Guide Chelsea and Kensington for kids
Here’s our guide to Chelsea and Kensington with kids, our royal hood with a myriad of museums frequented by locals and visitors alike; Victorian houses and old-world buildings blend with the artisanal shops and international consulates; grand architecture with exclusive clubs, leafy streets with family fun. 16 fantastic things to do in Chelsea London, weather proof!
Kensington Palaces:
Kensington Palace Queen Victoria
1. Royal play at Kensington Palace and in the stunning gardens. We visit regularly and wrote about in here, including topical Christmas celebrations.
Kensington Palace is also an old time favourite spot of ours; parents for glamorous social events sans enfants and children meet ups for picnics, chasing birds by the lake or hide and seek the gorgeous grounds.
Some of the finest UK museums, labs, exhibitions and galleries : perfect to culture and cheer up even on gloomy, rainy days.
2. Feeling creative, innovative and/ or keen to explore culture trends and fabrics? Head to Design Museum. Not only a full immersion into iconic designs, from printers to underground, to chairs and television; the museum has a brilliant family room and hosts regularly cool workshops and exhibitions: Ferrari under the skin in here has been one of our favourites; and what a nice intro into Ferrari World we tested in Abu Dhabi! We also had a blast at Moving to Mars , exploring the surface of the Red planet like we haven’t tried before, from floors designed to its grounds resemblance to huge screens, to astronauts gear and spacecrafts. Hugely inspirational, humbling and popular – queues on weekends and leaving heads in the intergalactic clouds.
3. V&A for arty souls, their discovery trails and back bags are fabulous; one of the most fantastic things to do in Chelsea London, we promise. On weekends there are also regular family events and on school holidays an array of activities – we danced with robots and elderly in here, drew, sculpted, posed, talked Roman history and so on!
V&A membership is also money very well spent, their exhibitions have been regularly fabulous and very inspirational: Currently on Diva and Gabrielle Chanel Fashion Manifesto; both fabulous in their ways.
Some journalists see at Diva showstopping flame dresses, beauty and tragedy wrapped in satin and glitter; I see the long way artists, women and humanity had to come through, empowerment versus silencing and corsets. Hilarious and liberating in so many ways, Diva celebrates the power and creativity through a fantastic audio track across opera, stage, popular music, and film; the only objection I had from a certain 10 years old was that classical musicians have been missed, surely his role model Hilary Hahn needs to be in there!
4. For space and science lovers look no further than Science Museum and its wonderful WonderLab. Explore spacecrafts sent to other planets, walking on the moon, peer into the heart of our galaxy and beyond. Planes and early flying devices, space and astronauts, cars and trains – impossible to exhaust in a full day visit. And I bet any London parent with toddler had been stuck for hours at the Garden in the Basement – waterplay, sensory fun and exciting interactive devices!
5. Feeling arty and controversial? Saatchi galleries are so cool and host on regular basis different exhibitions. Tutankhamun was one of our favourites back in 2020!
And the set up is great to grab a cocktail, catch up with friends and let the kiddies run around. In the past they loved the Lego exhibition, wrote about in here.
6. Fancy stepping inside earth, test buildings for tsunamis or experience an earthquake in person? Roaring dinosaurs, huge whales, creepy crawlers, testing and understanding your body? There’s that and so much more at Natural History Museum, the most popular family museum in London for all the right reasons.
Kensington parks & Chelsea gardens:
7. Feeling playfully rogue or hyper? Join the pirates at Diana memorial playground. Technically borderline Kensington, there’s also Diana memorial fountains which are heaven to play in the rare hot London summer days.
8. Peacocks, Japanese gardens, ecology centre and adventure playground? All awaiting in Holland park.
9. In summer we are also spoilt with Opera Holland Park and its open family day – conduct an orchestra, have tea with Alice in the wonderland, dress up, dance and sing on stage to mention just a few.
In 2023 we’ve been super lucky and have seen both Verdi’s Rigoletto with City of London Sinfonia (more appropriate name according to a certain 9 years old Mortoletto!) and fantastic Hansel and Gretel: Brothers Grimm’s tale of hunger, enchantment, entrapment and rescue; Engelbert Humperdinck’s 1893 opera has been delicious, with charming folksongs and sweeping orchestration as the siblings Hansel and Gretel venture to forage for berries and meet The Sandman, The Dew Fairy and The Gingerbread Witch on their adventure.
10. Chelsea Physics Gardens, London’s oldest botanical garden with over 5,000 plants, cafe and gift shop. Lots of family activities, including Chocolate Tuesday, seasonal wreath making at Duke of York Square, Lotions and Potions, Beginners’ Gardening, Garden Safari. Definitely in our top things to do in Chelsea London, recharge batteries and zen!
More iconic venues, music & theatre :
11. Royal Albert Hall is Kensington’s jewel and iconic London institution. We go to proms, best Xmas shows and concerts and of course, Cirque du Soleil.
There are also regular tours of this gorgeous venues, school holidays workshops, jazz and so much more!
In 2023 we were also very lucky to be back in London in time for 3 fab performances of BBC Proms season: Chineke Orchestra mesmerised with Haydn ‘s joyous and witty Trumpet concert played by Aaron Azunda Akugbo; Seven o’clock shout by Valerie Coleman took us back vigorously to questionable pandemic days and practices; Samuel Coleridge Taylor was a kaleidoscopic discovery and Beethoven’s 4th symphony dazzled between drama and jubilation.
Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphael Pichon put up also one magnificent Requiem performance, a classic Mozart with a fresh, alternative vision from crushing tragedy to sublime consolation; whilst Malakai Bayoh out of this world voice opened and ended one surreal, spellbinding evening. And right after, one late Proms with Bbc Singers, rich in heritage and talent, taking us on dream like journeys on Indian summer late nights Joanna Marsh SEEN and Soumik Datta’s Awaaz.
12. Cadogan Hall in Sloane square also hosts regular shows for kids – we had a blast at Going on a Bear Hunt and with Jules Vernes Around the World to mention just a couple! December in here spoils with the Rat Pack and so many other Xmas classics!
13. Are you a sushi addict or Japan lover? Japan House opened at High Street Kensington and in addition to a brilliant sushi place Akira (1st floor) and shop on the ground floor, there are regular exhibitions basement floor.
14. Leighton house. Almost reluctant to share this little gem, the gardens are opened all year around and free to visit. Leighton house has an entrance but certainly worth paying to get to see this gem of a Kensington house.
15. National Army Museum – recently refurbished and brilliant for interactive play, from tanks to be driven and coordinated as a team, to guards outfits to be designed and tested, to marching and drums. Tones of history and regular exhibitions. This year Nam also hosted the first Chelsea history festival, we attended and had blast!
16. Serpentine and Serpentine Sackler Galleries, 2 contemporary art galleries in Kensington Garden. Lots of great and controversial art, annual architecture commission – a global platform for experimental projects by some of the world’s greatest architects. Next door at Serpentine Sackler, the extension designed by Zaha Hadid is the perfect visionary curving café for a chic bites for kids and cocktails for parents.
Serpentine and Serpentine Sackler Galleries
So lucky to call this home, Kensington and Chelsea for kids is truly wonderful! Feeling peckish after so much culture, science and play? For our favourite Japanese restaurants in Kensington and Chelsea for kids, head to our dedicated article in here. More family friendly favourite restaurants to be wrapped up soon! For further adventures and days out London with toddler, head to our dedicated article in here and 27 fab daytrips from Kensington head here.
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