London (Fodor's 2012) - Fodor's [14]
Round off your night, or get it going, with a hearty curry on nearby Brick Lane, home to London’s Bangladeshi community.
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EDUCATION WITHOUT YAWNS
London Dungeon. Gore galore (did you ever see a disembowelment?) plunges you into murky depths of history, with gruesome rides and special effects scary enough to frighten the coolest of cats.
London Zoo. City? What city? Disappear into the animal kingdom among the enclosures, complete with sessions for kids afraid of spiders (even bird-eating ones!), in this popular animal retreat set in Regent’s Park.
Kew Gardens. If the sun penetrates the London clouds, Kew Gardens is great for kids, with family activities, the “climbers and creepers” playzone, zip wires, scramble slides, and children’s trails; free for children.
Natural History Museum. It doesn’t get much more awe-inspiring than bloodsucking bats, fake earthquakes, and a life-size blue whale. Just make sure you know your diplodocus from your dodo.
Science Museum. Special effects, virtual voyages, interactive galleries, puzzles, and mysteries from the world of science, with a fun-tastic play area for toddlers downstairs, featuring an excellent hands-on water activity game.
Tower of London. Perfect for playing princess in front of the crown jewels. Not so perfect for imagining what becomes of the fairy tale—watch your royal necks.
PERFORMANCES
Applaud street performers. You can’t beat the cacophony of jugglers, fire-eaters, unicyclists, and the human statues tantalizing crowds in Covent Garden.
Enjoy Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. Welcome to the land of fairy dust and magic. Don’t miss an evening performance under the stars of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in summer.
Sing along to musicals. Move over, Broadway: you can’t beat a song and dance number from London’s West End.
ACTIVITIES
Ride the London Eye. Ferris wheel–loving kids will think they’ve hit the mother lode when they see Europe’s biggest observation wheel.
Clamber on the lions. Challenge your child to pick a perch in Trafalgar Square, the capital’s tourist hot spot, and climb one of the four tall stone lions at the foot of Nelson’s column.
Ice-skating at the Natural History Museum. Send your kids whizzing, arms whirling, across ice from November to January at this fantastic ice rink right outside the museum.
Night at the Museum. Leave your children in the capable hands of the Natural History Museum and its toothy dinosaur collection for its monthly Dino Snores sleepover (minimum of five kids per group). Leave kids at 7 pm, pickup next morning at 9:50 am.
Paddle on the Serpentine. Pack a picnic and take a rowboat out into the middle of Hyde Park’s famed lake; settle back and tuck in to lunch.
Lose your kids at Hampton Court. It might be more than 300 years old, but the quest to reach the middle of the world-famous hedge maze remains as challenging as ever.
Little Angel Theatre. Entertaining children since 1961, this Islington puppet theatre (14 Dagmar Passage | N1 2DN | 0207/226–1887 | www.littleangeltheatre.com) also has drama classes for young thespians.
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Main Table of Contents
Westminster and Royal London
St. James’s and Mayfair
Soho and Covent Garden
Bloomsbury and Legal London
The City
The East End
The South Bank
Kensington, Chelsea, and Knightsbridge
Notting Hill and Bayswater
Regent’s Park and Hampstead
Greenwich
The Thames Upstream
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Getting Oriented | Top Attractions | Worth Noting
Updated by Damian Harper
This is postcard London at its best. Crammed with historic churches, grand state buildings, and major art collections, the area unites politics, high culture, and religion. (Oh, and the Queen lives here, too.) If you went no farther than these few acres,