London - been around 8 times before - any new suggestions?

miss_bargainmad

We are going to London over Easter with our 2 boys aged 8 and 11. We have been around 7 or 8 times before.

We have seen almost everything in the centre except Tower of London and London Dungeons for some reason, which will probably go to this time.

We will end up doing a lot of things again such as Natural History Museum and HMS Belfast as my 8 year old doesn't remember them.

Can anyone recommend anything out of the ordinary to do in London?

Lemmy_Caution

Bank of England Museum, Sir John Soane's museum, Cabinet War Rooms, The Guildhall (with The Clock Museum), The Tower Bridge Experience (combined ticket with The Monument), The Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green, The Imperial War Museum, Kensington Palace, The Serpentine Gallery, The London Transport Museum, Tate Modern, The Globe Theatre, The National Army Museum - Chelsea, The National Maritime Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, The British Museum, Borough Market on Fridays and Saturdays, Camden Lock, Hampstead Heath, Blackheath.

Generali

Science museum is great for kids.

Tiger_greeneyes

I don't know if you can still do it but you used to be able to climb the stairs on the inside of Tower Bridge and cross the river through the walkway between the two towers. It's very high but you get spectacular views.

You can also have a trip on the amphibian craft into the Thames, or check out the narrowboats at Little Venice.

There's loads of online guides

Lemmy_Caution

Tiger_greeneyes wrote:

I don't know if you can still do it but you used to be able to climb the stairs on the inside of Tower Bridge and cross the river through the walkway between the two towers. It's very high but you get spectacular views.

You can also have a trip on the amphibian craft into the Thames, or check out the narrowboats at Little Venice.

There's loads of online guides

Both of these options are still available Tower Bridge experience can be done for £5.50, or you can get a combined ticket with The Monument for I think - £6.00.
The amphibian crafts referred to are of course the 'Duck tour' which goes from Waterloo.

Tiger_greeneyes

Thanks for filling in the gaps, Lemmy - I'm a Londoner (repatriated to Suffolk!) so have never taken in the details as I've never had to plan ahead. It's easier to spontaneous when you live there.

martindow

Tate Modern is fun at the moment with slides. You need to get tickets that are timed but they are free (so you don't need to queue). The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green has just been refurbished
http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/index.html
Good for children and adults but be warned it will make you feel old seeing all of your childhood toys as exhibits!

Lemmy_Caution

martindow you are right. I went with a friend to go down the slides. we are both 'Arty' people and so, naturally we made sure that our slide was entirely an artistic performance. She insisted that I went down first - I did so - I made a declaration at the top - my manifesto. When I got to the bottom of the slide, I entirely rejected that manifesto, and all who had applauded it.

The Museum of Childhood is an absolute 'must.' And just up the road is the Geffrye Museum. That has rooms decorated in the styles of different historical periods.

Amba_Gambla

last time I was in London, I discovered Speakers Corner in Hyde(?) Park


Hilarious!

competitionscafe

There are some nice ideas here:
http://www.offtolondon.com/london-pool.html

#2 looks interesting "Join actors dressed in period costumer aboard the Golden Hinde, berthed at St Mary Overie Dock to discover what life might have been like sailing around the world in a boat slightly bigger than a double-decker bus. The Golden Hinde is an exact scale, operational reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake's 16th century galleon that sailed around the world 1577-80."

Kids might like the Imax 3D Cinema at the science museum too:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/imax/index.asp

I assume you already know about the 2 for 1 offers (on Tower of London etc) if you travel to London by train: http://www.2for1entry.co.uk/

The_Bhoy_3

Tiger_greeneyes wrote:

I don't know if you can still do it but you used to be able to climb the stairs on the inside of Tower Bridge and cross the river through the walkway between the two towers. It's very high but you get spectacular views.

You can also have a trip on the amphibian craft into the Thames, or check out the narrowboats at Little Venice.

There's loads of online guides

I wouldn't waste money/time going up Tower Bridge, it's not very good. The view is decent, but all the walkways are enclosed and you can only look out tiny windows that everyone crowds round. The exhibits inside are terrible and, for the money, there is actually very little to see. (When we were there they were showing "Victorian musical instrument", which sounds ok, but it was actually just a guy turning a crank on an old box! Repeat ad nauseum since this same "trick" was done about 10 times...)

Admittedly we didn't go to the monument, so maybe if you went to that it would be slightly better value for money, but overall we definitely wouldn't go back.

Even although it's more expensive, we wish we'd went to the Tower of London instead since I think there is a lot more to see and do. There are also a lot of free things to do in London, so you shouldn't waste money going up the bridge.

As a side note, the view just standing on the bridge isn't too different from that which you get if you actually go up inside it.

P.s. We were only there a couple of weeks ago, so they probably still have the same exhibits, etc just now.