Hennessy Vs Cognac, Moët Chandon Brut champagne, Strawberry Puree, Lemonade, Apple juice and Cranberry juice. Is the name a little too on the nose? It's £88.88 - so perhaps they just know their market. 14th floor, 9 Aldgate High Street Dorsett City, EC3N 1AH, www.jinbolaw.co.uk Aqua Spirit Regent Street The Aqua group know their way around high-end bars, with 25 swish venues spanning the world from London to New York, Miami, Beijing, Hong Kong and Dubai. Perhaps London's most well-known Aqua venue is half way up The Shard, but this rooftop overlooking Regent Street has something they can't offer - the open air. Aqua Spirit goes all out, with a bar on the terrace itself, which means you can always be sure the bartender is as cold as you when you're sticking it out even though the temperature has dropped into single figures. Top notch cocktails are the order of the day here - all reasonably priced at between £8 - £15 (we said top notch, didn't we?), and a tapas-style bar snacks menu to help soak it all up. 5th Floor, 240 Regent Street (Entrance 30 Argyll Street), W1B 3BR, www.aquaspirit.co.uk Sabine St Paul's Who is Sabine? We don't know! But she's got a view of St. Paul's Cathedral that's so good, she had to share it. Take a seat on her rooftop terrace and once the old God-palace over the road gets lit up, you might just be looking at the most Instagrammable location in London. If you look the other way, you'll be treated to views over to the Shard, but seriously, who looks the other way? Nobody , that's who! The small plates menu here is reassuringly fancy: Baked Camembert, pulled jackfruit tacos, smoked salmon tartare and the like all make an appearance, and the cocktail list doesn't get left behind. Take a long hard look at the view and then suck down on a Negronito. Trust us on that. 10 Godliman St, EC4V 5AJ, www.sabinelondon.co.uk Willows on the Roof Oxford Street Confusingly still marketed on their website as somewhere to enjoy a seasonal hot drink, Willows on the Roof is perfectly set up for the summer months. Astro turf under foot, trees and bushes scattered liberally around old fashioned, wooden garden furniture and festooned lights draped up above, what's not to like about this rooftop hideaway? And if you're after some light bites, Tinie Tempah's restaurant, RAPS (get it? He raps and he sells wraps!) is serving up healthy soul food to pair with your seasonal cocktails. John Lewis Rooftop, 300 Oxford Street, W1C 1DX , www.willowsontheroof.co.uk Mercer Cannon Street A pleasant inside-outside space, the main, glass-walled restaurant of Mercer swings open its large, bi-fold doors to create a Mediterranean-style terrace. The cocktail menu is brilliantly adventurous, using ingredients such as Butterfly pea flower infused Nicholson gin and Curry leaves infused Laphroaig whisky , and the menu offers Cornish-fed chicken, Charcoal grilled Heron's Farm British Aged Beef steaks and Peterhead Lemon Sole. 20 Garlick Hill, EC4V 2AU, www.vintryandmercer.com Coq d’Argent Bank A long-time favourite of the city bankers whose offices overlook the rooftop gardens, the Coq D'Argent is old-school, French glamour in the heart of London. It's certainly not cheap, but if you're looking to impress a date or laying the business card down on the table, then order some crustaceans, caviar and champagne and kick back safe in the knowledge that you're enjoying the high-life in every way. Such is the design of the terrace here, that for much of your visit you might not even realise you're up on the roof - dining areas enclosed with decorative hedges and umbrellas give the feel of a Parisian street restaurant rather than a rooftop terrace - but make sure you take a stroll through the gardens, where you'll see the city skyline looming over the deceptively large green lawns. No.1 Poultry, EC2R 8EJ Aviary Liverpool Street Overlooking Finsbury Square between Old Street and Liverpool Street stations, Aviary has a sizeable terrace that runs along the side of its rooftop restaurant and culminates in a wide space packed full of tables perfect for enjoying the sunshine with a cold glass of champagne. It's got a decidedly 'banker on a lunchbreak' feel to it - don't expect a happy hour or cheap pints here - but for its quirky theme and great views over to the city's skyscrapers, Aviary is well worth a visit. 22-25 Finsbury Square, EC2A 1DX , www.aviarylondon.com Wagtail London The City The team behind Aviary launch their newest rooftop spot this month, taking the space above the beautiful old House of Fraser building on King William Street. The bar itself is a curious add-on, teaming a modern penthouse structure with the grand old dome of the original building. They’ve nabbed the bar skills of Angelos Bafas from Aqua and downstairs, a restaurant will offer a seasonal menu with equally exquisite views. Get in there early and nab yourself a space before tongues start wagging about Wagtail. 68 King William Street, EC4N 7HR, www.wagtaillondon.com Madison St Paul's A stroll through the One New Change shopping centre isn't the most likely entrance to one of London's best rooftops, but the views from Madison make it all worthwhile. What you'll get from the 6th floor is unobstructed views of St. Paul's Cathedral which, when the sun begins to drop and the landmark's lights switch on, is one of the finest sights in the city. The food - heavy on the meat with a long steak list - is excellent and fairly priced and the bottomless bubbles at the New York Rooftop Brunch are always popular. Rooftop Terrace One, New Change, EC4M 9AF , www.madisonlondon.net Sushisamba Liverpool Street If Sushisamba isn't the best sushi restaurant in town, it's certainly in the mix with its menu inspired by the cuisines of Japan, Brazil and Peru. Its decor is as eye-opening as its diverse mix of cultural influences and on the 39th floor terrace you can order cocktails from a bar built around a tree. Whether you're eating in the monochrome tiled main restaurant space or settling down on the open-air terrace, Sushisamba is the kind of venue you'll want to tell your friends about - and you'll definitely have all the Insta-friendly pictures you'll need to do it. Heron Tower, Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AY , www.sushisamba.com NORTH LONDON The Standard Kings Cross The regeneration of Kings Cross continues apace and at the centre of it all sits The Standard. From LA to New York, Miami and the Maldives, these guys know the power of ultra-cool, outside spaces. As you'd expect, it's modern, quirky and high-fashion, but here you also get the backdrop of the grand, mid 19th-century splendour of St Pancras Station (or, more specifically, the Renaissance Hotel that sits in front of the platforms). Cocktails are available by the glass or in pitchers, which sets the scene for the atmosphere here - it's young, fun and lively. A definite highlight of London's rooftop scene. 10 Argyle St, London WC1H 8EG , www.standardhotels.com Big Chill Kings Cross Big Chill has become a north London institution for good reason. No-nonsense fun is what's served up here - good beers, good cocktails, good food and good times. But if you're munching down on one of their delicious Chuck burgers this summer, upstairs is the place to do it. The terrace here is a warren of cozy spaces divided by wooden pergolas and steel planter boxes. Little touches like the wall of old speakers give a nod to the Big Chill's ties to the music world (the guys behind the Big Chill bars use to run festivals that booked the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Kanye West, Robert Plant, Massive Attack, Roots Manuva and Thom Yorke) and the whole place has the feel of a welcoming house party where someone else pours the drinks. 257-259 Pentonville Rd, N1 9NL, www.bigchillbar.com Lock Tavern Camden Camden seems to change every week, with new bars and restaurants popping up all over. But one thing remains constant amongst it all: The trusty Lock Tavern. From the early noughties when it was a hang-out for indie and nu-rave bands to today, its homely, exposed-brick interior has barely changed yet never seems to have dated. The roof terrace is a low-key affair with no bells and whistles, but grab yourself a seat outside and watch the weird and wonderful Camden come to life on the street below. 35 Chalk Farm Rd, Chalk Farm, NW1 8AJ, www.lock-tavern.com Lucky Club Camden Camden The Lucky Club venue, which we wrote about right here when it launched , was once a Horse Hospital, but that wasn’t a stable enough business, so it eventually became Proud Camden, before transforming into Lucky Club Camden - the new, flagship venue for the owners behind Lucky Club Mayfair. It’ll be a monster offering of nearly 5,600 square feet with a retractable roof, a menu packed full of tacos and Margaritas in every flavour you can imagine. The Terrace, Horse Hospital, North Stables Yard, NW1 8AH, www.theluckyclub.com Bubba Oasis Angel A masterclass in making the best of what you're given, Bubba Oasis has a terrace that runs the whole length of its roof and fits up to 60 people. It's a rare thing in Islington, with most restaurants and venues finding themselves below flats or offices, so Bubba gets top marks for finding a space for that all-important summer hangout. It's enclosed with white, wooden walls that allow for weather-proofing covers to be dragged over on rainy days, and the home-made feel of their crate-tables and garden furniture make it super welcoming. DJs can often be found spinning tunes under the night sky and if you give Bubba a shot next time you're in N1, there's every chance you might end up bunkering down for the evening here. 57-58 Upper St, N1 0NY, www.bubbaoasis.com SOUTH LONDON Frank’s Cafe Peckham When Frank's opened in 2009, it became an instant hit with locals and word soon spread to outsiders who'd never even considered the idea of a night out in Peckham. But most of all, it sent shockwaves through the hospitality industry, when people who'd spent millions on their luxury roof terraces watched as a car park - literally just a car park - became the bar of the summer. It's moved on in parts since then, with wooden structures and bars added here and there and other operators taking over the floors below, but the charm of Frank's will always be the Berlin-style, industrial feel it exudes. The sunsets are beautiful, the views across London are far reaching, and the atmosphere is always on point. 7th-10th Floor Multi Storey Car Park, 95A Rye Ln, SE15 4ST, Frank's Cafe Bussey Rooftop Peckham South Londoners don't know how good they've got it. Just minutes away from Frank's Cafe is Bussey Rooftop, a glorious terrace fixed to the top of an old gun and ammo factory. It's evolved over the years to incorporate a floral canopy/pergola and kitchens dishing out some of the finest pizzas around, but the views - and its claim to being the "highest drinking spot in the neighbourhood" - remain unchanged. Peckham has become something of a hipster hideaway of recent times, so expect a young, cool crowd with students from nearby arts colleges and universities, and a sprinkling of young professionals sampling the top notch cocktail menu. Roof B, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Ln, SE15 4ST, www.busseyrooftopbar.com London Bridge Rooftop London Bridge Considering its location next to one of London's busiest commuter stations, London Bridge Rooftop is new enough to still be considered a 'hidden gem' (read: somewhere you might actually be able to get a seat on a sunny day), but it won't stay that way for long if people like us keep shouting about it. It's got an astroturfed floor, picnic tables, a flower--wall with neon lights in it and a view that incorporates the Shard - so far, so 'rooftop bar'. But the beauty of this place is that it's so well positioned for that post-work bevvy that you'll be able to watch your train pull up and decide whether to make a run for the station. And there's another bonus, too - with the famous Flat Iron Square and Vinegar Yard both within spitting distance, the outdoor-drinking crowd is split three ways in London Bridge, so you'll be able to find a seat in the sun one way or another. Colechurch House, Bridge Walk, London SE1 2SX, www.londonbridgerooftop.com Waterloo Sky Bar Waterloo The H10 hotel's rooftop bar isn't the most stylish on this list (what is it with hotel bars always looking like... hotel bars? ) but the view from upstairs nudges it firmly into a place worthy of your attention. The terrace points north towards the river, making the London Eye your focal point as you sip cocktails on the deck, which is split into two sections - one with soft, comfy sofas where you can lounge with friends, and a second with upright chairs where you can pretend to be in a meeting while gazing over the views. It's a relatively small set-up outside, meaning it's perfect for a quiet date or you could easily fill it with friends, but this is an escape from the crowds of London, so don't come here for rooftop party vibes - it's all about quiet reflection over a cocktail or two. 284-302 Waterloo Rd, SE1 8RQ, Waterloo Sky Bar Seabird Southwark What happens at Seabird? Well, you eat stuff from the sea while hanging out with the birds. See what they did there? Good, then let's move on. The tiled terrace of this Southwark restaurant sits atop the Hoxton Hotel, and follows the New York-style chic of the hotel chain's venues. The tall, foliage-covered brick pillars that run along the length of the space give the venue a Manhattan feel and the place feels buzzy and relaxing at the same time, which is a tough job to pull off. Inside, the modern warehouse feel continues with cozy, garden-furniture style chairs interspersed with bright sofas - all of which will point you in the direction of floor-to-ceiling windows. If you need any more convincing, there's a happy hour from 3-5pm Monday to Thursday, when oysters are £2 a go and Martinis are £7. The Rooftop, The Hoxton Southwark, 40 Blackfriars Road, SE1 8NY, www.seabirdlondon.com Bar Elba Waterloo Like a booze-fuelled playground for adults, Bar Elba goes big on colour, fruity drinks and activities. Despite being a meagre four-floors in the air, you'll still get top views - and by that, we mean the top of The London Eye, the top of Westminster Abbey and the top of skyscrapers. But Bar Elba more than makes up for that by giving you plenty to occupy your senses in the sunshine. Regular Rooftop Cinema evenings, a bottomless brunch at weekends and stand up comedy nights are in the diary for this season, so grab a jug of cocktail and settle down for the evening at Elba. 109-117 Waterloo Rd, SE1 8UL, www.bar-elba.co.uk OXO Tower Restaurant South Bank Alas, the OXO symbols that shine bright over London every night are not urging you to go home and play your Playstation. And they’re not signing off a text with a cute ‘hugs and kisses babes’ either. No, they’re calling you skyward towards the Oxo Tower. Fittingly, where meaty cubes of flavour were once produced for cooking enthusiasts, today a restaurant sits on the roof overlooking the Thames, and it’s really rather good. The Oxo Tower Restaurant - owned by Harvey Nichols - caters for anybody with deep pockets, covering large parties, children’s menus and tasting menus as well as an extensive wine list. It’s a destination for a special occasion or a refined afternoon sipping good wine, so don’t come hoping for a raucous party - but the views here are majestic and the atmosphere one of relaxed sophistication. Barge House St, SE1 9PH, Oxo Tower Restaurant Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden South Bank If you're strolling along the South Bank, this place will be quite literally calling you up - you can access it via the bright yellow staircase with the words 'Come on up' written across the outside. If you do as you're told, you'll be rewarded with a beautifully serene, natural garden space overlooking the Thames. The foliage was originally designed by the green-fingered maestros of the Eden Project in Cornwall and the fruit trees and flowers make for a perfect backdrop for your evening glass of Rosè. This is more of a family-affair, with the cafe serving coffees, sandwiches, soft drinks and the like, but if you're looking for a spot where you can sit on the grass and enjoy a glass or two of wine, this place is a great option. Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX, Queen Elizabeth Hall Roof Garden Vagabond Clapham Clapham's Vagabond is a tap-and-pour venue, which means you can sample their 100+ wines by the glass - or even less than a glass if you're after a few sips of mega-expensive vino. The premise is simple: most bars only sell the good stuff by the bottle, because once you've poured a glass, it's a race against time to sell the rest before the whole bottle goes bad. But Vagabond's machines keep an air-tight seal on the wine bottles, so you can choose via an app to pour a smidgen of fine wine without having to worry when someone else will come along to finish it off. Once you've poured your glass, head upstairs to the 'secret garden', where the views are minimal (it's surrounded on all sides by reclaimed wooden walls and frosted windows), but the sunshine can pour in through the open roof. 4 Northcote Rd, SW11 1NT, www.vagabondwines.co.uk The Corin Tooting Tooting High Street isn't the first place you'd associate with a glamorous jazz-and-blues bar boasting a sizeable - and gorgeous - roof terrace, but that's because you've not been to The Corin. High-end Pan-Asian cuisine, cocktails crafted by leading mixologists and decor straight from The Great Gatsby all add to the sense of occasion here, and a live music schedule ranging from chill out pass and blues through to up-market jazz house mean repeat visits will never get boring. The Sunday Brunch comes with a soundtrack of live blues music and once you've settled down on the roof terrace, we're fairly sure your brunch will turn into lunch and before you know it, the sun has set over Tooting. 54a Tooting High Street, SW17 0RN, www.thecorintooting.com Skylight Peckham Do you know what Peckham needs? Another awesome rooftop bar. Honestly, when jet packs hit the mass market, there's every chance people in Peckham will never come down to ground level again. Skylight Peckham is the sister venue to Skylight Tobacco Dock and the modern, cozy decor and splashes of greenery make this a fine place to spend a summer's day. There's less of the laissez faire cool that its local rivals give off (the website offers set packages for everything from 'Stag Parties' to 'Date Nights' and even 'Friday Nights', which feels like a Red Letter Day home page. Whatever happened to spontaneous drinks?) but there's no denying that this sun trap is a welcome addition to the South London skyline. Theatre Walk (in between Peckham Library and Mountview College, 120 Peckham Hill St, SE15 5JT, Skylight Peckham The Saxon Clapham Considering its reputation as a party town, Clapham isn't blessed with many roof terraces - and that means you might have to arrive early to bag a spot at The Saxon, which claims (not unreasonably) to have the best sun trap in the area. It's not huge, but they've made great use of the space and there's plenty of room for large groups to congregate as well as carefully designed dividers that mean a quiet date-night is also possible. The food is great - especially the pizzas - and there's always a fun party atmosphere at The Saxon. 50 Clapham High St, SW4 7UL, www.thesaxon.co.uk No 32 The Old Town Clapham Boasting enviable views across Clapham Common, the terrace at No. 32 The Old Town is a glorious place to be. It's an all-day venue, meaning you can stop by for coffee and brunch from 9am or party late into the evening, and the fairy-light 'wall' that separates drinkers from the road make even a cloudy evening feel like it's lit by the stars. The food menu is a delicious smorgasbord of home-made dishes, from pancakes through to Sunday roasts, pasta and burgers and the bar tip-toes the tightrope between 'brilliant party place' and 'somewhere you can plug your laptop in and work,' which means there's really no reason to leave. Ever. 32 The Pavement, SW4 0JE, www.no32theoldtown.co.uk Prince of Wales Brixton Can't decide between a pub, a restaurant and an all-out Ibiza-style club terrace? Then do all three. The Prince of Wales boasts a 'traditional' pub downstairs - albeit one that hosts regular DJs - but there aren't many boozers in London that hide a full-on nightclub like this one. The club has a 1920s Art Deco sprung dance floor and a Funktion One soundsystem, which is club-speak for "bone-shakingly loud." Bounce up the club's stairs and you'll find one of the city's finest terraces - a crescent-shaped beast of a space that lets you shake your tail feather in the warm glow of Brixton's setting sun. 467- 469 Brixton Rd, SW9 8HH, www.pow-london.com EAST LONDON Laurel's on the Roof Shoreditch Fancy grabbing a cocktail with Brian Wilson, downing a beer with Neil Young or shooting the breeze with Joni Mitchell? Well, you can’t! Honestly, who do you think you are? But you can get closer to knowing what it might feel like, by heading up to Laurel’s on the Roof, which is Shoreditch’s take on a 70s hangout in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles. It’s a bizarre vision, given that Laurel Canyon was all hippies and creatives escaping the city for a slice of serenity surrounded by nature and this is… well, it’s a high-end bar in Shoreditch. But hey, it has neon lights and flowers and it does look very nice indeed. You’ll have to be quick to grab a table outside as space is limited, but wherever you end up, you’ll be guaranteed a glorious view. Don’t rush to bring your swimmers, buy the way - that pool on the other side of the glass looks incredibly inviting, but it’s for hotel guests only. Boooo! The Mondrian, 45 Curtain Road, Shoreditch EC2A 3PT, Laurel's on the Roof The Allegra Stratford A decade ago, the planet’s finest physical specimens walked along these streets, bouncing into the park where they would complete incredible feats of endurance, bravery and strength. It was the pinnacle of years of intense training and sublime, God-given talent. Now, you can sit high above it all, eating muffins and drinking cocktails. Yep, in many ways, The Allegra will show you just how far we have evolved as a species. From seven floors above street level, you’ll get unbeatable vistas of the London Stadium, Copper Box Arena and Zaha Hadid’s iconic London Aquatics Centre. With views that good, you’ll need a restaurant and bar to match, and Allegra won’t let you down. It’s the brainchild of the team behind Chiltern Firehouse and St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel and you could be munching on blood pudding muffin with pickled jalapeño; friend chicken with mustard fruit and pickles or Waldorf tarts while guzzling signature cocktails like the moorish Smokey Joe. Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 20 International Way, E20 1FD, www.allegra-restaurant.com Netil 360 Hackney You know what rooftop bars need more of? Saunas. Yep, that’s right. Sweaty, steamy, boiling hot saunas. If you need a steer on the sort of place Netil 360 is, you should know that up until recently there were four Finnish saunas up on the roof, which you could hire for a little sweat-session. They’re currently out of action (presumably due to Covid), but the bar is open and it’s such a sun trap that you’ll probably get just as hot out there on the roof. There’s precious little shade up there, save for an ‘indoor’ section around the bar, so if you’re of a pasty persuasion, you’ll need to pack sunscreen. But Neil360 is effortlessly cool, achingly fashionable and frequented by a mix of people from city-boys to students and creatives who head up to the roof for the regular DJ sets under the pink sunsets of East London. 1 Westgate St, E8 3RL, www.netil360.com The Culpeper Spitalfields Top marks to The Culpeper for making full use of their rooftop - not only do they provide top notch views of the area around Spitalfields, they’ve also devoted around a third of their outdoor space to growing the vegetables you’ll be eating from the Culpeper menu. The rooftop here is all about rustic realness - make no mistake, this is a space for the plants, and you’re allowed to drink here - but that’s what makes it such a unique and special place. There’s often a queue here, but stick it out and you’ll get locally sourced food, cocktails and wine, and a relaxed atmosphere in the heart of the city. 40 Commercial St, E1 6LP, www.theculpeper.com Pocket Square Whitechapel Sometimes it pays to check how bars describe themselves online. Pocket Square - the bar above Hyatt Place London City East - says it’s “eccentrically local, outrageously striking,” which in itself is absolutely outrageous and entirely nonsensical. Words! Exclamation! Excitement! Nonsense! One thing that might be described as eccentric is the gin-led cocktails, which come in an array of increasingly wacky glasses from blue swirly ones to yellow swoosh ones and even ones that look like goblets from Game of Thrones. That’s the kind of outrageously striking behaviour we can get behind. Take your multicoloured vessels straight to the roof terrace, where you can gaze down upon the people of Whitechapel Road, lifting your goblet high into the air and proclaiming yourself the new King of East London. They probably won’t hear you as you’re 9 floors up, but you’ll feel great and the view is quite special. 9th Floor, Hyatt Place London City East, 45 Whitechapel Road, E1 1DU, www.pocketsquare.london Skylight Tobacco Dock Wapping East London’s Skylight has an altogether different feel to its South London sister venue , and in our opinion is all the better for it. There’s all the pergolas and harsh, exposed concrete industrial architecture you’d expect from an East London roof terrace, but Skylight comes with a little added fun, courtesy of their rooftop games. Croquet, pétanque, shuffleboard and ping-pong are just some of the games on offer, so grab a group of friends and get competitive over a drink or two. The terrace here is big and open, making the whole place feel ultra-sociable - no hiding away in groups here - and once the beers start flowing and the games are underway, you’re sure to leave with a friend - or competitive nemesis - more than you arrived with. Tobacco Dock, E1W 2SF, Skylight Tobacco Dock Boundary Shoreditch Boundary has long been one of Shoreditch’s much-loved secrets. It’s one of the finest restaurants in East London but enjoys a spot very slightly off the beaten track - enough so that it’s never swamped with day-trippers, but not so much that it feels a trek to get there. The rooftop is a masterclass in relaxed dining. Sofas and comfortable chairs are draped with blankets for the evening hours, and the menu moves with the season, offering Mediterranean style grilled meats and fish during the summer, and Alps-inspired fondue and warming dishes during the winter. The terrace is obviously the prime spot, but the Orangery also offers killer views with protecton against the weather, so mark this down as a year-round destination. 2-4 Boundary St, London E2 7DD, www.boundary.london Queen of Hoxton Shoreditch Give me a rooftop, but make it Shoreditch. The annual theming of this large terrace is the stuff of legend and in recent years has included Lost Vegas, Alice in Winterland, WigWamBam and Las Mexicanas. And the QoH goes BIG on its themes - we’re talking storylines (Lost Vegas was based in the year 2030 when nature has reclaimed Vegas following an uprising by eco-warriors), crazy props (Las Mexicanas had an actual wrestling ring) and cocktail menus to match. What's the theme this year? Cherry Blossom - expect a sea of pink, Instagrammable backdrops in every direction and a banging party every night of the week. It’s never quiet at Queen of Hoxton, but it’ll be a night you’ll remember for a long time. 1 Curtain Rd, EC2A 3JX, www.queenofhoxton.com BŌKAN Canary Wharf For an area that has more square footage in the sky than pretty much anywhere else in the UK, Canary Wharf is curiously short on rooftop drinking. Thankfully, Bokan stepped up to fill the gap and has managed to do so without covering every surface in chrome, marble and glass, as seems to be the fashion in this part of town. The result is a surprisingly tranquil, homely rooftop bar, with rustic, dark-wood walls and an ‘inside-outside’ set-up that means you cam enjoy terrace life even when you’re undercover. The extensive cocktail list is reasonably priced and the English-with-a-twist menu includes sea bass, Hereford salt beef tacos, fish & chips and the BŌKAN burger. Upper 5th Shoreditch Past celebrity guests in this grand old building include The Krays and George Orwell, although it wasn’t such an enjoyable visit for them - Upper 5th sits atop The Courthouse Hotel which, as the name suggests, used to house criminals on their way into the penal system. Now a trendy Shoreditch destination, the roof terrace occupies some prime real estate. With that in mind, it’s hard to argue that the sparse, minimalist ‘decor’ isn’t a slightly disappointing use of the top floor. What we have here is essentially some chairs on some decking with the odd pot plant thrown in. That being said, this is Shoreditch, so the views are great, there are DJs pumping tunes into the night sky and there’s a party atmosphere whenever you visit. It’s a great spot to kickstart your evening before you dive down to street level to explore everything else the area has to offer. Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch, 335-337 Old St, EC1V 9LL, Upper 5th Roof East Stratford Stratford’s Roof East is like a bizarre summer fète, with a couple of foliage-filled cars and plenty of booze thrown in. There’s picket fences, miles of bunting zig-zagging overhead and games. Loads of games . They’ve got baseball batting cages, carpark karaoke, archery, crazy golf, lawn bowls, Jenga, cornhole, beat the bar and ping pong, so you’ll never get bored waiting for your mate to return from the bar. Food comes from a variety of street food trucks and the bar will keep you lubed up with a long list of cocktails, wines, craft beers and spirits. It’s not the kind of refined boozing you’ll find in other rooftops around London, but it’s way more fun. 7 & 8 Stratford Multi Storey Car Park, Great Eastern Rd, E15 1XE, www.roofeast.com Golden Bee Shoreditch A short stroll from Old Street roundabout is one of Shoreditch’s swankier rooftop bars, courtesy of Golden Bee. A central fire pit provides the warmth (and flickering flames that’ll send you into a sleepy trance after a few beers), and palm trees curve overheard to give the place a distinctively Mediterranean feel, especially on a hot summer’s day. Sustenance comes via Sushi platters and wood-fired pizzas, and the drinks list will have you feeling tipsy and smug, as many of the reasonably priced £11.50 cocktails hand £3 straight to the Our Little Tribe Uganda charity, which builds schools for disabled and disadvantaged children in the African country. Top marks for a bar doing something good with their hard-earned cash. Singer St, EC1V 9DD, www.goldenbee.co.uk Dalston Roof Park Dalston Opening for the summer on June 2, Dalston Roof Park manages to morph from a daytime chill-out space to a house and disco rave palace with ease. Past events at the East London spot have included sunrise yoga, but if you’re more interested in downing grog than the downward dog, there’s plenty to keep you occupied. House and Disco Saturdays is brought to you by the curators of Pleasurehood and XOYO and bottomless Disco Brunches sit firmly on the raucous side of morning gatherings. With turfed flooring and overflowing planters, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d strolled into a pleasant English garden… only this garden comes with a bar, London’s best underground DJs and a lot of strangers downing shots. The Print House, 18-22 Ashwin St, E8 3DL, www.dalstonroofpark.com TT Liquor Hackney If we were to choose the ideal roof-terrace set up, we’d be hard pushed to find something better than a secluded, green hideaway atop a booze shop. Step forward, TT Liquor, which offers all that plus one, essential extra: If you fancy going ‘off menu’, you can head downstairs, pick up beers or wine from their extremely large collection, and take it back to your table under the stars (for a small corkage fee). The terrace is gorgeous and homely, with a perfect mix of greenery, old wood and exposed brick and the covered and heated booths will have you protected in all weathers. The kitchen turfs out Neopolitan pizzas and charcuterie boards and the drinks menu serves up only the finest booze - as you’d expect from a much respected liquor store. 17B Kingsland Rd, E2 8AA, www.ttliquor.co.uk WEST LONDON Rooftop @ The Trafalgar St James St James St. James isn't an area that's short on swanky bars, so you won't be expecting anything less than a top-end bar in this part of town. In fact, the Trafalgar St James hotel has three of them, but the rooftop is the pick of the bunch for drinkers wanting a view. As you'd imagine of a hotel on Trafalgar Square, Admiral Nelson will be jealously peering over at your cocktails, and you can order from an extensive menu while admiring his natty hat. It's a Japanese-inspired offering with dishes like Grilled Salmon Teriyaki, Soy Glaze Beef Brisket and Wagyu Beefburgers, or you can order from a small plates menu for sharing and picking. Be warned ,there's a minimum spend here of £35 per head during the week and £50 at weekends, but a cocktail and a couple of small plates will see you comfortably over the line. 7th Floor, 2 Spring Gardens, St. James's, SW1A 2TS (WEST?), www.trafalgarstjames.com The Nest @ Treehouse London Fitzrovia It should be a rule that any treehouse should have a leafy platform from which you can survey your kingdom - that goes for the rickety, shed-in-the-bushes your parents knocked up out of old crates and super-plush hotels. The owners of Treehouse London know the score, and they’ve more than delivered. As you’d expect, it’s all wood, natural materials and hanging foliage, with mix-and-match furniture and twinkling lights among the leaves. It’s a beautifully calming space with views across central London and evenings are powered by DJs who take their spot up in their own ‘fort’, but the wraparound terrace is what you’re here for - and there are loungers a-plenty where you can bunker down for your stay. Be warned, reservations are recommended and two-hour slots and minimum spends vary from £50 to £75pp through the week. 14-15 Langham Place, W1B 2QS. www.treehousehotels.com Pergola Paddington Paddington The enormous, beer-hall-style outdoor space, Pergola Paddington has recently undergone a new-season overhaul to transform into a Mexican getaway inspired by the beach bars of Tulum. It’s surely the most fun you can have in Paddington these days, so we heartily recommend booking yourself a Cabana, settling down with a bellyful of Filth & Co tacos and becoming one with the Mexican spirit. Speaking of Mexican spirits, frozen tequila cocktails are the essential sunshine temperature regulator, but you can also grab the intriguing sounding Chilli Mango Margs, Watermelon Smash Blue Agave and Paloma Picantes from the bar. What are they? Who cares, gringo! Get ‘em down ya. 4 Kingdom St, London W2 6PY, www.pergolapaddington.com Alto at Selfridge's Oxford Street Alto is a rooftop restaurant by San Carlo, above Selfridges department store. You can problably glean enough information from that sentence to know exactly what to expect from this Oxford Street retreat. Pergolas festooned with lemons provide snippets of cover over the crisp, white table cloths of the restaurant, where well-heeled diners tuck into seasonal Italian dishes ranging from Yellowfun Tuna Tartare to Black Salt Sea Bass, Lobster and Fillet of Beef. You don’t have to eat to enjoy the terrace - there are drinks-only spaces too, and it’s well worth heading up here for a break from the crowds below. 400 Oxford St, London W1A 1AB, Alto at Selfridges 601 Queens Rd Wimbledon If you’re wombling free in West London any time in the near future, we highly recommend you make a beeline for 601 Queen’ s Rd, the nattily-named bar that you’ll find at… 4 Queens Road in Wimbledon. It’s an odd-looking round turret on the end of Centre Court Shopping Centre, which sounds horrible, but actually turned out to be a lovely, quirky bar and restaurant with oodles of natural sunlight and the opportunity to stick a wraparound terrace along its whole outer wall. It’s got the tried and tested foliage-canopy intertwined with fairy lights, plentiful seating and a view over Wimbledon that’s perfect for watching the sun go down over an ice cold sundowner. Centre Court Shopping Centre, 4 Queen's Rd, SW19 8YE www.601queensrd.co.uk Skylark Roof Garden Paddington Squeezing itself right into Pergola Paddington's manor (did someone say roof terrace crawl? ), Skylark occupies the same sky space as its neighbour, but offers a very different experience. The views across Hyde Park, Notting Hill and Little Venice are some of the best in London, and the terrace here is a green oasis away from the Westway below. Food is decidedly ‘posh’ (they even serve posh fries , topped with pecorino, truffle, wasabi and green chilli mayo) and the Vulcan Pop Shrimp is worthy of your attention, washed down with a Zia-Mia mescal concoction as you relax on the striped loungers in the sun. 10th Floor, 4 Kingdom Street, Paddington Central, W2 6BD , www.skylarkroofgarden.co.uk Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter?

West End Show Collaborates with Luxury Colonel Saab Restaurant on Themed Tasting Menu Hellooo poppets! Hit West End musical Mrs Doubtfire will put the eat into th eat re for a delicious new partnership with luxury London restaurant, Colonel Saab .   The award-winning Indian dining concept will give fans a multi-sensory, pre-theatre dining experience, featuring cocktails and dishes inspired by famous scenes, which transform before your eyes and are not what they seem - just like the title character of Shaftesbury Theatre ’s comedy show, and the iconic 90s film it’s based on. Diners at Colonel Saab ’s flagship Holborn restaurant can choose between the £60, five course and cocktail Mrs Doubtfire Experience Menu or the shorter, two course £35 Mrs Doubtfire Set Lunch Menu , before a four-minute stroll to the show.   The full experience includes a suitably theatrical, themed menu, starting with a colour-changing Chachi 420 gin cocktail, named after the hit Bollywood remake of Mrs Doubtfire , a culturally significant and major movie in India, which adopted its star, Robin Williams more than any other Hollywood actor.   Other courses inventively play on the idea of transformation; the Butter Chicken main is inspired by the famous Spatchcock Chicken scene, and highlights include "My First Day as a Woman" Anglo Indian Chicken Chop, "Poppet's Paneer Pakeezah" and "Hellooo!" Gutti Vankaya.   Expect a "Run-By Fruiting" and a grand finale involving liquid nitrogen, in a cheeky nod to the famous kitchen fire scene.  Help is on the way, dear!   BOOK NOW. Colonel Saab, 193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD. £60 course five course meal and cocktail or £35 Mrs Doubtfire Set Lunch plus theatre tickets. Shaftesbury Theatre, 210 Shaftesbury Ave, London WC2H 8DP Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter

The Capital's Unmissable Art Shows this October 2024 The nights are getting darker and the art world is following suit, with a new Tim Burton show and an immersive exhibition about Serial Killers. There's also a limited run Marilyn exhibition, the 40th Turner Prize show, the grand return of Yayoi Kusama and a new view of London from Monet's eye. Take a trippy journey through spiritual worlds, celebrate art and sound, visit cartoonish hospitals and explore Japanese food art, among our top 16 London exhibitions this October, below: __________________________ The World of Tim Burton We whispered Beetlejuice three times, and the UK premiere of The World of Tim Burton has been announced at London's Design Museum. Fittingly, the alchemist of whimsical goth horror’s exhibition launches just before Halloween, on 25 October, riding the crest of the hype-tsunami around the freshly released Beetlejuice 2 movie. The show will showcase his work beyond the silver-screen, as an illustrator, painter, photographer and author, as well as key collaborations with designers. Drawing from Burton’s personal archive and representing his creative output from childhood to the present day, this collection of drawings, paintings, photographs, sketchbooks, moving-image works, sculptural installations, set and costume design focuses on the recurrent visual themes and motifs found in Burton’s art and film worlds. This will be the final stop in a decade-long world tour for this exhibition and will be its only ever showing in the UK. The World of Tim Burton , Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High St, W8 6AG. 25 October 25 2024 - 21 April 2025. Tickets from £19.69 pp, Kid’s £9.85 Serial Killer: The Exhibition Go behind the police tape, inside the dark minds of monsters like Dahmer, Manson and Bundy at Serial Killer: The Exhibition . Now open at The Vaults  beneath Waterloo Station, this exhibition features crime scene recreations in seven immersive rooms, audio stories, VR headsets and more than 1000 original artefacts which belonged to some of the most notorious serial killers from history, from John Wayne Gacy’s paintings to Dahmer’s glasses. As well as exploring their methodology, typologies and psychological profiles, you’ll discover how investigative techniques have evolved over the years and, crucially, take time to honour the victims, who are poignantly named and pictured in the exhibition. Serial Killer: The Exhibition - London. The Vaults, Leake St, London, SE1 7NN. Tickets from £21pp. Until 5 January LFF Expanded A Tilda Swinton-narrated mixed reality exploring ADHD. A choose your own path experience exploring whether avatar’s can have free will. And a breathtaking installation, transforming perceptions of time and space. BFI London Film Festival’s extraordinary new programme of immersive art and extended realities (XR) celebrates the moving image in all its forms - from shorts and features to television and immersive and, for the very first time, video games. Audiences can explore and experience these powerful news ways of telling stories on screen, with 14 immersive projects from around the world, featuring five major installations plus a free programme of XR and gaming works.  LFF Expanded is presented across multiple central London venues, including Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf, BFI IMAX, BFI Southbank, Royal Festival Hall and Outernet London. Ticket prices vary. 11-27 October Marilyn: The Exhibition Read our review This UK premiere will offer a rare and unprecedented glimpse into the private world of the silverscreen icon, when it opens for a limited run at Arches London Bridge this October.    From love letters, satin robes and timeless outfits to vintage shoes, make-up and accessories, this meticulously curated collection features 250 extraordinary objects from the exclusive private collection of Ted Stampfer, the world's largest collector of Marilyn's historical objects. The eternally fascinating, Hollywood superstar's most personal belongings were locked in storage for almost 40 years before being dispersed across the globe, after being released to the world’s biggest auction houses. Finally, this vast and extraordinary collection has been reunited for this show, revealing the woman behind the world’s most famous smile. Marilyn: The Exhibition . Arches, London Bridge,  8 Bermondsey St, London SE1 2ER. 17-31 October.    Looks Delicious! S hokuhin sanpuru  – the Japanese concept of placing unexpectedly realistic food replicas in restaurant windows - has been celebrated, in this feast for the eyes. Audiences can admire 47 of these skilfully-created models up close, with dishes ranging from Okinawan goya chanpuru  (bitter melon stir fry) to the indigenous Ainu ohaw (soup with salmon) from the northern island of Hokkaido. The free show explores the history, materials, processes and future potential of the craft. Japan House , 101-111 Kensington High St, London W8 5SA. 2 October - 16 February. FREE Yayoi Kusama: Every Day I Pray for Love Following her Instagram-conquering Infinity Rooms exhibition, the Queen of light, polka dots and pumpkins returns this September for her 14th solo exhibition at Victoria Miro. She will premiere a shiny, new Infinity Mirror Room and introduce works from a new series of paintings. Victoria Miro , London. 25 September - 2 November. FREE, but booking is essential Turner Prize 2024 Work by the four shortlisted Turner Prize artists will go on display from 25 September , ahead of the 40th year of the awards ceremony, which has made stars of everybody from Damien Hirst to Grayson Perry. Delaine le Bas and Jasleen Kaur explore their Glaswegian Sikh and Roma heritages via immersive installations; Claudette Johnson examines the marginalisation of Black people in Western art, through striking figurative portraits, and Pio Abad reflects on colonialism, with drawings and sculptures of artefacts from Oxford museums. Tate Britain , Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. 25 September - 16 February 2025 Monet and London - Views of the Thames A world away from his water lilies and sunny gardens, Monet and London will realise the Impressionist’s unfulfilled ambition of showing this extraordinary group of paintings of London - just 300 metres from the Savoy Hotel where many of them were painted. They demonstrate that some of his most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London, depicting views of the Thames with his trademark light, atmosphere and radiant colour. The Courtauld Gallery, The Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries. Until 19 January. £16pp HSF Portrait Award 2024 at National Portrait Gallery Formerly the BP Portrait Award, this much-loved, annual exhibition has returned to National Portrait Gallery, celebrating the best in contemporary portraiture, with an exciting and diverse mix of painting styles and subjects. Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024 at National Portrait Gallery. until 27 October, free. Barbie: The Exhibition The wonder doll (and society’s) evolution is charted in this luminous exhibition, which opened this month, to coincide with Barbie’s 65th birthday. Exploring her story through a design lens including fashion, architecture, furniture and vehicle design, her plastic-fantastic universe has engulfed the Design Museum, showing changing attitudes to women’s careers - Barbie has had more than 250 jobs -  race, sexuality, fashion and body image. Highlights include a rare first edition of the very first doll released by Mattel in 1959, the first Black, Hispanic and Asian dolls to bear the Barbie name, as well as dolls that reflect today’s diverse, multicultural society, including the first Barbie with Down Syndrome, the first to use a wheelchair, and the first to be designed with a curvy body shape. Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG. Until 23 February 2025. Adult from £14.38. Children from £7.19 Anthony McCall - Solid Light at Tate Modern The Godfather of immersive exhibitions, Anthony McCall brings his extraordinary, Solid Light show to Tate Modern on 27 June, inviting visitors to bring artworks to life through movements and interactions. Beams of light projected through a thin mist create large, three-dimensional forms in space, which slowly shift and change. As you move through these translucent light sculptures, you’ll create new, airy sculptures. Occupying a space between sculpture, cinema, drawing, and performance, McCall is known for his innovative installations of light. In 1973, his seminal work Line Describing a Cone redefined the possibilities of sculpture and this show is set to be the Tate’s next big blockbuster. Anthony McCall: Solid Light. Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Until 27 April 2025. Tickets £10 pp. Entheon at Illusionaries  Illusionaries , Canary Wharf's new multi-sensory art space, invites us on a journey through three immersive rooms and installations, designed to engage the senses through soundscapes, animation, projection and colour. The UK premiere of the Entheon show sees international artists Alex and Allyson Grey explore the human condition, with kaleidoscopic pieces, showing the interconnectedness of the physical and spiritual worlds. Alex and Allyson are also the co-founders of Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering creativity, spirituality and contemplation through art.  Entheon . Illusionaries, Crossrail Pl, London E14 5AR. Until 30 November NAOMI in Fashion at V&A The V&A will transform into the ultimate catwalk for a celebration of supermodel Naomi Campbell’s 40 year career, from 22 June. The show features more than 100 stunning outfits as well as iconic shots by some of the world’s biggest photographers, telling her extraordinary story and celebrating her creative collaborations, activism and far-reaching cultural impact. Victoria & Albert Museum , Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL. Until 6 April 2025 Fragile Beauty  Sir Elton John and David Furnish are sharing their extraordinary private collection of more than 300 rare prints from over 140 photographers, for V&A’s new, summer blockbuster. The show features photographers including Cindy Sherman, Ai Weiwei and Robert Mapplethorpe and includes portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Miles Davis. It spans from the Fifties to the present day, covering the civil rights movement and AIDS activism to 9/11 and has eight themes, from the male body to fashion and celebrity. The show will be the gallery’s largest temporary exhibition of photography to date. Fragile Beauty : Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection in partnership with Gucci. Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL.  Until 5 January 2025. Tickets £20 pp. The Vinyl Factory: REVERB The Vinyl Factory explores the intersection of art and sound with a major new multimedia exhibition at 180 Studios. Bringing together more than 100 artists and musicians working across visual arts, music, film and live performance, the show features 18 installations, including audio visual pieces and sonic experiences. There will also be a chill out space to listen to vinyl, plus live performances, talks and UK premieres of many ambitious new artworks. The Vinyl Factory , 180 Studios, 180 Strand, Temple, London WC2R 1EA.Until 10 November  Jason and the Adventure of 254 Artist Jason Wilsher-Mills presents his major (and FREE) solo exhibition, which transforms the gallery into a cartoonish hospital ward, full of surreal humour and kaleidoscopic colour, exploring his experience of becoming disabled as a child. The joyful show is perfect for all ages - you are invited to touch everything. Highlights include a giant installation of a figure in a hospital bed, Seb Coe with a TV for a head, huge calliper boots and penny arcade inspired dioramas. Wellcome Collection ,  183 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BE.  FREE. Until 12 January 2025 The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks Lightroom leapt inside David Hockney’s brain for his juggernaut retrospective and now turns its immersive technology to space, with added Tom Hanks. The Apollo 13 star narrates the audio-visual experience, which offers a unique new perspective on humankind’s past and future voyages to the moon. Telling the stories of the Apollo missions in intimate detail, The Moonwalkers also provides an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind-the-scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. If your own trip to the moon is looking unlikely, the immersive gallery promises the next best thing, with its tech-wizardry taking visitors on a voyage to our closest celestial neighbour. Lightroom , 12, Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4DY. Until 13 October 2024. Tickets from £25 Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter?

Beat the Heat with a Cider in Rekorderlig’s Fruity Cold Sauna The world’s first peach-shaped “Cold Sauna” will land in London next week, to rescue sweaty commuters from spicy tube journeys. To mark the launch of their new Peach-Raspberry flavour, Rekorderlig Cider is bringing its giant peach to Liverpool Street on 22 August, where Londoners can escape the Central Line heat for a refreshing, 16 degrees sauna. The first 200 visitors will also be given ice cold Peach Raspberry cider to sip, while parking their peaches in the gargantuan fruit to escape the heat. The Swedish inspired drink is bringing the fruity experience to Broadgate Tower from 12 - 6pm on 22 August,  it will then be popping up across the UK this summer - keep your eyes peeled for it at Hackney Bridge from 23 to 27 August.    Rekorderlig Peach Cold Sauna , Broadgate Circle, Liverpool Street, 22nd August, 12pm-6pm. Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter

London's BEST Family Events this September 2024 YOU SURVIVED THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS. Two thumbs up, five gold stars and a space blanket. September welcomes more easy-going, child-flavoured fun - the type that allows a five-day breather, and less frantic restocking of the snack cupboard. We've got Care Bears, puppet festivals, Michelin kid's cookery schools, aliens, free festivals, unexpected sheep, free West End shows, Paddington Bear and a Monster Funfair. Our top 45 picks include a gaggle of FREE events and there’s something to entertain (and wear out) every flavour of child. _________________________ F1 Driving, Skywalks and Tours at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Little adrenaline junkies can get their kicks at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with a hat trick of high octane tours, from The Dare Skywalk - climbing to the top of the stadium, 46.8m above the pitch - to the UK’s first controlled descent from a stadium, once at the top. Plus a Stadium Tour for those who want to keep their feet on the ground. They can also experience a high tech Formula 1 driving experience, with an exciting track layout and LED steering wheels. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium , 782 High Rd, London N17 0BX FREE Greenwich + Docklands International Festival From death-defying vertical dances on St Paul’s Cathedral, to engulfing the streets with technicolour foam and sinking a house for a rooftop dance,  Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) never disappoints. And this year is no exception, we'e just had THAW, an eight-hour, aerial performance on a suspended 2.5 tonne block of ice and you can also expect 50 theatre, circus, dance and performance art shows across the the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Newham and the City of London until 8 September. Greenwich+Docklands International Festival . Multiple locations across Royal Borough of Greenwich, Newham and the City of London. FREE. Until 8 September 2024 Michelin-Star Cookery School for Little Chefs Michelin restaurant Pavyllon London will partner with the popular En Petit Pavilion on a series of 90-minute, kid’s cookery experiences, while parents enjoy lunch dishes from multi-Michelin-starred Chef Yannick Alléno.  Starting on 15 September and running on the third Sunday of each month until January 2025, children will learn to craft from a range of cuisines, including French gastronomy, creating a main course and a dessert alongside En Cuisine’s passionate team. The pièce de résistance? Mini master chefs will proudly present their fine dining creations to their loved ones at the iconic Pavyllon counter at the end of the class, dressed in their very own chef’s hat and apron, standing alongside the Pavyllon team. Pavyllon London, Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane Hamilton Pl, London, W1J 7DR . Every third Sunday of the month with sessions at 12pm & 1:30pm until19 January 2025. Ages 6-12. Price: £350: includes four-course set lunch menu for two adults and 1x children’s cooking class, plus a chef’s hat and apron. Additional children are priced at £50 each Care Bears Forever Exhibition Following the success of LA’s Care Bears Forever exhibition, the nostalgic celebration of the hit 80s show heads to London, for a rainbow, bear and joy-addled show. The pop culture art exhibit will bring the Care Bears’ unique brand of kindness and positivity to the historic Oxo Tower Wharf’s gallery@oxo. Expect 33 original pieces by Elena Kucharik, the artist behind the beloved characters and highlights including licensed merchandise and art, with pieces from Irregular Choice and Murwalls and 'The Vase' dress, fresh from Marina Hoermanseder's Berlin Fashion Week show earlier this year. Don't miss its Good Vibes installation, which invites visitors to suspend their messages from the ceiling, surrounded by clouds, hearts, and all things Care Bears. Care Bears Forever Exhibition, gallery@oxo, London Southbank. 29 August – 11 September. 11am - 5pm Totally Thames Festival The annual festival celebrating the River Thames returns this September, with a month-long program of art, theatre, music, film, tours and cruises along the 42-mile stretch of the river. It includes a gaggle of kids’ events, like children’s choirs and art workshops, pop-up performances, boating events, installations, river clean-ups, live performances, talks, and workshops. Totally Thames Festival.  1-30 September. Multiple locations along the River Thames Children’s Puppet Festival 2024 Little Angel Theatre is our FAVOURITE puppet master (ssh, don’t tell the others) and their award-winning puppet festival returns this month, across both Little Angel venues from 2 August until 1 September . The programme is brimming with shows from the most exciting UK and international companies currently making theatre for young audiences, from the Zoo that Comes to You , full of extraordinary puppet animals, to the beautiful Lottie, The Living Doll. There are fabulous workshops to get involved with as well, like making ice cream puppets to take home, a Monster Circus Workshop or making walking, cardboard dinosaurs. Book here. Little Angel Studios, 132 Sebbon St, London N1 2EH and Little Angel Theatre, 14 Dagmar Passage, London N1 2DN. Prices Vary. 2 August - 1 September. Kids Go Free to Top London Shows Despite lasting for six weeks, they are still pushing ahead with the slightly confusing Kids Week title. But who cares, when it means you can bag children free tickets to top West End shows, from The Wizard of Oz and Shrek the Musical to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Kids Week. Assorted venues. 24 July – 6 September The Paddington Bear Immersive Experience Read Review Everybody’s favourite, Peruvian bear has had the immersive treatment, with The Paddington Bear™ Experience. The marmalade-addled, interactive adventure across more than 26,000 square feet of Southbank’s London County Hall  invites guests into a series of themed rooms, inspired by iconic locations from the Paddington stories. Fittingly, it kicks off at Paddington Station, where guests will be greeted by a friendly Station Master and taken on a colourful train journey through London’s most famous landmarks, to the Browns’ charming, No. 32 Windsor Gardens home. Once inside the famous, tree-adorned hallway, guests will embark on a multi-sensory adventure to help the Brown family and Paddington prepare for the all-important Marmalade Day Festival. The Paddington Bear™ Experience , London County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7PB. From 31 May. Adult tickets £34pp. Children (2-15) £24. Under 2s go FREE The London Sheep Drive There are few spectacles more surreal than hundreds of Freemen herding a giant cloud of sheep across Southwark Bridge. To make it even more unique, none other than Homeland and Band of Brothers star, Damian Lewis will be exercising his ancient right, as a Freeman, to drive sheep over the River Thames. On 29 September, you can witness this annual event, when they celebrate the old tradition of bringing sheep to market over the Thames, toll-free. And for more sheep action, you can take the sprogs to the Livery Fair on Queen Street Place, for live shearing displays, rare sheep and interactive displays by wool alchemists. The London Sheep Drive , 29 September. 10am - 4pm. Southwark Bridge. Mrs Doubtfire Dining Experience Hellooo poppets! Hit West End musical Mrs Doubtfire will put the eat into theatre for a delicious new partnership with luxury London restaurant, Colonel Saab , launching on 1 August. The award-winning Indian dining concept will give fans a multi-sensory, pre-theatre dining experience, featuring cocktails and dishes inspired by famous scenes, which transform before your eyes and are not what they seem - just like the title character of Shaftesbury Theatre’s comedy show. Expect a "Run-By Fruiting" and a grand finale involving liquid nitrogen, in a cheeky nod to the famous kitchen fire scene, before heading around the corner to watch the show itself at Shaftesbury Theatre. Colonel Saab, 193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD. £60 course five course meal and cocktail or £35 Mrs Doubtfire Set Lunch plus theatre tickets. Shaftesbury Theatre, 210 Shaftesbury Ave, London WC2H 8DP Barbie: The Exhibition The wonder doll (and society’s) evolution is charted in this luminous exhibition, which opened this month, to coincide with Barbie’s 65th birthday. Exploring her story through a design lens including fashion, architecture, furniture and vehicle design, her plastic-fantastic universe has engulfed the Design Museum, showing changing attitudes to women’s careers - Barbie has had more than 250 jobs -  race, sexuality, fashion and body image. Highlights include a rare first edition of the very first doll released by Mattel in 1959, the first Black, Hispanic and Asian dolls to bear the Barbie name, as well as dolls that reflect today’s diverse, multicultural society, including the first Barbie with Down Syndrome, the first to use a wheelchair, and the first to be designed with a curvy body shape. Design Museum,  224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG. 5 July - 23 February 2025. Adult from £14.38. Children from £7.19 Colonel Saab’s Kid’s Cookery and Craft Masterclass The luxury Indian restaurant’s hit kid’s masterclass returns this month, inviting little chefs to create (and eat) a variety of child-pleasing dishes - from pizza naan to candy floss - alongside imaginative art projects at their grand, Trafalgar Square location. Under the guidance of award-winning chefs, children will learn to make oven-baked pizza naan, chocolate drizzled fruit and even candy floss, which they can proudly eat at the end of the session. On the creative tables, talented artists will provide the guidance, materials and encouragement for children to create art and craft projects they can take home. All materials, food, drink, aprons, hats and guidance from talented chefs and artists is included in the unique sessions. These book out quickly, so reserve your slot. Colonel Saab , 40, 42 William IV St, London WC2N 4DD. £35 per child. 22 September. 2-4pm Science Museum Astronights Sleepover  Read our review Budding scientists (aged 7-11) can spend the night at The Science Museum,  exploring the museum out-of-hours,  sleeping among space rockets, a Moon rock or in the world’s largest medical galleries. Young campers will experience the ultimate sleepover, with an evening full of activities, including science shows and interactive workshops.  This year’s Astronights programme is supported by official sponsor TEMPUR®, who will gift all campers a travel pillow to help budding scientists get some rest during this exciting night.The following morning, campers can refuel at breakfast, before exploring Wonderlab , their interactive gallery, with hands-on exhibits and immersive experiences, and catch a 3D documentary on their giant IMAX screen. Science Museum,  Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD. Dates vary, £70pp standard, £100 VIP. 20 August NEW Monster Funfair at Discover Children's Story Centre Stratford's immersive, sprog-storytelling Mecca has launched its new family adventure, taking visitors through a fantastical circus tent and into the woods. In amongst the trees you’ll find an amazing, marvellous, EXTRAORDINARY… Monster Funfair!   Created with the award-winning Nadia Shireen, this magical world also has a fairground mystery to solve – just who has stolen ALL the candyfloss?  Discover Children's Story Centre is brimming with entertainment across three floors, plus a wonderfully imaginative Story Garden. Creep through caves, find fairy worlds within magical trees, explore hidden ships, perform in a puppet castle, leap over alligators and man your own spaceships and rockets across two floors. Discover Children's Story Centre  383-387 High St, London E15 4QZ. Ages 0-8 Fiume Kids' Pinsa Masterclass Battersea Power Station’s riverside Italian restaurant, Fiume will launch their series of kids’ masterclasses on 25 July.  Little chefs will be roll, bake, top and eat their very own Pinsa (cloud-like pizza) and take home their own chef hat and apron, while thewir [parents enjoy  free drink and £15 off their own lunch bill. Fiume , Battersea. 29 August. £15 per child for 1 hour class Art in the Docks - FREE There are FREE art classes every Saturday morning at Art in the Docks, which can be booked online, with 30 spots for each class. Children are encouraged to use their imagination and gain confidence in a nurturing environment, hosted by ceramic artist Mariana Alemany. The classes are suitable for all ages, and all materials and equipment will be provided. Art in the Docks , 25 Shackleton Way, London, E16 2XJ. Every Saturday. 10am-12pm. FREE. Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre Natural History Museum ’s new show will be a real tweet for the whole family, inviting us to experience birds in a whole new way. Swirl around with a murmuration, chirp along with the dawn chorus and see if you have the stomach to sniff a stinky seabird egg. From feeling their heartbeats to seeing through their eyes, get to know our feathered friends better. Meet the wonderchicken - the world’s oldest bird - find out what a pigeon has in common with a ferocious T. Rex and discover how these winged wonders managed to survive the mass extinction that wiped out all the other dinosaurs. Today there’s more than 11,000 species. From pigeons to penguins, ostriches to ospreys, birds live on every single continent on Earth, so what’s the secret to their success? From sucking blood to bathing in acid, our winged wonders have found surprising, clever and downright freaky ways to survive. Natural History Museum, Waterhouse Gallery, Kensington, London. Until 5 January 2025. Adults £16.50pp. Children (4-16) £9.95pp Open Water Family Swimming at Canary Wharf Canary Wharf has reopened its swim hotspot at Middle Dock just in time to fling in children, over the Summer. Open throughout the week and welcome to all abilities over the age of 10, families can practise their strokes and cool off in the safe-to-swim and clean water course. A dip in the Thames with old crisp packets and fag ends hasn’t been the most appealing option before, even in these deodorant-defying times. But Canary Wharf’s 220-year-old Middle Dock has been cleaned up and lifeguarded for a pretty swanky swimming experience, against the backdrop of One Canada Square and Newfoundland, seven days a week, until the end of September. Since opening last summer, Canary Wharf has hosted thousands of swimmers as part of a growing trend for open water swimming. The activity continues to be a popular choice for those wanting to boost immunity, improve flexibility and relieve stress. Visit Love Open Water  for more info Rooftop Film Club Head to the Bussey Building for some family-friendly, daytime rooftop cinema screenings of kiddie classics, from  Wonka to Elemental , plus gorgeous views across London’s skyline. Everybody gets comfy headphones and deckchairs and you can order pizza, snacks and drinks to your seats. Dogs are also welcome, so the whole family can enjoy the Big Screen in the sunshine together. Rooftop Film Club , Roof A, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Ln, London SE15 4ST. Children welcome to family film showings before 5pm.  Navrtar VR Arctic Expedition Take the family on an Arctic expedition, without leaving London. They’ll learn about global warming in a whole, new way during the 60-minute experience, exploring the abyss of the Arctic; its icy tundras, hidden caverns and unique wildlife hidden in an extraordinary, underwater world. Guests in teams of six can teleport 100 years into the future to compare the effects of global warming. The sessions begin with a range of multi-player mini games to enhance the senses and test skills, before embarking on the Arctic expedition, exploring marine life and shipwrecks. Navrtar , Dickens Yard, Longfield Ave W5 2UQ. Prices from £32pp. Chelsea Physic Garden Kids' Workshops This glorious botanical garden never disappoints, and this month, their childrens’ workshops include meet and greets with friendly insects in different micro-habitats and making dyes, paints and pigments from plants to use in your own, artistic masterpieces. Chelsea Physic Gardens ,  66 Royal Hospital Rd, London SW3 4HS LAST CHANCE TO SEE: Japan: Myths to Manga at Young V&A Take a trip through Japan and explore how landscape and folklore have influenced Japanese art, technology and design, featuring a seal shaped robotic comforter, Hello Kitty paraphrenalia, draw your own Manga characters and learn nifty facts about Sylvanian Families toys being born out of hundreds-of-years old netsuke animal sculptures. Young V&A Museum, Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets, Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PA. General Museum access. Until 8 September. free . LAST CHANCE TO SEE: Immersive Lego Exhibition Aptly on Brick Lane, The Art of Brick brings its Lego masterpieces to London, following tours of more than 100 cities in 24 countries. The exhibition features artist Nathan Sawaya's Lego recreations of some of the world’s most famous artworks, from Michelangelo’s David to Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Among the wonders, visitors will also find a 6-metre-long reproduction of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton Kids (and big kids) can also make their own masterpieces at the play and build area. The Boiler House, 152 Brick Lane, London, E1 6RU. Until 8 September The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks Lightroom leapt inside David Hockney’s art for his jugggernaut of retrospective and now turns its immersive technology to space, with added Tom Hanks. The Apollo 13 star narrates the audio-visual experience, which offers a unique new perspective on humankind’s past and future voyages to the moon. Telling the stories of the Apollo missions in intimate detail, The Moonwalkers also provides an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind-the-scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. If your own trip to the moon is unlikely, the immersive gallery promises the next big thing, with its tech-wizardy taking visitors on a voyage to our closest celestial neighbour. Lightroom , 12, Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4DY. Until 13 October 2024. Tickets from £25 Dinosaur rEvolution South East London’s hidden gem, The Horniman Museum  launches its roarsome new dinosaur exhibition for February half-term. The show invites us to rethink everything we thought we knew about dinosaurs, exploring the relationship between dinosaurs and birds. It includes five large, animatronic models, a gaggle of fossil skeletons and skull casts, as well as touchable, detailed graphics by the acclaimed artist Luis V Rey, dress up, games, and more. It will also be your last chance to see its beloved, overstuffed, taxidermy walrus until 2026, when the Natural History Gallery  will reopen after a two-year refurbishment. Horniman Museum and Gardens , 100 London Road, Forest Hill, London SE23 3PQ. until 3 November. Tickets from £9 per adult and £7 per child. iFly Childrens’ Skydive Read our review here Anybody from the age of 3 to 103 can experience the superpower of flight at iFly , as long as they can comfortably wear a helmet. The instructors allow children to safely feel the sensation of an  exhilarating, 12,000 ft free-fall and flight,  without  jumping out of a plane. Along with watching the instructor perform a mesmerising  dance on air inside the vertical wind tunnel, your family can enjoy the extraordinary sensation of weightlessness, soaring around the glass tube and unlocking a core memory of their newfound super powers. iFLY London at The O2, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX. Tickets and vouchers to fly can be purchased by clicking here  and are available from £69.99 per person Wizard Exploratorium Check out our review here.   Soho's magic-themed Wizard Exploratorium is a five-storey, geek wonderland, offering a 4D wand-making workshop, immersive trick shop and suitably magical afternoon tea encompassing tea brewing, molecular gastronomy, and technology. Wizard Exploratorium , 26 Greek St, London W1D 5DE Slimy Gootopia Sessions Slime is a gloopy rite of passage for every child - parents quickly learn the art of removing it from hair and unwitting pets and it’s up there with ice cream in the kiddie delight department. Enter stage left: Gootopia , which brings its gloopy joy to Brixton and Lewisham. The venues have shelves of ready-made slime, slime ingredients, activator, and their ‘goo-to-go’ slime vending machine. They also offer a range of activities and experiences for kids of all ages, including slime workshops, birthday parties, school science workshops, drop-in slime-making sessions and live slime-making demonstrations by goo alchemists Gootopia . Brixton and Lewisham locations. Pampering for all the family at Pan Pacific London Family activities that involve lying down and being pampered? Count us massively IN. Pan Pacific London  has partnered with luxury children’s brand Bonpoint , to create a unique offering for the hotel’s dedicated Wellbeing Floor. The first partnership of its kind in the UK, the duo have created a range of unisex skincare treatments and packages for children aged 6 – 16 years old, that provide an opportunity for parents to spend quality time with their children and teens and enjoy a spot of pampering. Pan Pacific Family Pampering , 80 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7AB. Treatments start from £100. Power Up at the Science Museum Following five successful runs, Power Up will make its permanent home at the Science Museum from July, allowing visitors to try over 160 consoles and hundreds of the very best video games, all year long. With the new Power Up annual passes, visitors can return whenever they fancy, to journey through the world of gaming. Experience the evolution of gaming – from classics such as Pong and Street Fighter to the latest PlayStation and Xbox – while discovering the science and history behind gaming’s most iconic developments. Power Up  Ticketed, daily passes: £10, annual passes: £15   . Age: 5+. Science Museum, Exhibition Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD Get the Kids Climbing the Walls Get the kids climbing the walls at London’s Parthian Climbing centre in Wandsworth. The 25,000 square foot beast combines climbing with lifestyle, thanks to its café, bar, gym, retail and co-working space. And it is the first indoor climbing facility in the UK to feature an exact replica of  The Titan  Olympic bouldering wall, which will be used at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. They offer a range of kids’ sessions and courses for ages 3 and up. There are instructors for little ones taking on their first climbing experience, as well as the National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme (NICAS) for a progressive syllabus. They also host kids’ parties, for 1.5 hours of climbing activities and games which are the perfect antidote to ‘Fun Freddie’ wrestling a balloon into a drooping sausage dog. Parthian Climbing Centre , 52 - 58 Garratt Ln, Wandsworth, London SW18 4TF Avora Family Experience Read our review Up an unassuming, Shoreditch street is a secret portal to another planet. And on school holidays and Sundays, you can take your kids for a well-deserved break from Earth, on planet Avora. Head here for our full review   of this worthy and otherworldly adventure, encountering scientists, mocktails, aliens, army villains and closing with a child-pleasing, farty finale. Avora: Family Immersive Adventure  5C, 127 Hackney Road, London, E2 8GY. Sundays, 12pm – 3:30pm. School Holiday weekdays. £24.50 per child (6-13) £29.50 per adult. The Gunpowder Plot at Tower of London Vaults Older children (12+) will be catapulted into the most exciting history lesson of their lives, in this explosive new, immersive experience, starring Harry Potter’s Tom Felton. Your mission is to go undercover and unmask the mysterious figures behind history’s most infamous plot. But when you’re surrounded by traitors, who can you trust? With surprises around every turn, descend into the vaults and experience a combination of live and digital actors, virtual reality and fancy pants technology like motion simulators and special effects, transporting you back to London 1605 in the heart of the Gunpowder plot. The Gunpowder Plot , 8-12 Tower Hill Vaults, London, EC3N 4EE Play Captain on a GoBoat River Picnic Read our review If you’re looking for somewhere to spend a genuinely relaxing few hours for parents and  children (plus dogs, if you have one) we recommend a GoBoat  trip. You can enjoy a picnic as captain of your own, electric boat through Canary Wharf, Paddington, Kingston, Thames Ditton or Birmingham. GoBoat UK , Open 7 days a week from 9am - dusk. Prices start from  £85 for 1 hour and  £125 for two hours on the  8-person boats. GoBoat Canary Wharf, 22 Churchill Place, London, E14 5RE Paddington Afternoon Tea Bus Tour Read our review Brigit's Bakery  launched the first, official Paddington Bear afternoon tea bus tour , celebrating the capital.The double-decker has built-in screens, so that Paddington and Mrs Bird can provide an animated guide to the tour, which includes some of Paddington's favourite landmarks, like Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Nelson’s Column, Downing Street, St. Paul's Cathedral, Borough Market, Green Park and Piccadilly Circus. The tour takes just under two hours, while you scoff treats including glittering shortbreads, designed to look like nibbled marmalade sandwiches, mini pizzas, smoked salmon and cucumber pretzels, turkey ham and cheddar or cream cheese and cucumber finger sandwiches and naturally, marmalade sandwiches. And for those who share the bear’s sweet tooth, the homemade sweet treats included a rice pudding studded with chocolate honeycomb, chocolate cupcakes crowned with Paddington’s chocolate paws, lemon meringue tarts, chocolate macarons and freshly baked scones with cream and jam. Brigit’s Bakery also provide vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and halal afternoon teas. Paddington Afternoon Tea Bus tour  Departs from Trafalgar Square, Wednesdays to Sundays. Prices from £45 adult, £35 child. Whizz Down The ArcelorMittal Orbit How about hurling your children down the world’s tallest slide? The 178m long ArcelorMittal Orbit  was the iconic landmark of the 2012 London Olympics and is now an attraction with three adventure experiences. Families can speed down the winding slide, abseil, or walk around the glass orbit at the top. You can also pretend it's a high-brow, cultural experience, because the orbit is also a sculpture by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond. And it beats the usual views of grubby swings and bins, because here you can check out the stunning views of Queen Elizabeth Park. To ride the slide, children must be at least eight years old and over 1.3m. ArcelorMittal Orbit , Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 5 Thornton St, London E20 2AD. From £10.75. Cutty Sark Rig Climb Experience Originally climbed when the ship first arrived to Greenwich in 1954, visitors can now recreate this, by clambering up the famous masts of the Cutty Sark.The Rig Climb Experience invites kids and brave parents to step up from the main deck onto the ship’s ratlines and climb up its top mast, as hundreds of sailors did during the Cutty Sark’s heyday. Once at the top, climbers will experience a controlled descent from the rigging. Participants will be rewarded with some of the best views in London, overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral, The Shard and Tower Bridge. Cutty Sark King William Walk, London SE10 9H Snot, Sick and Scabs at the Centre of the Cell Deliciously disgusting and sneakily educational centre in a futuristic, light-studded pod suspended above the laboratories of the Blizard Institute in Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Children can learn about the heart, teeth or senses, see scientists at work and enjoy their delightfully vile ‘Snot, Sick and Scabs’ session. Centre of the Cell,  4 Newark St, London E1 2AT Out-of-Hours at the British Museum Your little ones can walk in the footsteps of the ancient Greeks, Pharoahs or journey through the cultures of China at The British Museum's family-friendly, out-of-hours tours. Taking place between 8.50 – 10am, before the galleries are open to the public, you can beat the unsavoury crowds. And from 4 - 25 March, children can explore Roman history through Minecraft, create a Japan-themed family photo (11 March) and make mosaic masks inspired by the Aztec gods on 18 March. The British Museum , Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG. Under fives go free.  £16.50 for 5-15 year olds. £33 Adults Monopoly Lifesized Go big or go home… or straight to jail at Monopoly Lifesized,  an immersive, on-your-feet version of the classic, family game, played on a 15m x 15m lifesized Monopoly board. Enter the 4D experience and compete in challenges for your chance to buy properties. Stage a heist in Mayfair, compete against a clock to build some of London’s iconic buildings, solve a baffling murder mystery or step into the world of codebreakers. The 80-minute experience is suitable for kids from 9 and older and is open every day except Mondays. Monopoly Lifesized , 213-215 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 7PS. Tickets £49 pp Crystal Maze LIVE Experience Older children (from 8 onwards) can take on this immersive adventure, which brings the hit 90s TV show to life.Run around like mentalists, yell, complete a host of difficult challenges and end the game in a fetching, satin bomber jacket. Crystal Maze Live Experience , 22 - 32 Shaftesbury Avenue W1D 7EU Holiday to Space at Royal Observatory Greenwich Join Ted and Plant as they explore the Solar System in search of the best place to take a holiday in an intergalactic morning adventure, including a planetarium show and interactive workshop. Recommended Age: 3 - 6 yrs. Open 10am-5pm daily Royal Observator y Greenwich Park, Blackheath Avenue SE10 8XJ Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter?

The Capital's Unmissable Art Shows this September 2024 The weather might be cooling, but things are hotting up in the art world this September, with the 40th Turner Prize show, the grand return of Yayoi Kusama and a brand new view of London from Monet's eye. We've also got shows from the two poster girls for women's empowerment - Barbie and Taylor Swift - plus a garden made entirely from DENIM; and some major photography shows via Sir Elton John and Princess Diana. Take a trippy journey through spiritual worlds, celebrate art and sound, visit cartoonish hospitals and explore Japanese art and design, among our top 24 London exhibitions this September, below: __________________________ Yayoi Kusama: Every Day I Pray for Love Following her Instagram-conquering Infinity Rooms exhibition, the Queen of light, polka dots and pumpkins returns this September for her 14th solo exhibition at Victoria Miro. She will premiere a shiny, new Infinity Mirror Room and introduce works from a new series of paintings. Victoria Miro , London. 25 September - 2 November. FREE, but booking is essential Turner Prize 2024 Work by the four shortlisted Turner Prize artists will go on display from 25 September , ahead of the 40th year of the awards ceremony, which has made stars of everybody from Damien Hirst to Grayson Perry. Delaine le Bas and Jasleen Kaur explore their Glaswegian Sikh and Roma heritages via immersive installations; Claudette Johnson examines the marginalisation of Black people in Western art, through striking figurative portraits, and Pio Abad reflects on colonialism, with drawings and sculptures of artefacts from Oxford museums. Tate Britain , Millbank, London SW1P 4RG. 25 September - 16 February 2025 Monet and London - Views of the Thames A world away from his water lilies and sunny gardens, Monet and London will realise the Impressionist’s unfulfilled ambition of showing this extraordinary group of paintings of London - just 300 metres from the Savoy Hotel where many of them were painted. They demonstrate that some of his most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London, depicting views of the Thames with his trademark light, atmosphere and radiant colour. The Courtauld Gallery, The Denise Coates Exhibition Galleries. 27 September - 19 January. £16pp Ian Berry: The Secret Garden This magical garden never needs watering and its garden paths, roses, cacti, wisteria, dangling vines and fish pond are all various shades of blue, because the entire oasis is made entirely from DENIM jeans. Kids and adults will love exploring Ian Berry’s impossibly clever, FREE exhibition, which explores themes of sustainability in the textile industries and the importance of access to green spaces in the city for young minds. Ian Berry: The Secret Garden at Garden Museum, 5 Lambeth Palace Rd, London SE1 7LB. until 8 September. FREE HSF Portrait Award 2024 at National Portrait Gallery Formerly the BP Portrait Award, this much-loved, annual exhibition has returned to National Portrait Gallery, celebrating the best in contemporary portraiture, with an exciting and diverse mix of painting styles and subjects. Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award 2024 at National Portrait Gallery. until 27 October, free. FREE Taylor Swift Exhibition Launches at V&A If there hasn’t been enough Swift mania engulfing your feeds, news and world, The V&A has launched a FREE Taylor Swift exhibition. Fourteen looks from the 14-time Grammy winner’s personal collection are showcased, in the theatrical, T aylor Swift - Songbook Trail. The pop juggernaut’s career is traced through iconic costumes, accessories, instruments, awards, storyboards and previously unseen items, on loan from Swift’s personal archive. Taylor Swift - Songbook Trail , V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. Until 8 September 2024. FREE Barbie: The Exhibition The wonder doll (and society’s) evolution is charted in this luminous exhibition, which opened this month, to coincide with Barbie’s 65th birthday. Exploring her story through a design lens including fashion, architecture, furniture and vehicle design, her plastic-fantastic universe has engulfed the Design Museum, showing changing attitudes to women’s careers - Barbie has had more than 250 jobs -  race, sexuality, fashion and body image. Highlights include a rare first edition of the very first doll released by Mattel in 1959, the first Black, Hispanic and Asian dolls to bear the Barbie name, as well as dolls that reflect today’s diverse, multicultural society, including the first Barbie with Down Syndrome, the first to use a wheelchair, and the first to be designed with a curvy body shape. Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG. Until 23 February 2025. Adult from £14.38. Children from £7.19 Francis Alÿs: Ricochets A new immersive exhibition celebrating the universality and ingenuity of play: Ricochets is the largest institutional show in the UK by internationally renowned artist Francis Alÿs in almost 15 years. For the past two decades, Alÿs has travelled the world to film the critically acclaimed series Children’s Games: from ‘musical chairs’ in Mexico, to ‘leapfrog’ in Iraq, ‘jump rope’ in Hong Kong, and ‘wolf and lamb’ in Afghanistan. Ricochets transforms The Barbican into a cinematic playground: throughout the exhibition, with multi-screen film installations focussing on children’s games. The Barbican , Silk St, Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS. Until 1 September Anthony McCall - Solid Light at Tate Modern The Godfather of immersive exhibitions, Anthony McCall brings his extraordinary, Solid Light show to Tate Modern on 27 June, inviting visitors to bring artworks to life through movements and interactions. Beams of light projected through a thin mist create large, three-dimensional forms in space, which slowly shift and change. As you move through these translucent light sculptures, you’ll create new, airy sculptures. Occupying a space between sculpture, cinema, drawing, and performance, McCall is known for his innovative installations of light. In 1973, his seminal work Line Describing a Cone redefined the possibilities of sculpture and this show is set to be the Tate’s next big blockbuster. Anthony McCall: Solid Light. Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. Until 27 April 2025. Tickets £10 pp. Suspended States at Serpentine Galleries For more than 30 years, Yinka Shonibare CBE has used Western culture to explore national identities. Suspended States is his first London solo exhibition in more than 20 years. It showcases new works, exploring how power affects sites of refuge, debates on public statues, the ecological impact of colonialisation and the legacy of imperialism on conflict. It includes two new major installations, like Sanctuary City, comprised of miniature buildings representing places of refuge, and The War Library, which is constructed from 5,000 books bound in Dutch wax print, representing conflicts and peace treaties. Suspended States. Serpentine South Gallery, London W2 3XA. Until 1 September. FREE. Entheon at Illusionaries  Illusionaries , Canary Wharf's new multi-sensory art space, invites us on a journey through three immersive rooms and installations, designed to engage the senses through soundscapes, animation, projection and colour. The UK premiere of the Entheon show sees international artists Alex and Allyson Grey explore the human condition, with kaleidoscopic pieces, showing the interconnectedness of the physical and spiritual worlds. Alex and Allyson are also the co-founders of Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit organisation dedicated to fostering creativity, spirituality and contemplation through art.  Entheon . Illusionaries, Crossrail Pl, London E14 5AR. Until 30 November NAOMI in Fashion at V&A The V&A will transform into the ultimate catwalk for a celebration of supermodel Naomi Campbell’s 40 year career, from 22 June. The show features more than 100 stunning outfits as well as iconic shots by some of the world’s biggest photographers, telling her extraordinary story and celebrating her creative collaborations, activism and far-reaching cultural impact. Victoria & Albert Museum , Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL. Until 6 April 2025 Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition The nation’s fascination with Princess Diana isn’t going away any time soon. And a new exhibition promises to give a behind-the-scenes journey through her life, via art installations and 75 life-sized photographs by her official photographers. They include the famous image of her sitting alone outside the Taj Mahal and the 'revenge dress' she wore the night King Charles admitted adultery. Her story is told through the lenses of Anwar Hussein and his two sons, Samir and Zak, her longest standing photographers, who share what they heard and witnessed during these iconic moments, in the accompanying audio guide. Princess Diana: Accredited Access Exhibition . Dockside Vaults, Ivory House, London E1W 1AT. Until 2 September. Tickets: £17/adult, £15/child. Fragile Beauty  Sir Elton John and David Furnish are sharing their extraordinary private collection of more than 300 rare prints from over 140 photographers, for V&A’s new, summer blockbuster. The show features photographers including Cindy Sherman, Ai Weiwei and Robert Mapplethorpe and includes portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Miles Davis. It spans from the Fifties to the present day, covering the civil rights movement and AIDS activism to 9/11 and has eight themes, from the male body to fashion and celebrity. The show will be the gallery’s largest temporary exhibition of photography to date. Fragile Beauty : Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection in partnership with Gucci. Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Rd, London SW7 2RL.  Until 5 January 2025. Tickets £20 pp. The Vinyl Factory: REVERB The Vinyl Factory explores the intersection of art and sound with a major new multimedia exhibition at 180 Studios. Bringing together more than 100 artists and musicians working across visual arts, music, film and live performance, the show features 18 installations, including audio visual pieces and sonic experiences. There will also be a chill out space to listen to vinyl, plus live performances, talks and UK premieres of many ambitious new artworks. The Vinyl Factory , 180 Studios, 180 Strand, Temple, London WC2R 1EA.Until 28 September.  Jason and the Adventure of 254 Artist Jason Wilsher-Mills presents his major (and FREE) solo exhibition, which transforms the gallery into a cartoonish hospital ward, full of surreal humour and kaleidoscopic colour, exploring his experience of becoming disabled as a child. The joyful show is perfect for all ages - you are invited to touch everything. Highlights include a giant installation of a figure in a hospital bed, Seb Coe with a TV for a head, huge calliper boots and penny arcade inspired dioramas. Wellcome Collection ,  183 Euston Rd, London NW1 2BE.  FREE. Until 12 January 2025 Polly Braden: Leaving Ukraine Polly Braden has used her camera to document the lives of women, children and babies scattered across Europe since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. And this deeply moving exhibition uses photography and film to share their extraordinary journeys, from job interviews, first days at school, trips to buy wedding dresses and poignant family reunions. Following four central stories, we see teenagers grow into young adults and babies into toddlers.  Foundling Museum , Brunswick Square, London.  £12.75. 21 and under go free. Until 1 September Japan: Myths to Manga at Young V&A Take a trip through Japan and explore how landscape and folklore have influenced Japanese art, technology and design, featuring a seal shaped robotic comforter, Hello Kitty paraphrenalia, draw your own Manga characters and learn nifty facts about Sylvanian Families toys being born out of hundreds-of-years old netsuke animal sculptures. Young V&A Museum,  Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets, Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PA. General Museum access, free. Until 8 September Yoko Ono: Music for the Mind Spanning more than seven decades and featuring over 200 artworks, this is the UK’s largest exhibition celebrating Ono’s groundbreaking, multidisciplinary career, from the mid-1950s to now – including her years in London where she met her future husband and longtime collaborator John Lennon. It includes her Instruction Pieces, which you can interact with - shaking hands with a stranger through a hole; making a peace wish and tying it to a tree; drawing on a boat installation; completing tasks inside a black bag and playing chess with all-white pieces as well as her most famous pieces, like the banned Bottoms film and Cut Piece , where people were invited to cut off her clothing. Tate Modern , Bankside, London SE1 9TG.  Until 1 September. £20 per adult. Free for under 12s. Immersive Lego Exhibition Aptly opening on Brick Lane, The Art of Brick brings its Lego masterpieces to London, following tours of more than 100 cities in 24 countries. The exhibition features artist Nathan Sawaya's Lego recreations of some of the world’s most famous artworks, from Michelangelo’s David to Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Among the wonders, visitors will also find a 6-metre-long reproduction of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton Kids (and big kids) can also make their own masterpieces at the play and build area. The Boiler House , 152 Brick Lane, London, E1 6RU. Until 8 September The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks Lightroom leapt inside David Hockney’s brain for his juggernaut retrospective and now turns its immersive technology to space, with added Tom Hanks. The Apollo 13 star narrates the audio-visual experience, which offers a unique new perspective on humankind’s past and future voyages to the moon. Telling the stories of the Apollo missions in intimate detail, The Moonwalkers also provides an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind-the-scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. If your own trip to the moon is looking unlikely, the immersive gallery promises the next best thing, with its tech-wizardry taking visitors on a voyage to our closest celestial neighbour. Lightroom , 12, Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4DY. Until 13 October 2024. Tickets from £25 Direct from Graceland: Elvis Elvis is in the building - not Graceland, but Arches London Bridge. This retrospective of the King of Rock is bulging with 400 artefacts from his Memphis home, charting his humble beginnings and meteoric rise to fame. It includes  his prized Ferrari Dino, gold-plated telephone, jazzy, Vegas era jumpsuits, Aviators and iconic gold lamé suit. Super-fans can even opt for the White Glove Experience, to hold the gold microphone used in his 1969 Vegas shows, and his Gold International Belt. It’s easier than a trip to Memphis and has been such a hit, they’ve extended it until 14 April. Arches London Bridge ,  8 Bermondsey St, London SE1 2ER.   Until 1 September 2024 Tickets from £19.90 pp Frameless Immersive art experiences are beckoning us to leap into paintings all over the world, but Frameless is art immersion on steroids. Situated in Marble Arch, it is the largest, permanent multi-sensory experience in the UK. Boasting four, themed galleries - Beyond Reality, Colour In Motion, The World Around Us and The Art Of Abstraction - with some of the world’s greatest works of art exploding across the walls, floors and ceilings of a 30,000 sq ft space. You can step inside more than 43 masterpieces by 28 artists, including Kandinsky, Monet, Van Gogh, Klimt, Munch, Monet, Rembrandt, Dali and Cezanne with musical scores accompanying each brushstroke. Frameless , Marble Arch, London W1H 7FD, UK Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter?

David McKee’s Beloved Patchwork Elephant Goes from Page to Stage There’s an elephant in the room as we take our seats at Queen Elizabeth Hall… or is there? That’s the premise of this colourful adaptation of David McKee’s much loved Elmer the Elephant books, which sees three super-fans on a jungle quest to find out if the patchwork elephant really exists. The whimsical world is taken from page to stage via songs, stories and puppetry by Tall Stories , who are masterful adaptors of much-loved children’s books - we loved their Smeds and the Smoos adaptation. The show’s three adventurers have loved the story of Elmer since they were childhood friends, and celebrate Elmer Day annually. They set off on a quest to find the real-life patchwork elephant in the jungle, and instead encounter the theatre audience, who also seem to be looking for the iconic elephant. The little audience members work with them, as they tell three Elmer stories around the jungle campfire, celebrating friendship, empathy and the celebration of being yourself. The songs, slapstick and audience participation keep our children (four and six) fully engaged for its 55-minute duration. They also throw in some giant pink balls, which the children gleefully bounce above their heads across the auditorium, as well as water pistol squirts. The show’s cute finale sees the sceptic of the three sleeping alone, beside the campfire, having decided he is too serious to believe in patchwork elephants. But lo and behold, a giant patchwork trunk emerges from behind the jungle foliage, followed by a wonderful, giant Elmer puppet, who dances with the sceptic and touchingly gifts him a patchwork teddy. The following morning, he excitedly tells the other two about his sighting, who insist it was just a dream… until the patchwork teddy tumbles out of the blankets as they pack for their journey home. The show proves that we will never forget the late David McKee’s glorious books about a colourful creature who was celebrated for his differences by an accepting herd, 35 years after they were first published. The Elmer Adventure, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX. Until 3 November before its national tour in Spring 2025. Tickets from £16 Like what you've read? Why not follow us on Instagram?

Our 2024 Pick of the Ultimate Pumpkin Experiences Pumpkin patches come in three categories - the gourd, the bad, and the ugly. Since you often need to trek further afield for many of them, it’s important to know the experience will be the right kind of fright. Fear not, we have scoured the pumpkin patches for the juiciest pumpkins and the best experiences to dial up your Hygge and fill your photo reel with wholesome, sprog/dog and squash content. Our best pumpkin patches are all near London, so dust off your wellies, grab a wheelbarrow and dive in. _________________ Tulleys Pumpkins Tulleys Farm owns Halloween. It’s an immaculately presented experience, with beautiful displays, an enormous patch and more than 30 spooky backdrops to pout in front of, plus roaming characters in gorgeous costumes - none of your nylon, Smiffys clobber here - more than a million pumpkins, a pumpkin bar, pumpkin house, street food, hot chocolates and a graveyard. And if you want to dial up the fright, you can attend their “pumpkin nights” and go picking after dark. Tulleys also hosts Shocktober Fest , one of the UK’s biggest Halloween events, with 10 scare attractions, rides, horror mazes and creepy circuses - although, this one is definitely not for sprogs. Tulleys Pumpkin Farm , Unit 5, Turners Hill, Crawley RH10 4PD. 28 September - 31 October Cammas Hall Pumpkin Patch These guys don’t mess about when it comes to gourds. And this year, they will unveil their biggest and most ambitious patch yet, complete with Spooky Tunnels, Halloween Characters to interact with and a giant, erupting PUMPCANO! There will also be more than 50 varieties of pumpkin, interactions with their Halloween characters, Wicked Walkways brimming with photo opps and their Halloween themed Maize Maze. There will also be quieter, SEN sessions - with the animatronic props turned off - plus children’s play area, food and lovely farm shop. And during half term, they will be running their kid-friendly, Monster Mayhem show twice a day. Cammas Hall , Needham Green, Hatfield Broad Oak, Hertfordshire, CM22 7JT. From 5 October Hobbledown Heath’s NEW Pumpkin Picking Experience Whimsical kid’s mecca, Hobbledown Heath launches its first pumpkin experience this month, for spooky photos and gourd-grabbing, followed by fun in its four themed villages with West London's ultimate adventure playground and zoo. Hobbledown Heath, Staines Road, Hounslow, TW14 0HH.  Thurs-Sun from 27 September - 3 November. Off peak £17. Peak £23. Under 2s go free Bockett’s Farm Head to Witches and Wizards Week at this inventive farm, and meet creepy crawlies at Tom’s Talking Reptile Show, plus science and slime shows, a Pumpkin Village brimming with photo opps, enjoy a Creepy Craft Corner, hop on the tractor and trailer ride to meet fluffy animals, have a pony ride and end the day with a Monster Mash bubble disco. Oh, and also pick some pumpkins. Bockett’s Farm , Young St, Fetcham, Leatherhead KT22 9BS. 26 October - 3 November Priory Farm, Surrey If it’s good enough for Dame Judi Dench, it’s good enough for us. This pretty farm invites you to board a tractor to their pumpkin patch or join Fern, Timber and Pebble on the Halloween trail to solve a mystery caused by the Mud Monsters. There’s also a Hay Bale Maze, the impressive House of Pumpkins, a giant, pumpkin rainbow for kids to climb, a gaggle of spooky family games, photo opportunities and a barrow load of pumpkins. Priory Farm, Sandy Lane, South Nutfield, Redhill, RH1 4EJ. From 4 October Hatter’s Farm Pumpkins This pretty, family-run farm features thousands of pumpkins, Hatter’s Fun House (a spooky, clown-themed walkway) Pumpkin Cannons, Maize Maze and Pumpkin Picking Lates, where the spooky dial is turned up, with creepy actors lurking about. Hatter’s Farm , Takeley, Bishop’s Stortford, CM22 6NP Crockford Bridge Farm This year's Wizard of Oz themed Pumpkin Festival invites you to travel along the yellow brick road, through an Emerald City maze, for theatre, fairground rides, street food, pumpkin carving and decorating, and gaggles of beautifully arranged gourds. Crockford Bridge Farm , New Haw Road, Weybridge, KT15 2BU Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter?

Trick and Treat the Kids this Halloween and Half-Term 2024 Give your little monsters something to cackle and scream about this Halloween, with our ultimate guide to the sprog-friendly spooky season and a suitably haunting half-term. We've got more ghoulish activites than you can shake a broomstick at, from Halloween afternoon bus adventures, monster raves, haunted houses, creepy cooking schools, wizard wand-making, spooky adventures at iconic landmarks and Lego "brick" or treating. There's also a gaggle of spook-free fun, plus plenty of free treats to keep them occupied. _________________________ Hamleys FREE Halloween Celebrations Hamleys Regent Street has a spooktaclar line-up of free entertainment this Halloween and half-term, from puppet shows, games and competitions to creepy crafting sessions. Take a spooky selfie inside the brand-new Giant Pumpkin, then join Ragdoll Witch, Werewolf Racer, Beetlejuice Bubbles, and more of the terror-ific friends for energetic entertainment and hair-raising fun.  The Opening Ceremony will be followed by the Pumpkin Festival Parade as children search for the Pumpkin Ghoul lurking around the store.   Keep your eyes peeled for the Hamleys Pumpkin Trickster, learn some pranks in The Tales of Trickster Puppet Show or make a Pumpkin Mask and take part in the Little Monsters Costume Competition. A Trick or Treat Treasure Hunt will take place in all Hamleys stores. Hamleys Regent Street , 188-196 Regent St., London W1B 5BT. 3 October - 3 November. FREE. Hobbledown Heath’s NEW Pumpkin Picking Experience Whimsical kid’s mecca, Hobbledown Heath launches its first pumpkin experience this month, for spooky photos and gourd-grabbing, followed by fun in its four themed villages with West London's ultimate adventure playground and zoo. Hobbledown Heath , Staines Road, Hounslow, TW14 0HH.  Thurs-Sun from 27 September - 3 November. Off peak £17. Peak £23. Under 2s go free Haunted Halloween Quest at Leeds Castle This Halloween, head to the beautiful Leeds Castle for a spell-seeking family adventure across its sprawling grounds, to save Rocky, the Stone Monster, from being banished back into the castle's stone walls. Armed with a quest sheet, children will meet six magical beings along the way, uncovering clues and solving riddles,  from witches, to goblins, the mysterious Keeper of the Castle, the Cursed Castle Hound, to Talon the Hawkman and finally, Rocky himself. Once all the missing pieces of the spell have been found, they will gather at the Halloween Ball to help Ember the Autumnal Witch break the spell and stop Rocky from being trapped in the stone walls for another 100 years. Leeds Castle , Penfold Hill, Kent ME17 1RG. Tickets for Halloween event & annual pass: Adult £31.50, Child £22.50 (Age 3-16); Family £79 (2 + 2). Must be booked in advance.         Half Term Wicked Witches Spa The impossibly sweet Bexleyheath kid's spa will have a witchy make-over this half-term, to trick and treat little ones with a spooky spa session. Little monsters are invited to don their spookiest outfits to sip bubbly green drinks while enjoying a slimy spider foot soak, dark potion making, glitter face magic, black nail polish and creepy tattoos. The venue is best known for its children’s party pampering sessions, which you can find more about here . Sweet Spa Party , 44 Pickford Ln, Bexleyheath DA7 4QT. 29 October - 1 November. £55 for two children. SEA LIFE London "Ascarium" SEA LIFE London Aquarium resurrects its spook-splash-tic 'Ascarium,' for tricks and treats. Visitors can meet Serafina the Sea Witch and help her solve magical challenges to keep her fellow sea creatures safe. Little sea monsters will complete activity sheets as they go, while learning about the tricks of the amazing, ‘scary-not scary’ sea creatures and earning SEA LIFE Halloween treats along the way. SEA LIFE London Aquarium , Riverside Building, County Hall, Westminster Bridge Rd, London SE1 7PB. 19 October - 3 November. Kids Go FREE at Howletts Wild Animal Park This Half Term Read our review ALL kids under 15 can enter Howletts for FREE this October half-term, for fang-tastic treats, including a ghostly trail, pumpkins finding puzzles, and an indoor Craft Mine to get up close and personal with some creepy crawlies, beastly bugs and reptiles - and handle them, if you dare. Kent’s original wildlife park, is houses some of the world’s most endangered and rare animals. With over 390 animals, including Kent’s only giant anteaters, the largest herd of African elephants in the UK, more gorillas and their new babies than any other zoo in the country. Howlett's Wild Animal Park , Bekesbourne Ln, Bekesbourne, Littlebourne, Canterbury CT4 5EL.  Kids FREE. Adults, £25 from 19 October - 3 November.    Kent Life Halloween Spooktacular Kent Life never disappoints at Halloween. Little monsters can trick or treat at its historic houses - but beware, you never know who lurks behind the doors. The sprawling, 28 acre destination is transformed for spooky season, and guests can enjoy pumpkin carving, creepy bugs, farm rides and fancy-dress competitions.  Kent Life , Lock Lane, Sandling, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3AU. Saturday 26 October – 3 November, 10am – 5pm. Adults £12.50, Children (2-15) £12.50, Members Free. Old MacDonald’s Halloween Spooktacular With more spooky sprog shizzle than you can shake a broomstick at, Old MacDonald’s fright-fest includes a haunted house, magic school, rollercoaster, scary stories, a ghost trail with gift, pumpkin patch, free Halloween tattoos, witchy arts and crafts, shows and a chance to meet a dragon. And each kid's ticket includes a free pumpkin. Boom. Old MacDonald’s Farm , Weald Rd, Brentwood CM14 5AY. 26 October - 3 November Raver Tots Halloween Party Get those tiny claws reaching for the lasers at this Ministry of Sound, Halloween rave-up for sprogs. The party features dancers, performers, cold pyro, bubbles, festival sized confetti blasts, multi coloured lasers and lighting, parachute games, giant balloons, licensed bar and face painting. Raver Tots Halloween , Ministry Of Sound,103 Gaunt St, London SE1 6DP. 27 October Hamleys Halloween London Bus Tour Read our review Children can enjoy a deliciously spooky adventure through London, with entertainment from Hamleys Halloween guests and a Halloween-themed afternoon tea, specially crafted by cake alchemists, Brigit’s Bakery. Enjoy pumpkin tarts, finger sandwiches, cupcakes, and freshly baked plain scones with jam and clotted cream on the bus, while fun fiends provide pranks and interactive entertainment. Each child will also leave with a gift, plus a Halloween at Hamleys travel cup.  Hamleys Halloween London Bus Tour, Departs from Victoria Coach Station. 12 October - 31 October. From £45 per adult, £35 per child Tulleys Pumpkins Tulleys Farm   owns  Halloween. It’s an immaculately presented experience, with beautiful displays, an enormous patch and more than 30 spooky backdrops to pout in front of, plus roaming characters in gorgeous costumes - none of your nylon, Smiffys clobber here - more than a million pumpkins, a pumpkin bar, pumpkin house, street food, hot chocolates and a graveyard. And if you want to dial up the fright, you can attend their “pumpkin nights” and go picking after dark. Tulleys also hosts Shocktober Fest , one of the UK’s biggest Halloween events, with 10 scare attractions, rides, horror mazes and creepy circuses - although, this one is definitely not for sprogs. Tulleys Pumpkin Farm , Unit 5, Turners Hill, Crawley RH10 4PD. 28 September - 31 October Halloween Kids' Cookery and Crafts Masterclass at Colonel Saab Luxury Indian restaurant, Colonel Saab is holding another one of its popular kids’ Halloween Cookery and Crafts Masterclass at their grand, Trafalgar Square restaurant on 28 October. Little monsters will be welcomed from 1-3pm , where they will learn to make Meringue Ghosts, Spooky Cookies and (healthy) Witch Potion Smoothies . Crafty wizards and witches will also teach them how to create paper bats, ghosts and witches, as well as carving pumpkins and Indian bottle gourds. They will then paint their pumpkin and gourd creations with non-toxic paints, with aprons and all materials supplied. The experience is targeted at 5-11 year olds and is £20 - tickets go fast for these masterclasses, so book early, here Colonel Saab , 40, 42 William IV St, London WC2N 4DD. 28 October, 1pm - 3pm. £20 Halloween at the Tower of London Meet the spirits from thousands of years of the landmark’s history, on a family-friendly adventure through the Tower of London's haunted past. Children will come face-to-face with ghosts who spent their final moments here, from Medieval queens, to Wizard Earl concocting potions. You will explore some of the most eerie locations of the historic fortress, from The White Tower and Traitors’ Gate to the Bloody Tower. The Halloween Tower Tour is designed to spook not terrify, so is suitable for kids. The Tower of London , London, England EC3N 4AB. 26 Oct - 3 November Halloween at Hampton Court Palace Explore Henry VIII's haunted palace, tiptoeing through the corridors and courtyards and disovering ghosts who are best kept to the past. Witches and alchemists have taken over parts of the palace. And in the Gallery of the Damned, you can witness eerie portraits coming to life, stop by the Council Chamber for a seance and check out the pumpkin art in the Haunted Garden, before enjoying a spooky treat and a ghost story in the cafe. Hampton Court Palace , Hampton Ct Way, Molesey, East Molesey KT8 9AU. 26 Oct - 3 November Brick or Treat at Lego Land The Lego Monsters are taking over with the return of its hit Brick or Treat. Highlights include Monster Street, haunted by ghoulish LEGO® creatures, featuring trick-or-treat crypts and the fang-tastic Monster Jam Harbour Show. Little Monsters can throw shapes at Lord Vampyre’s Disco, with interactive shows and meet and greets with spooky Halloween LEGO characters like Skeleton Guy and Tiger Woman. Supersized LEGO Pumpkin and skeleton heads, LEGO® inspired bats, mini pumpkins and spiders will decorate the spookified resort, which will also feature a Haunted House Monster Party Ride and Knights Kingdom's transformation into the Creepy Cobweb Castle, Legoland , Winkfield Rd, Windsor SL4 4AY. 27 September - 3 November. Tickets from £29 pp. Kids under 90cm go free FRAMELESS & Rochelle Humes' Weekly Tots Classes FRAMELESS has partnered with Rochelle Humes’ My Little Coco brand, to make its popular Multi-Sensory Tots Classes a weekly Friday fixture. Classes will run every Friday morning this month, with storytelling, music and sensory play, plus a FREE My Little Coco goodie bag throughout October. Afterwards, families can also enjoy complete access to the full FRAMELESS galleries experience, with more than 90 minutes of stunning visuals set to a score, featuring 42 masterpieces by iconic artists like Van Gogh and Dalí, reimagined through cutting-edge digital technology. FRAMELESS , 6 Marble Arch, London W1H 7AP. £25 for 1 adult and 1 preschool child, including goodie bag and access to galleries. Every Friday in October from 4 October The Elmer Adventure Tall Stories are masterful adaptors of much-loved children’s books, so the holy grail - Elmer - is in safe hands, in this eagerly anticipated production. The show follows three adventurers who have loved the story of Elmer since they were childhood friends, and celebrate Elmer Day annually. They set off on a quest to find the real-life patchwork elephant in the jungle, and instead encounter the theatre audience, who also seem to be looking for the iconic elephant. They decide to work together, while telling three Elmer stories around the jungle campfire celebrating friendship, empathy and the celebration of being yourself. Southbank Centre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Belvedere Rd, London SE1 8XX. 30 October - 3 November. Tickets from £16 pp Kids Go for a TENNER to Port Lympne this Half-Term Read our review This half-term, kids can go to Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve for £10, eat for £10 and enjoy an animal encounter or ranger safari for £10. Home to over 900 rare and endangered species, the unique reserve is set against hundreds of acres of stunning Kentish savannah. Kids can go behind the scenes with the gorillas, meet rhinos, feed wolves, lions and tigers, and as a special treat this half term, they can even join the baboon and bison scatter feeds for just £10, too.  Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve , Aldington Rd, Lympne, Hythe CT21 4LR. Kids £10 from 19 October - 3 November. Adults £35 Festival of The Girl 2024 Festival of The Girl is a ground-breaking event for girls aged 7-11. The not-for-profit aims to inspire, engage and to break down harmful gender stereotypes for girls and their families. For 2024 the festival will be doubling in size, going from a one-day event to a weekend long event, meaning they can invite more than 1000 girls to take part. Their festivals give primary school aged girls access to an incredible line up of female role models, workshops and activities, to have fun, try something new, and leave with a boost of self-confidence. Festival of the Girl. Business Design Centre, 52 Upper St, London N1 0QH. 5-6 October. Pay what you can option. F1 Driving, Skywalks and Tours at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Little adrenaline junkies can get their kicks at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with a hat trick of high octane tours, from The Dare Skywalk - climbing to the top of the stadium, 46.8m above the pitch - to the UK’s first controlled descent from a stadium, once at the top. Plus a Stadium Tour for those who want to keep their feet on the ground. They can also experience a high tech Formula 1 driving experience, with an exciting track layout and LED steering wheels. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium , 782 High Rd, London N17 0BX Michelin-Star Cookery School for Little Chefs Michelin restaurant Pavyllon London will partner with the popular En Petit Pavilion on a series of 90-minute, kid’s cookery experiences, while parents enjoy lunch dishes from multi-Michelin-starred Chef Yannick Alléno.  Starting on 15 September and running on the third Sunday of each month until January 2025, children will learn to craft from a range of cuisines, including French gastronomy, creating a main course and a dessert alongside En Cuisine’s passionate team. The pièce de résistance? Mini master chefs will proudly present their fine dining creations to their loved ones at the iconic Pavyllon counter at the end of the class, dressed in their very own chef’s hat and apron, standing alongside the Pavyllon team. Pavyllon London, Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane Hamilton Pl, London, W1J 7DR . Every third Sunday of the month with sessions at 12pm & 1:30pm until 19 January 2025. Ages 6-12. Price: £350: includes four-course set lunch menu for two adults and 1x children’s cooking class, plus a chef’s hat and apron. Additional children are priced at £50 each The Paddington Bear Immersive Experience Read Review Everybody’s favourite, Peruvian bear has had the immersive treatment, with The Paddington Bear™ Experience. The marmalade-addled, interactive adventure across more than 26,000 square feet of Southbank’s London County Hall  invites guests into a series of themed rooms, inspired by iconic locations from the Paddington stories. Fittingly, it kicks off at Paddington Station, where guests will be greeted by a friendly Station Master and taken on a colourful train journey through London’s most famous landmarks, to the Browns’ charming, No. 32 Windsor Gardens home. Once inside the famous, tree-adorned hallway, guests will embark on a multi-sensory adventure to help the Brown family and Paddington prepare for the all-important Marmalade Day Festival. The Paddington Bear™ Experience , London County Hall, Westminster Bridge Road, SE1 7PB. Adult tickets £34pp. Children (2-15) £24. Under 2s go FREE Mrs Doubtfire Dining Experience Hellooo poppets! Hit West End musical Mrs Doubtfire has put the eat into theatre for a delicious new partnership with luxury London restaurant, Colonel Saab . The award-winning Indian dining concept gives fans a multi-sensory, pre-theatre dining experience, featuring cocktails and dishes inspired by famous scenes, which transform before your eyes and are not what they seem - just like the title character of Shaftesbury Theatre’s comedy show. Expect a "Run-By Fruiting" and a grand finale involving liquid nitrogen, in a cheeky nod to the famous kitchen fire scene, before heading around the corner to watch the show itself at Shaftesbury Theatre. Colonel Saab, 193-197 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BD. £60 course five course meal and cocktail or £35 Mrs Doubtfire Set Lunch plus theatre tickets. Shaftesbury Theatre, 210 Shaftesbury Ave, London WC2H 8DP Barbie: The Exhibition The wonder doll (and society’s) evolution is charted in this luminous exhibition, which opened this month, to coincide with Barbie’s 65th birthday. Exploring her story through a design lens including fashion, architecture, furniture and vehicle design, her plastic-fantastic universe has engulfed the Design Museum, showing changing attitudes to women’s careers - Barbie has had more than 250 jobs -  race, sexuality, fashion and body image. Highlights include a rare first edition of the very first doll released by Mattel in 1959, the first Black, Hispanic and Asian dolls to bear the Barbie name, as well as dolls that reflect today’s diverse, multicultural society, including the first Barbie with Down Syndrome, the first to use a wheelchair, and the first to be designed with a curvy body shape. Design Museum,  224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG. Until 23 February 2025. Adult from £14.38. Children from £7.19 Science Museum Astronights Sleepover  Read our review Budding scientists (aged 7-11) can spend the night at The Science Museum,  exploring the museum out-of-hours,  sleeping among space rockets, a Moon rock or in the world’s largest medical galleries. Young campers will experience the ultimate sleepover, with an evening full of activities, including science shows and interactive workshops.  This year’s Astronights programme is supported by official sponsor TEMPUR®, who will gift all campers a travel pillow to help budding scientists get some rest during this exciting night.The following morning, campers can refuel at breakfast, before exploring Wonderlab , their interactive gallery, with hands-on exhibits and immersive experiences, and catch a 3D documentary on their giant IMAX screen. Science Museum,  Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD. Dates vary, £70pp standard, £100 VIP. 20 August Monster Funfair at Discover Children's Story Centre Stratford's immersive, sprog-storytelling Mecca has launched its new family adventure, taking visitors through a fantastical circus tent and into the woods. In amongst the trees you’ll find an amazing, marvellous, EXTRAORDINARY… Monster Funfair!   Created with the award-winning Nadia Shireen, this magical world also has a fairground mystery to solve – just who has stolen ALL the candyfloss?  Discover Children's Story Centre is brimming with entertainment across three floors, plus a wonderfully imaginative Story Garden. Creep through caves, find fairy worlds within magical trees, explore hidden ships, perform in a puppet castle, leap over alligators and man your own spaceships and rockets across two floors. Discover Children's Story Centre  383-387 High St, London E15 4QZ. Ages 0-8 Art in the Docks - FREE There are FREE art classes every Saturday morning at Art in the Docks, which can be booked online, with 30 spots for each class. Children are encouraged to use their imagination and gain confidence in a nurturing environment, hosted by ceramic artist Mariana Alemany. The classes are suitable for all ages, and all materials and equipment will be provided. Art in the Docks , 25 Shackleton Way, London, E16 2XJ. Every Saturday. 10am-12pm. FREE. Birds: Brilliant and Bizarre Natural History Museum ’s new show will be a real tweet for the whole family, inviting us to experience birds in a whole new way. Swirl around with a murmuration, chirp along with the dawn chorus and see if you have the stomach to sniff a stinky seabird egg. From feeling their heartbeats to seeing through their eyes, get to know our feathered friends better. Meet the wonderchicken - the world’s oldest bird - find out what a pigeon has in common with a ferocious T. Rex and discover how these winged wonders managed to survive the mass extinction that wiped out all the other dinosaurs. Today there’s more than 11,000 species. From pigeons to penguins, ostriches to ospreys, birds live on every single continent on Earth, so what’s the secret to their success? From sucking blood to bathing in acid, our winged wonders have found surprising, clever and downright freaky ways to survive. Natural History Museum, Waterhouse Gallery, Kensington, London. Until 5 January 2025. Adults £16.50pp. Children (4-16) £9.95pp Rooftop Film Club Head to the Bussey Building for some family-friendly, daytime rooftop cinema screenings of kiddie classics, from  Wonka to Elemental , plus gorgeous views across London’s skyline. Everybody gets comfy headphones and deckchairs and you can order pizza, snacks and drinks to your seats. Dogs are also welcome, so the whole family can enjoy the Big Screen in the sunshine together. Rooftop Film Club , Roof A, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Ln, London SE15 4ST. Children welcome to family film showings before 5pm.  Navrtar VR Arctic Expedition Take the family on an Arctic expedition, without leaving London. They’ll learn about global warming in a whole, new way during the 60-minute experience, exploring the abyss of the Arctic; its icy tundras, hidden caverns and unique wildlife hidden in an extraordinary, underwater world. Guests in teams of six can teleport 100 years into the future to compare the effects of global warming. The sessions begin with a range of multi-player mini games to enhance the senses and test skills, before embarking on the Arctic expedition, exploring marine life and shipwrecks. Navrtar , Dickens Yard, Longfield Ave W5 2UQ. Prices from £32pp. LAST CHANCE TO SEE: The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks Lightroom leapt inside David Hockney’s art for his jugggernaut of retrospective and now turns its immersive technology to space, with added Tom Hanks. The Apollo 13 star narrates the audio-visual experience, which offers a unique new perspective on humankind’s past and future voyages to the moon. Telling the stories of the Apollo missions in intimate detail, The Moonwalkers also provides an insight into the impending return of crewed surface missions by going behind-the-scenes of the Artemis programme, including interviews between Hanks and Artemis astronauts. If your own trip to the moon is unlikely, the immersive gallery promises the next big thing, with its tech-wizardy taking visitors on a voyage to our closest celestial neighbour. Lightroom , 12, Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4DY. Until 13 October 2024. Tickets from £25 Dinosaur rEvolution South East London’s hidden gem, The Horniman Museum  launches its roarsome new dinosaur exhibition for February half-term. The show invites us to rethink everything we thought we knew about dinosaurs, exploring the relationship between dinosaurs and birds. It includes five large, animatronic models, a gaggle of fossil skeletons and skull casts, as well as touchable, detailed graphics by the acclaimed artist Luis V Rey, dress up, games, and more. It will also be your last chance to see its beloved, overstuffed, taxidermy walrus until 2026, when the Natural History Gallery  will reopen after a two-year refurbishment. Horniman Museum and Gardens , 100 London Road, Forest Hill, London SE23 3PQ. until 3 November. Tickets from £9 per adult and £7 per child. iFly Childrens’ Skydive Read our review here Anybody from the age of 3 to 103 can experience the superpower of flight at iFly , as long as they can comfortably wear a helmet. The instructors allow children to safely feel the sensation of an  exhilarating, 12,000 ft free-fall and flight,  without  jumping out of a plane. Along with watching the instructor perform a mesmerising  dance on air inside the vertical wind tunnel, your family can enjoy the extraordinary sensation of weightlessness, soaring around the glass tube and unlocking a core memory of their newfound super powers. iFLY London at The O2, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX. Tickets and vouchers to fly can be purchased by clicking here  and are available from £69.99 per person Wizard Exploratorium Check out our review here.   Soho's magic-themed Wizard Exploratorium is a five-storey, geek wonderland, offering a 4D wand-making workshop, immersive trick shop and suitably magical afternoon tea encompassing tea brewing, molecular gastronomy, and technology. Wizard Exploratorium , 26 Greek St, London W1D 5DE Slimy Gootopia Sessions Slime is a gloopy rite of passage for every child - parents quickly learn the art of removing it from hair and unwitting pets and it’s up there with ice cream in the kiddie delight department. Enter stage left: Gootopia , which brings its gloopy joy to Brixton and Lewisham. The venues have shelves of ready-made slime, slime ingredients, activator, and their ‘goo-to-go’ slime vending machine. They also offer a range of activities and experiences for kids of all ages, including slime workshops, birthday parties, school science workshops, drop-in slime-making sessions and live slime-making demonstrations by goo alchemists Gootopia . Brixton and Lewisham locations. Pampering for all the family at Pan Pacific London Family activities that involve lying down and being pampered? Count us massively IN. Pan Pacific London  has partnered with luxury children’s brand Bonpoint , to create a unique offering for the hotel’s dedicated Wellbeing Floor. The first partnership of its kind in the UK, the duo have created a range of unisex skincare treatments and packages for children aged 6 – 16 years old, that provide an opportunity for parents to spend quality time with their children and teens and enjoy a spot of pampering. Pan Pacific Family Pampering , 80 Houndsditch, London, EC3A 7AB. Treatments start from £100. Power Up at the Science Museum Following five successful runs, Power Up will make its permanent home at the Science Museum from July, allowing visitors to try over 160 consoles and hundreds of the very best video games, all year long. With the new Power Up annual passes, visitors can return whenever they fancy, to journey through the world of gaming. Experience the evolution of gaming – from classics such as Pong and Street Fighter to the latest PlayStation and Xbox – while discovering the science and history behind gaming’s most iconic developments. Power Up  Ticketed, daily passes: £10, annual passes: £15   . Age: 5+. Science Museum, Exhibition Rd, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD Get the Kids Climbing the Walls Get the kids climbing the walls at London’s Parthian Climbing centre in Wandsworth. The 25,000 square foot beast combines climbing with lifestyle, thanks to its café, bar, gym, retail and co-working space. And it is the first indoor climbing facility in the UK to feature an exact replica of  The Titan  Olympic bouldering wall, which will be used at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. They offer a range of kids’ sessions and courses for ages 3 and up. There are instructors for little ones taking on their first climbing experience, as well as the National Indoor Climbing Award Scheme (NICAS) for a progressive syllabus. They also host kids’ parties, for 1.5 hours of climbing activities and games which are the perfect antidote to ‘Fun Freddie’ wrestling a balloon into a drooping sausage dog. Parthian Climbing Centre , 52 - 58 Garratt Ln, Wandsworth, London SW18 4TF Avora Family Experience Read our review Up an unassuming, Shoreditch street is a secret portal to another planet. And on school holidays and Sundays, you can take your kids for a well-deserved break from Earth, on planet Avora. This otherworldly adventure will see you encounter scientists, mocktails, aliens, army villains and closes with a child-pleasing, farty finale. Avora: Family Immersive Adventure  5C, 127 Hackney Road, London, E2 8GY. Sundays, 12pm – 3:30pm. School Holiday weekdays. £24.50 per child (6-13) £29.50 per adult. The Gunpowder Plot at Tower of London Vaults Older children (12+) will be catapulted into the most exciting history lesson of their lives, in this explosive new, immersive experience, starring Harry Potter’s Tom Felton. Your mission is to go undercover and unmask the mysterious figures behind history’s most infamous plot. But when you’re surrounded by traitors, who can you trust? With surprises around every turn, descend into the vaults and experience a combination of live and digital actors, virtual reality and fancy pants technology like motion simulators and special effects, transporting you back to London 1605 in the heart of the Gunpowder plot. The Gunpowder Plot , 8-12 Tower Hill Vaults, London, EC3N 4EE Play Captain on a GoBoat River Picnic Read our review If you’re looking for somewhere to spend a genuinely relaxing few hours for parents and  children (plus dogs, if you have one) we recommend a GoBoat  trip. You can enjoy a picnic as captain of your own, electric boat through Canary Wharf, Paddington, Kingston, Thames Ditton or Birmingham. GoBoat UK , Open 7 days a week from 9am - dusk. Prices start from  £85 for 1 hour and  £125 for two hours on the  8-person boats. GoBoat Canary Wharf, 22 Churchill Place, London, E14 5RE Paddington Afternoon Tea Bus Tour Read our review Brigit's Bakery  launched the first, official Paddington Bear afternoon tea bus tour , celebrating the capital.The double-decker has built-in screens, so that Paddington and Mrs Bird can provide an animated guide to the tour, which includes some of Paddington's favourite landmarks, like Big Ben, The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Hyde Park, Nelson’s Column, Downing Street, St. Paul's Cathedral, Borough Market, Green Park and Piccadilly Circus. The tour takes just under two hours, while you scoff treats including glittering shortbreads, designed to look like nibbled marmalade sandwiches, mini pizzas, smoked salmon and cucumber pretzels, turkey ham and cheddar or cream cheese and cucumber finger sandwiches and naturally, marmalade sandwiches. And for those who share the bear’s sweet tooth, the homemade sweet treats included a rice pudding studded with chocolate honeycomb, chocolate cupcakes crowned with Paddington’s chocolate paws, lemon meringue tarts, chocolate macarons and freshly baked scones with cream and jam. Brigit’s Bakery also provide vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and halal afternoon teas. Paddington Afternoon Tea Bus tour  Departs from Trafalgar Square, Wednesdays to Sundays. Prices from £45 adult, £35 child. Whizz Down The ArcelorMittal Orbit How about hurling your children down the world’s tallest slide? The 178m long ArcelorMittal Orbit  was the iconic landmark of the 2012 London Olympics and is now an attraction with three adventure experiences. Families can speed down the winding slide, abseil, or walk around the glass orbit at the top. You can also pretend it's a high-brow, cultural experience, because the orbit is also a sculpture by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond. And it beats the usual views of grubby swings and bins, because here you can check out the stunning views of Queen Elizabeth Park. To ride the slide, children must be at least eight years old and over 1.3m. ArcelorMittal Orbit , Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 5 Thornton St, London E20 2AD. From £10.75. Cutty Sark Rig Climb Experience Originally climbed when the ship first arrived to Greenwich in 1954, visitors can now recreate this, by clambering up the famous masts of the Cutty Sark.The Rig Climb Experience invites kids and brave parents to step up from the main deck onto the ship’s ratlines and climb up its top mast, as hundreds of sailors did during the Cutty Sark’s heyday. Once at the top, climbers will experience a controlled descent from the rigging. Participants will be rewarded with some of the best views in London, overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral, The Shard and Tower Bridge. Cutty Sark King William Walk, London SE10 9H Snot, Sick and Scabs at the Centre of the Cell Deliciously disgusting and sneakily educational centre in a futuristic, light-studded pod suspended above the laboratories of the Blizard Institute in Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Children can learn about the heart, teeth or senses, see scientists at work and enjoy their delightfully vile ‘Snot, Sick and Scabs’ session. Centre of the Cell,  4 Newark St, London E1 2AT Out-of-Hours at the British Museum Your little ones can walk in the footsteps of the ancient Greeks, Pharoahs or journey through the cultures of China at The British Museum's family-friendly, out-of-hours tours. Taking place between 8.50 – 10am, before the galleries are open to the public, you can beat the unsavoury crowds. And from 4 - 25 March, children can explore Roman history through Minecraft, create a Japan-themed family photo (11 March) and make mosaic masks inspired by the Aztec gods on 18 March. The British Museum , Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG. Under fives go free.  £16.50 for 5-15 year olds. £33 Adults Monopoly Lifesized Go big or go home… or straight to jail at Monopoly Lifesized,  an immersive, on-your-feet version of the classic, family game, played on a 15m x 15m lifesized Monopoly board. Enter the 4D experience and compete in challenges for your chance to buy properties. Stage a heist in Mayfair, compete against a clock to build some of London’s iconic buildings, solve a baffling murder mystery or step into the world of codebreakers. The 80-minute experience is suitable for kids from 9 and older and is open every day except Mondays. Monopoly Lifesized , 213-215 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 7PS. Tickets £49 pp Crystal Maze LIVE Experience Older children (from 8 onwards) can take on this immersive adventure, which brings the hit 90s TV show to life.Run around like mentalists, yell, complete a host of difficult challenges and end the game in a fetching, satin bomber jacket. Crystal Maze Live Experience , 22 - 32 Shaftesbury Avenue W1D 7EU Holiday to Space at Royal Observatory Greenwich Join Ted and Plant as they explore the Solar System in search of the best place to take a holiday in an intergalactic morning adventure, including a planetarium show and interactive workshop. Recommended Age: 3 - 6 yrs. Open 10am-5pm daily Royal Observator y Greenwich Park, Blackheath Avenue SE10 8XJ Like what you've read? Why not subscribe to our free, monthly newsletter?

Half-Term Halloween Hauntings from Day to Night at Spooky Castle Experience This October half term, Warwick Castle invites little (and large) monsters for a Spooktacular B-Head & B stay at Warwick Castle Hotel, for a day and night of ghostly encounters, including a headless horseman. Expect talking historical portraits, a knight riding an animatronic horse, and the Witches of Warwick Castle Live Show. During the day, ghostly inhabitants take over the castle grounds and Haunted Hallows, entertaining families with quizzes, discos, circus acts, silly songs, bands and sorcery… just be careful you’re not pulled on stage by the Grave Diggers comedy act. For those who welcome things that go bump in the night, guests can brave an over-fright stay at the haunted hotel, with surprises around every corner.   The ticketed Castle After Dark experience provides a bolder adventures, including the Fractured Mirror, for guests to confront their superstitions and fears over a chilling evening.  Guests can also put their nerves to the test with a visit to the Castle Dungeon and be transported back in time to the days of the putrefying plague, to see, hear, and smell the castle’s grisly residents and relive more than 300 years of Warwick’s most gruesome history. Warwick Castle , Warwick, CV34 6AU. £159 for Bed and Breakfast for a family of four, or £199 for a family of four which includes Bed and Breakfast and a one-day ticket. Like what you've read? Why not follow us on Instagram?

Spooktacular Free Tricks and Treats in the Capital this Halloween Got ghosts in your wallet but still want to trick and treat yourself this Halloween? Fear not. We bring you London’s best FREE Halloween events for little and big monsters to sink their fangs into. _____________________________ nhow London’s FREE Bottomless Popcorn Tim Burton Movie Nights Funky Shoreditch hotel nhow London is celebrating Halloween with a spooktacular series of FREE Tim Burton movie nights. Kicking off on 26 October for six consecutive nights, movie lovers can enjoy films including Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd and Beetlejuice. Alongside the special screenings, the hotel has created a Halloween-inspired cocktail, Demon’s Blood, a mix of tequila, Chambord liqueur, lime juice, sugar and double cream to complement all the popcorn. Cocktails will be available for purchase and a mocktail version will also be available. Nhow London , 2 Macclesfield Rd, London EC1V 8DG. 26 - 31 October. FREE. No booking required. Hyde Park’s FREE Halloween Discovery Days From 29-31 October, little witches and wizards can enjoy a gaggle of FREE Halloween fun, from 11-3.30pm. They include investigating the ‘feely boxes’ in the Witches' Den; exploring the hair-raising nature trail, discovering fascinating facts along the way; learning about the bats in The Royal Parks, and listening to a spooky story. Hyde Park Learning Centre , Hyde Park, London W2 2UH. 29-31 October. FREE. Hamleys FREE Halloween Celebrations Hamleys Regent Street has a spooktaclar line-up of free entertainment this Halloween and half-term, from puppet shows, games and competitions to creepy crafting sessions. Take a spooky selfie inside the brand-new Giant Pumpkin, then join Ragdoll Witch, Werewolf Racer, Beetlejuice Bubbles, and more of the terror-ific friends for energetic entertainment and hair-raising fun.  The Opening Ceremony will be followed by the Pumpkin Festival Parade as children search for the Pumpkin Ghoul lurking around the store.   Keep your eyes peeled for the Hamleys Pumpkin Trickster, learn some pranks in The Tales of Trickster Puppet Show or make a Pumpkin Mask and take part in the Little Monsters Costume Competition. A Trick or Treat Treasure Hunt will take place in all Hamleys stores. Hamleys Regent Street , 188-196 Regent St., London W1B 5BT. 3 October - 3 November. FREE. Kids Go FREE at Howletts Wild Animal Park This Half Term Read our review ALL kids under 15 can enter Howletts for FREE this October half-term, for fang-tastic treats, including a ghostly trail, pumpkins finding puzzles, and an indoor Craft Mine to get up close and personal with some creepy crawlies, beastly bugs and reptiles - and handle them, if you dare. Kent’s original wildlife park, is houses some of the world’s most endangered and rare animals. With over 390 animals, including Kent’s only giant anteaters, the largest herd of African elephants in the UK, more gorillas and their new babies than any other zoo in the country. Howlett's Wild Animal Park , Bekesbourne Ln, Bekesbourne, Littlebourne, Canterbury CT4 5EL.  Kids FREE. Adults, £25 from 19 October - 3 November. Yayoi Kusama's FREE Pumpkin Installation See Yayoi Kusama’s 6 metre yellow and black polka dot pumpkin - her tallest bronze sculpture to date - at Royal Parks of Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. Her free Pumpkin installation will remain in situ beside the Round Pond at Kensington Gardens until 3 November. Kensington Gardens LONDON W2 2UH Lewisham’s FREE Halloween Craft Workshops Lewisham Shopping Centre is hosting free Halloween Craft Workshops this October half term for the whole family. The frightfully fun drop-in sessions will be held on 30 - 31 October at 10:30am – 4:30pm. From eerie potions and cauldrons to quirky gonks and wicked witches, the mix and ‘mash’ decorations will keep families spellbound for hours Lewisham Shopping Centre , Molesworth St, London SE13 7HB FREE Halloween LEGO Events at Battersea Power Station Join the Halloween activities at the LEGO® Battersea Power Station store this half term. Help Wednesday find the ravens in their Halloween hunt, running all day from 26 October to 1 November, or build a FREE spider on 26 October between 10am to 12pm and 27 October between 12pm to 2pm. There will also be FREE wizard, witch and Frankenstein headbands, while stocks last. LEGO , Turbine Hall A Circus, West Village, Nine Elms, London SW11 8EZ Like what you've read? Why not follow us on Instagram?

Expand your children's minds - then blow them with a visit to London's most brain-bending experience Nothing is what it seems at Paradox Museum , which successfully blows children's minds, while sneakily expanding them, leaving you with a camera reel of amazing snaps to remember it by. The colourful world of more than 50 interactive exhibits is cat-nip for kids, combining flashing lights, candy-coloured walls, rotating rooms, upside-down tube stations, and mirror mazes, to challenge perspective and reality. It's easy to see why the museum has blown up on social media, since launching in May. Every room offers a killer selfie opportunity - even more so with the venue's recent Halloween makeover, which we couldn't resist visiting. There are staff on hand to take control of the camera for those who are visiting alone (or with an excited six year-old, as we are), and you’ll grab enough content to keep your Insta feed on form for weeks. Every picture opportunity also hides a lesson on perspective, camouflage, scientific discoveries and brain-bending illusions, which you can access via QR codes in each space. As we enter the museum, we’re immediately funnelled into a short queue for Zero Gravity , an add-on experience costing just £2, which ends up being the biggest hit with our daughter. We fix our phone to a holder on the wall, press record, and step into a rotating, padded space pod where we clamber over the walls and ceiling like a pair of crazed astronauts. The premise is simple - as the phone rotates with us, the video ends up looking as though the room is static and we’re free from the shackles of gravity. If you’ve ever seen the making of Inception, you’ll know that this is the closest we’ll ever get to being in a Christopher Nolan movie. With our content saved, we move swiftly into the camouflage room, where we pull on red and black patterned robes, which allow us to blend seamlessly into the patterns on the floor, walls and ceiling. As new visitors arrive into the room, they're greeted by walls that shriek with laughter until our daughter's face pops out from beneath her hood Infinity mirrors get a good showing, as does a clever dancing room, where yellow, red and blue spotlights create a multicoloured shadow effect that teaches us how coloured lights can create coloured shadows - and make a six year-old feel like a pop star at the same time. A spooky sofa is the next big-hitter, as we’re invited to contort ourselves into strategically-placed hideaways that leave the impression we’ve been sliced in half, while watching TV. It’s the first of multiple attractions that have been given a Halloween makeover, with cobwebs and spiders providing the backdrop - although the sight of a beheaded schoolgirl sitting next to her dad's legs is probably on-brand enough for October.. An optical illusion is next on the Halloween trail, as our daughter is invited to don a wizard’s hat and summon the head of her dad from a seemingly empty table using nothing but magic, witchcraft and some carefully-placed mirrors. Her cackles of delight are a sign that the magic has well and truly worked on her. The ingenious kaleidoscope is a little too high for our daughter to take that a picture, but we did get a gaggle of images of my confused face repeated for eternity in a pattern that could be used to scare away badgers. We move swiftly onto a mirror maze (in which we get spectacularly lost, and eventually abandon our mission by leaving through the entrance) and a walk-in kaleidoscope, where our daughter spends twenty minutes throwing herself around, swamped in the swirling colours of a Halloween castle, pumpkins and bat-laden sky. There’s one last chance for a killer Insta shot before we go, in the form of an upside-down Underground Station, where we hang from the departure board like a pair of demented monkeys. Then, we’re thrust back into the well-heeled streets of Belgravia again, wondering if it was all just a fever dream. Thankfully, we’ve got the pictures to prove it - plenty of pictures, in fact - and our daughter hasn’t stopped scrolling through them since. Paradox Museum London, 90 Brompton Rd, London, UK. SW3 1JJ,  Buy Tickets Tickets from £17.50 (children) and £23 (adults). Under 3’s go free. Zero Gravity add-on £2 Like what you've read? Why not follow us on Instagram?