40 THINGS TO DO WITH KIDS THIS SEPTEMBER
- VF
- 3 days ago
- 15 min read
Best Family Events in London this September 2025
You survived the Summer Holidays. Two thumbs up, five gold stars and a litre of gin.
September welcomes more easy-going, child-flavoured fun, the type that allows us a five-day breather while they’re at school, and less frantic restocking of the snack cupboard.
It includes four FREE festivals with giant sleeping beauties and musical playgrounds; pond-dipping, sports car driving, bear hunts, dinosaurs, cowboys, aliens and monsters. Read our guide below to turbo-charge your September.
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FREE Somerset House Step Inside 25 Weekend
To celebrate its 25th birthday, the cultural hub opens its doors for a weekend of FREE family-friendly events, installations, performances, and workshops. Highlights include a pop-up basketball installation, immersive disco experiences from the CUTE exhibition, and drawing workshops inspired by their Peanuts exhibition. You'll also have the unique opportunity to go behind the scenes and visit artists' studios on Maker Street, discovering where new works and ideas are developed.
Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA. 13 & 14 September. FREE
London Design Festival
The annual design festival returns for its 22nd year, with a programme brimming with family-friendly experiences.
These include Miffy at Bankside - an immersive design experience at Hilton London Bankside - Step Inside Quantum - an installation exploring how our bodies function, how nature behaves, how we produce energy, and how we communicate - and the free Hornscape Playground - an interactive public art installation that transforms a playground into a musical landscape.
London Design Festival. Multiple locations from 13 - 21 September. Many events are free.
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 workshop. Highlights include the immersive Shield of Achilleus on SS Robin installation and Mudlarking Exhibition in the Roman Amphitheatre.
Totally Thames Festival. 1-30 September. Multiple locations along the River Thames.
Chelsea Physic Garden - FREE Open Day
Families are invited to London’s oldest botanical garden for a FREE weekend of pond dipping, craft activities, and lively storytelling sessions. Children will encounter historical characters who will share tales of medicine, botanical art and plants from centuries past.
Chelsea Physic Garden, 66 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London SW3 4HS. 27 & 28 September. FREE
Young Driver
Kids from just 4 to 17 can get behind the wheel of a car and drive themselves around the bend, instead of their parents.
Under 9s drive specially created (and impossibly cute) mini electric sports cars, and over 9s drive real dual-controlled cars with fully qualified instructors.
Lessons are fun, safe and help develop road skills that last a lifetime. The emphasis is on creating a safer next generation of drivers, and reducing the number of accidents newly qualified drivers have - for those taking part it's just lots of fun and a great confidence boost.
Young Driver. 70 Venues across the country, including Kent and the South East, like Bluewater and the South of England Showground
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
The winners of our Best Kid’s Theatre Award, Little Angel Theatre, bring Michael Rosen’s timeless children’s book to life, with beautiful puppetry in this family expedition of a lifetime.
Run down the grassy bank, wade through the cold river, squelch over the oozy mud, stumble into the dark forest, then peer into a cave… what will they find?
Little Angel Theatre,14 Dagmar Passage, London N1 2DN. 6 September - 8 November. £15 per adult. £13 per child.
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, the FREE and UNTICKETED Greenwich + Docklands International Festival (GDIF) never disappoints.
And this year is no exception as it celebrates its 30th anniversary with experiences like Epiphytes, all-female aerial artists performing high up among the trees in Greenwich Park; Above & Beyond, eight parkour performers on a breathtaking journey across Woolwich buildings; or the Elephant and the Drummer in Greenwich Park, plus theatre, dance and performance art shows from 30 companies, across the the Royal Borough of Greenwich, Newham and Thamesmead over 16 days.
Greenwich+Docklands International Festival. Multiple locations across Royal Borough of Greenwich, Newham and Thamesmead. Until 6 September.
Oblix Afternoon Tea
Set high above London on the 32nd floor of The Shard, Oblix brings a playful twist to the traditional afternoon tea, especially for children under 12. This beautifully curated offering includes a selection of fun and imaginative sweet and savoury treats, like a chocolate and praline bunny; strawberry ladybird, and delicate finger sandwiches with freshly baked scones and washed down with hot chocolate.
Oblix, The Shard, 31 St Thomas St, London SE1 9RY. Available from Thursday to Sunday,12pm to 4pm, from £39 pp. Reservations can be made online or by calling 020 7268 6700
Jurassic World: The Experience
One, T-Rexceptional event knocks all other dino experiences out of the Jurassic Park.
Jurassic World: The Experience is the only official, live adaptation of one of the biggest blockbuster franchises in movie history.
Life finds a way at Battersea Power Station's new NEON venue, as 16 of the film’s most famous, scaly stars take over 34,000 square feet for the immersive event.
Visitors enter through the iconic gates and walk beneath a towering Brachiosaurus, explore the lab of genetic development, come face to face with Velociraptor Blue, and even get a rare up-close look at the most vicious dinosaur of them all, the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Guests of all ages can also interact with baby dinosaurs, discover and engage with actual fossilised dinosaur bones (and dinosaur poo) across two floors of curated, immersive environments within this new venue.
Jurassic World: The Experience, NEON at Battersea Power Station, 23 May - 30 September. Tickets from £25
Phantom Peak - Burning Blimp Festival
The world's first, fully immersive open-world adventure has adventure and fun for kids and grown-ups, who can explore a fully realised, 30,000 square foot Steampunk town inhabited by quirky characters and brimming with mysteries and stories.
Over four plus hours, they can go on adventure of their choosing, perhaps strolling along the canal getting the gossip from locals, or even launching a career as the town’s resident criminal? Then enjoy food and drink in the Wild-West themed Thirsty Frontier Saloon, interact with immersive sets, technology, and live actors.
Phantom Peak, Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 7PJ
The Smeds and the Smoos
This July, The Lyric is transformed into the Wurpular Wood, for an adventure brimming with tall truckles and jellyful fruit, in the grand return of Smeds and the Smoos.
Tall Stories are the alchemists of forensically faithful Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler book adaptations, expertly stretching five-minute bedtime reads into hour-long spectacles, bursting with puppets, songs and interactive scripts.
The kids’ theatre company has been touring its stage version of The Gruffalo for more than 20 years - almost the age of the book itself - and after successful adaptations of Donaldson's The Gruffalo’s Child and The Snail and the Whale, and the huge popularity of Smeds and the Smoos, the aliens are back.
The Smeds and the Smoos, Lyric Theatre, 29 Shaftesbury Ave, London W1D 7ES. Tickets from £12. 12 July - 7 September
Thames Rockets’ New Rocket Rebel
Take the family aboard the Rocket Rebel, Thames Rockets’ biggest, fastest and most eco-friendly new sightseeing speedboat to tear up the Thames.
The capital’s first ever 26-seater speedboat is half rollercoaster, half tour and features a medley of singalong anthems during the 60-minute adventure, and fun facts.
The big sell for kids is when the 880 horsepower engines rev up to catapult them up to speeds of 35 miles per hour.
Thames Rockets, Rocket Rebel, The London Eye Pier, Boarding Gate 1, SE1 7PB. Adults £69.95 pp. Kids £59.95 pp
Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue
The European premiere of the new Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue invites fans of all ages to team up and become heroes, rescuing a village under siege from zombies, in an interactive adventure through seven Minecraft zones.
Adventurers are given glowing, vibrating and colour-changing orbs to gather vital ingredients for a life saving potion to save villagers; battle blocky Creepers, and craft buildings.
The high octane quest has made quite the impression on our readers, with a highlight being a real-life “the floor is lava” game, leaping across molten magma to reach the fort.
Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue. Corner Corner, Maritime Street, London, SE16 7LL. Until 28 September
The Robot Zoo
How do chameleons change colour? What makes grasshoppers leap so high? How do bats see at night? Enter the fascinating world of The Robot Zoo and discover the mechanisms that give animals their amazing abilities.
This family-friendly exhibition features larger-than-life animals that have been cleverly recreated using a variety of familiar machine parts and gadgets to reveal how their real life counterparts see, eat, hunt and hide.
Interactive exhibits also give you the chance to try jet-propelled squid racing, and shoot a chameleon’s ‘tongue-gun’.
Horniman Museum, Lower Ground Floor, 100 London Rd, London SE23 3PQ. 14 February-2 November. Child ticket £6.50. Adult ticket £9.75
YOUNG V&A - Making Egypt
Following the success of its first exhibition, Japan: Myth to Manga, Young V&A invites you on a fascinating journey through the ancient past to modern day, exploring ancient Egypt's creativity and how it continues to influence art, design and popular culture today, via more than 200 fascinating pieces - the oldest is a stonking 5,500 years old.
Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9PA. Tickets £10pp. The Exhibition Pass gives unlimited visits to Making Egypt. Until 2 November
Kedi Studio
This unique, splatter paint experience is the perfect way to entertain and inspire Jackson Pollock Jrs.
The innovative art studio welcomes all ages and skill levels to enjoy the thrill and freedom of creative expression in their colourful Splat Room.
They provide the protective smock and shoes, stretched canvas and paints and kids provide the creativity - splashing, splattering, spraying, and throwing paint - in exactly the way they’re not allowed at home - to create their masterpiece, ready to take home in a custom box.
Kedi Studio, Arch 91 Tiverton St, London SE1 6FX. Every Thursday-Monday. From £45.
Ride the UK’s Longest Toboggan Run
Take on the country’s epic, 740 metre toboggan run through pretty scenery for under a tenner.
Chatham Snowboard Centre’s toboggan run invites everybody aged four up to whizz around its metal course, for an adrenaline-packed experience with low skills and big thrills.
And the cheeky bonus is that if your child is under 7, you get two rides together for £9.
Chatham Snowsports Centre, John Nike Leisuresport Alpine Park, Capstone Rd, Chatham ME7 3JH. £9 for two toboggan rides (adults ride free with kids under 7) £17.50 for five rides.
Bella the Tower Bridge Cat Trail
Two and four legged guests can go on a feline trail at the London landmark, meeting character from the popular Bella the Tower Bridge Cat books and tottering across its astonishing glass walkways, 42 metres above the Thames.
The cat trail is open all year, for people (as well as pets) and is a fabulous adventure for little ones, filled with fascinating history, as they get their Apprenticeship Records stamped by characters along the way.
And keep your eyes peeled for the famous feline's birthday celebrations, when they turn up the meowsic and get the pawty started.
Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP. Daily, 9.30am - 6pm. Included with your ticket - £6.70 kids, £13.40 adults.
Magic of Afternoon Tea at Vintry & Mercer
Five star boutique hotel, Vintry & Mercer launched a brand new candlelit Magic of Afternoon Tea, for little (and big) wizards, which is full of delicious surprises.
Our menu comes to life with a UV torch, there are chocolate soil-filled coffins to excavate, magical elixirs to mix, dramatic smoking tiers brimming with edible spell books, chocolate wands, owls and a chocolate and mango Excalibur dessert stabbed with a chocolate sword.
And that's before we discuss the savouries and other surprises, which you can read about in our review. Hint: It's one of our favourite new family afternoon tea experiences.
Vintry & Mercer, 19-20 Garlick Hill, London EC4V 2AU. Adult's Magic of Afternoon Tea - from £49.50 pp. Kid's Wizard's Afternoon Tea - £37.50
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
The Paddington Bear Immersive Experience
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
Science Museum Astronights Sleepover
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.
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.
iFly Childrens’ Skydive
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
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.
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
Avora Family Experience
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.
Play Captain on a GoBoat River Picnic
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
Brigit's Bakery official Paddington Bear afternoon tea bus tour 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 Zip World London's 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.
Zip World London, 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 Observatory Greenwich Park, Blackheath Avenue SE10 8XJ
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