- London
- /
- free
- (26)
-
United Kingdom
Fun-packed, totally environmentally-friendly festival with a serious twist set in Regent's Park.
Expect live music, all solar and wind powered of course, have your say in the new Love London Speakers’ Forum or chill out with a short film in the solar cinema.
Younger visitors can go wild with animal encounters from London Zoo and get the chance to learn about all things green in the Green Roadshow circus tent. There is also Eco-fashion workshops, ethical finance zone, an improved Bikefest and a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
For this year only, the fair will host the Strictly Fairtrade Tea Dance, which aims to break the world for the biggest open air tea dance ever attempted.
The festival is put together by a group of local volunteers, and it's totally free and well worth the trip to join in the fun.
Regents Park (Cumberland and Gloucester Gates)
Camden Town, Regents Park or Great Portland Street.
One of the most popular places in London for shopping and having fun with the whole family on a sunny weekend. Walk up and down Camden High Street and have a snack in the numerous pubs and cafes or take a canal boat trip.
www.hotelara.com/travel/uk/england/london-shops-shopping.html
When in London, a visit to Greenwich is a must. See the Observatory and take a walk at Greenwich Park, and visit the National Maritime Museum that has free admission daily 10.00 am to 17.00 pm.
www.hotelara.com/england/2007/10/westminster-to-greenwich-boat-trip.html
A really good web resource I’ve been using to expand my repertoire of riding is a website called www.bikely.com. It’s a global community site for logging routes and sharing them with others. I’ve been using it for everything from holidays to training rides.
You can draw your proposed route on the map and it’ll work out distance, height gains and you can even export it to Google Earth for a pre ride fly through. Great fun for planning your own Tour De France in the lunch hour with some really good local knowledge on a lot of the routes.
Mill Green Museum is a fully working watermill (undershot wheel) run by volunteers and housing the local museum for Hatfield, Herts. You can watch milling of organic flour every week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, and see the waterwheel in action every day (except for Monday when the mill is closed), which my children love to see.
Lots of gears and cogs and flour leaking out. Children can try grinding corn the hard way or the easy way. In the summer there is a small cafe with outdoor seats in the sensory garden. There is also a local collection of bits of history, with things for children to find.
And it's all free.
Mill Green
Hatfield
Herts AL9 5PD
www.hertsmuseums.org.uk/millgreen/
Tel: 01707 271362
Nearest station is Hatfield (Herts) 23 mins from London Kings Cross every 30 mins (Mon-Sat), 1 fast per hour Sundays, plus two slower. Then either a 20 min walk, 5 mins on a bike National Cycle Network route 12 or bus 301 or 603 every 15 mins, 5 mins ride.
By car, follow signs from A1(M) junctions 3 or 4.
Lovely street in Clerkenwell lined with independent shops and very good restaurants (Exmouth Market's the home of Moro, a restaurant that kick-started the regeneration of the street ten years ago).
When I strolled down recently there was a new outdoor food and craft market. I was very very pleased to see that Neals Yard Cheese had a stall as usually you have to trek to Covent Garden or Borough market for their cheeses. Was lovely to be able to buy some really good, and not ridiculously priced food but wihout the business of some of London's other markets. I think the market's only there on Friday and Saturday; a lovely way to while away a weekend afternoon, especially as there are lots of tasting opportunities and a really good mix of well-known companies and tiny cottage industries.
Off Rosebery Avenue near Farringdon Road.
Nearest Tube is Farringdon
website is www.exmouthmarket.co.uk
One of those things that when you visit, if there is an opportunity to do it .. you just have to. I found some useful tips here and thought it was definitely worth a mention. There are three good opportunities outlined here - all of which you have a great chance to see HM and some of her family. Enjoy!
The Regents Canal, once one of Britain's busiest commercial routes, is now an informative walk through widely differing areas.
The towpath takes in Limehouse, Islington, Kings Cross, Camden, Regents Park and finally Little Venice near Paddington. Camden Lock is an ideal stop off for some shopping in the local market and a snack or drink.
Primrose Hill is an easy detour north for views over London and, passing through the north of Regents Park, if you time it right you can take in the feeding of the hyenas as you walk right through the middle of London zoo.
Start at Kings Cross by turning left and walking behind the station on York Way until the canal crosses you. Paddington station is close to Little Venice, where two canals meet.
Tucked away next to The Barbican, this museum 'does what it says on the tin'; it's about the history of London, from prehistory to modern times. I've been coming here, on and off, since I was 13; my son is now that age, and loves it as much as I do!
All Londoners should visit here at least once, to help your understanding of what makes London the unique world city we live in. With lots of interactivity for the children, and well laid out exhibits for the rest of us!
Just one tip; the Museum Cafe is good for a cup of coffee and a sticky bun, but I wouldn't recommend it for lunch.
www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/
Nearest Tube, Barbican or St Pauls
I took my then 2 year old daughter to Fruitstock (the Innocent Smoothie festival) last year and it's one of the best things we did last summer. We just took a picnic and met up with a bunch of friends (none of them had children with them) and there was plenty to do for adults and children alike. There was a wonderful play area for toddlers and lots of other activities. I expect it'll be even better this year now that she is three.
This year is is on 5&6 August in Regents Park, London.
I'm just a previous attendee, with nothing to gain from publicising this other than sharing the fun!
Situated on a hill in one of the nicest parts of London is the Royal Observatory. I like it because of the view across the Thames (fantastic and free); it’s not jammed in like lots of things in London (the Aussie in me wants big spaces) and for something different, you can stand in both halves of the world at the same time . How so? By straddling the line at 0 degrees longitude at the Observatory ( which means, you stand in two hemispheres at once).
The National Maritime Museum is close by (at the bottom of the hill, on the edge of the park) and is also worth a look, as is the Queen’s House. The Observatory is part of the Greenwich World Heritage site.
Greenwich Park, London;
Access from Greenwich station is best (carparking is limited);
Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum: www.rog.nmm.ac.uk
Greenwich Park: www.royalparks.gov.uk/parks/greenwich_park/
It's like nowhere else in London. Some might say sanitised and boring, but I'd disagree. If you're tired of the hustle and bustle of central London hop on the Jubilee line, or, even better, the DLR, and come over. Great waterside eating and drinking (dimsum at Royal China is fantastic, and not too costly), super tall buildings, and expensive subterreanean shops. Whilst it is certainly not the weekend ghost town of earlier years, it still feels much calmer than London proper on a Saturday or Sunday.
In the summer especially there are often good free events in the small parks that are dotted around, such as concerts on Friday evenings, and films sometimes on Saturdays.
If you're coming with children then combine your visit with Mudchute City Farm down in the Isle of Dogs. It has cows, goats and guinea pigs, plus a riding school.
www.mycanarywharf.com/whatson/calendar.html;
Royal China: tel - 0207 719 0888;
www.royalchinagroup.co.uk
The Thames Path is a national trail walking route along the length of the Thames - from the source to the mouth - which of course means it runs right through the heart of London. It's a great route, and gives you a flavour of the variety that there is in London, just by going a few miles along it. You could be in Kew then Putney or by the Houses of Parliament then the Tate Modern. If you are a bit more adventurous you will find yourself up close and personal with Canary Wharf and then the amazing Thames Barrier.
www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ThamesPath/index.asp?PageId=1 or www.theaccesscompany.com/londonwalks/#
Sunday flower market, good for buying fresh flowers and plants, but also great just to walk about. Plenty of cafes and shops to poke about in too, and within walking distance of Brick Lane (for a curry) or Kingsland Road (for Vietnamese).
Columbia Road, Hackney E2
One of London's best-kept secrets/parks in the East End. It's huge and full of things to see and do - tennis courts, three lakes, flying fox, giant slides, two kids' playgrounds (including an adventure-type paddling pool for summer fun), football pitches, walking/running/cycling paths and lots of big green space if you like to just sit and do nothing. Also has a regular dose of fairs, concerts, etc.
In between Hackney and Bethnal Green. Closest tube stops Bethnal Green and Mile End. Bus no. 277 goes through the middle of it and can be caught from Mile End tube station.
Newly restored, this glorious Nicholas Hawksmoor designed baroque church towers over the streets of Spitalfields. It's a thriving parish church, but you can also visit on Tuesdays and Sundays to marvel at the beautiful Purbeck stone floor, soaring pillars and decorative wood carvings.
In December it plays host to Spitalfields Winter Festival. There seem to be many musical treats in store from 12-21 December, from choral classics, via medieval music, to a community carol service. Some concerts are free.
Commercial Street, London E1 6LY
near Liverpool Street station
www.spitalfieldsvenue.org
www.spitalfieldsfestival.org.uk
The world - like life, is not a candy coated pudding! You can't simply read some non-sense from some guy who sat in a bar one afternoon in some foreign place and had 'such a fabulous' time!! If this is what you're looking for then you've missed the whole point of travel and indeed life itself! The greatest moments come when they're least expected, in places you'd never dream of enjoying. The moments in life that stay with us, the most profound and valuable, are those in which we had an emotional link, a bond with special people around us - it's called poetry / art / life / love. You have to get out there and find it for yourself - not sit in front of a computer screen or walk around with your nose in a guide book hoping paradise and 'the most amazing experience of your life' can be reached on the number 56 bus!! My recommendation? Burn the guide books and walk with your eyes and heart open. Find your own moments and places which are special. Other people can not live your life for you!
Look around you!
Where to begin? One of the most beautiful buildings in London is also home to one of the richest natural history collections in the world. This is also one of the few museums that pulls off the trick of being immediate and exciting enough for children while providing the kind of depth that keeps adults coming back time and again. Unbelievably, it's also free.
Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD; Nearest tube: South Kensington; www.nhm.ac.uk/
Shopping on Kensington High Street can be a fraught affair, so cut into Holland Park, ignoring the initial, undistinguished expanse of grass crammed with sunbathers and footballers, and find the little patch of heaven that is the Japanese Garden. Avoid the weekends when it is over-run by tourists, and you are guaranteed to forget that you're in one of the busiest cities in the world.
Kensington High Street; Nearest tube: High Street Kensington or Holland Park; www.rbkc.gov.uk/ParksAndGardens/HollandPark/default.asp
The basement at the Science Museum is great for kids. Experiments and puzzles that make up a world of edutainment.
Exhibition Road, SW7; Tel: 0870 870 4868; Tube: South Kensington; www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/
Send your feedback or queries to been.there@guardian.co.uk
Search Been there
Your tips about London