30 ways to feel like a big kid in London

Fancy hurling yourself down the world’s tallest and longest tunnel slide? Then make towards the ArcelorMittal Orbit in Olympic Park.

Designed by the artist Anish Kapoor and structural engineer Cecil Balmond, this curly wurly red tower stands 114.5m (376ft) tall – with lifts (and a 455-step staircase) up to two platforms from which look out on The Shard, St Paul’s and the Wembley arches. But the main draw for London’s big kids is getting back down the tower, via the world’s tallest and longest tunnel slide. 

The slide is 178 metres long (that’s a clammy-palm-inducing 584 feet) but it’ll take you a mere 40 seconds to shoot from top to bottom. There are 12 turns along the way and ends with a satisfying 50-metre straight run to the ground. Exhilerating stuff! 

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, E20 2AD. £25 per person. 

Is it really possible to age out of enjoying a good old fashioned sleepover, complete with PJs, a stack of movies and a tub of ice cream? We don’t think so. Take this tried and tested formula to the next level at The Prince Charles Cinema with tickets for one of its all-night movie marathons (pyjamas optional).

The Lord of the Rings nuts, Disney fans and horror buffs will all find a movie bonanza to sate their appetites. Tickets are great value, and filmgoers are even allowed to bring their own snacks and drinks (but not alcohol or noisy/smelly foods).

7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP. Regular dates. From £20.

Roaming the restaurant at 1 Hotel Mayfair is a shiny retro icecream cart filled with sauces, sorbets and sprinkles – basically everything you could need to create the ultimate knickerboker glory. Choose from ice cream flavours such as chocolate-raspberry ripple, lemon vanilla and cookie crumble, and toppings like popping candy, fresh strawberries and brownie bits.

Once you’ve made your choice, your server will frost up the sundae glass using the carbon dioxide jet installed in the cart. Watch as they construct your epic dessert, topped with whipped cream, a brandied cherry and a wafer, then dive right in.

1 Hotel Mayfair, W1J 8NE. £18.

With their expressive little faces, zen personalities and fondness for taking long baths, capybaras have become something of a viral sensation in recent years. But if you thought you could only find the world’s largest rodent in South America, think again. There are five cabybaras – Andre, Corey, Sunny, Churro and Taquito – in residence at Hounslow adventure park Hobbledown Heath, and of them are cute as hell.

The farm is one of the only places in the UK where you can get up close to these adorable creatures, with 20 minute sessions that let you give them a pet and hand-feed them lettuce while a keeper tells you fascinating facts about capybara behaviour, habitat and history. Yes, they’re aimed at kids, but technically 6+ includes people in their forties. And they do offer adult-only entry for animal experiences.  

Hobbledown Heath, TW14 0HH. From £75 per person. 

Enter through the Blockbuster-esque video shop to find a world where the iPhone doesn’t yet, the Spice Girls are top of the charts, and a smooth-talking guy called Tony is in charge. Yes, it’s Bunga 90, a 1990s-themed adult playground on Drury Lane in Covent Garden. Here you can drink a gin cocktail out of a mug shaped like Britney Spears’ head or a tequila mix from the head of Will Smith.

Best of all, you can do karaoke in private rooms decked out to look like the bedrooms of various teen idols (there’s Marky Mark’s room, decorated in Italia 90 tournament charts and Team USA basketball memorabilia, or Gwen’s tartan room filled with cuddly toys and Melody Maker mags. Food wise, there’s a selection of nineties movie-inspired snacks (‘Goldeneyes’ onion rings, ‘Cobzilla’ corn on the cob) and 20-inch deep pan pizzas for the taking. And be sure to check out the enjoyably weird communal karaoke set-up in the loos. 

167 Drury Ln, WC2B 5PG. Free entry, or private karaoke from £39 for 90 minutes.

This delightful red fronted family-run shop, in operation for over 60 years, is an enjoyably retro Aladdin’s Cave for wannabe and professional magicians and those who just want to learn a few party tricks to impress and baffle their friends. 

There are all manner of tricks and gimmicks on offer, from pocket-friendly playing card and coin tricks, to big flashy ones suited to the stage and involving everything from floating lightbulbs to vanishing cabinets. Arcane books and tutorial DVDs will show you the ropes, and, for those who want to go one step further, there’s the opportunity to undertake courses, catered for a range of different levels, plus hear lectures by professional magicians. 

89 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5BX. Open Tuesday-Saturday.

The capital’s latest vertiginous adventure bills itself as the highest rooftop walk in the UK. Visitors amble up north London’s Grade II-listed landmark all the way up to the Angel of Plenty statue on top of its roof, 130 metres above sea level. From that point you can see everything from St Paul’s Cathedral to Shard to Canary Wharf. 

Located in the increasingly culturally vibrant Wembley Park, Bubble Planet is a family-friendly immersive experience themed (extremely loosely) around bubbles. From a balloon room and a ball pool to a computer-generated ocean and a VR experience – both of which do technically feature bubbles – it’s all killer no filler, if by ‘killer’ you mean ‘room full of giant balloons that keep bursting and there are staff employed to stand on the side inflating new ones’. 

It is by no means high art, but if you’re in the mood for something decidedly less cerebral than one of London’s many world-class free museums and galleries, this is certainly a fun way to feel like a big excitable kid for a couple of hours.

22 Fulton Road, HA9 0TF. From £17.90. 

This Bethnal Green institution into a bright, fun and creative spot that is home to one of the world’s finest collections of children’s toys, doll’s houses, games and costumes. Part of the Victoria & Albert Museum empire, it’s been amassing childhood-related objects since 1872 and continues to do so with Incredibles figures complimenting bonkers 1970s puppets, Barbie Dolls and Victorian praxinoscopes.

The Museum’s brilliant dolls’ house collection has been imaginatively displayed in the new renovation. Now you can walk between the houses and there are peepholes that offer views into eccentric living rooms full of optical illusions.  

Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA. Free.

Roller skating has been having a bit of a moment in London over the last few years, with everyone and their mother seemingly investing in a set of blades and taking to the nearest park, or strapping on the padding and getting stuck into the city’s roller derby scene. If you fancy getting in on the action, there’s nowhere better to do so than Rollernation. London’s OG ‘nightclub on wheels’ relocated to this former cinema in Tottenham’s Bruce Grove in 2019, and has gone from strength to strength since, with thousands of Londoners walking (or gliding) through its doors each week. 

There are day sessions for the whole family all week but at nighttime (from Thursday to Sunday) it turns into a pumping roller club soundtracked by DJs playing soul, funk, dancehall, disco and Afrobeats. Bring your own roller skates or hire a pair when you get there. It’s a wheely good time. 

117 Bruce Grove, N17 6UR. From £12.50. 

Heart of Gaming in Croydon is on a mission to keep London’s arcade scene alive. There are more than 60 retro machines and consoles spread across its floor from shooting games like Ghost Squad to dance games like Project Diva and racing games like Mario Kart and Europe’s only 8-player Daytona USA! Outrun 2. Get a £20 all-day pass and try out as many as possible. Visit for one of its regular games events such as the Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments and Pokémon nights. 

44-46 North End Road, Croydon, CR0 1UG. £20.

If you find yourself yearning for red cups, beer pong and running around a stranger’s house while buzzed on rum punch, this one is for you. House Party, co-founded by rapper Stormzy, is a unique bar concept modelled around an old-school house party, slap-bang in the middle of Soho.

Set across a seven-floor townhouse, you’ll find a teenager’s bedroom, complete with Page Three pin-ups tacked to the wall and a clunky, noughties-style PC; the parents’ room, where you can roll around in a double bed and queue karaoke songs; a kitchen (known to host secret gigs); a rooftop (for beer pong); a living room with game consoles and a DJ-soundtracked basement that fills up like a club.  

61 Poland Street, W1F 7NU. Free entry with advance booking (excluding special events). 

Waterparks are pure, joyous fun. And there are plenty of places where you can go to get a good drenching, and adrenaline rush, in the capital, or just a short train ride away. So, gather your mates for a silly day of splashing. Liquid Leisure in Windsor is Europe’s largest aqua park and the first official ‘Ninja Warrior’ UK Aqua Park while Waterfront Leisure Centre in Woolwich has a thrilling ‘Anaconda’ slide and the London Aquatics Centre often puts up an inflatable water park with slides, an obstacle course, and a huge balloon that will catapult you into the air.

Various venues. Prices vary.

Paddington Bear can charm pretty much anyone aged eight months to 80 years. You read the books and watched the TV show as a child and saw the movies when as they started coming out 10 years ago, so it only makes sense that now, you delight in his West End musical. The new show follows the polite young bear as he arrives in London from Peru and adjusts to his new life, battling a bad guy or two in the process. 

By now you’ve probably seen plenty of videos of the animatronic bear suit, but nothing compares to seeing this adorable little furry creature in the, er, flesh. And the songs by McFly’s Tom Fletcher may even bring a tear to your eye. 

Savoy Theatre, WC2R 0ET. From £20. 

This spacious tabletop gaming venue in Waterloo is a paradise for anyone who enjoys a bit of friendly competition. Shelves are packed with nearly 1,000 board games, ranging from family favourites and party classics to strategy-heavy titles for more serious players, all of which are available to hire for up to three hour. 

But it’s more than just a place to roll dice and move counters. There’s a well-stocked bar pouring beers (as the name suggests), cocktails and soft drinks, while the food menu offers plenty of options for sustaining lengthy gaming sessions. The venue regularly hosts themed events and special offers throughout the year. If you were bang into Settlers of Catan or D&D growing up, this one is for you. 

16 Leake Street, SE1 7NN. From £7.50 per person for three hours. 

Located bang in the middle of Oxford Street, the Twist Museum might sound incredibly similar to several other family immersive experiences that have recently arrived in London, but it does in fact teeter dangerously close towards being an actual museum. Or at least an exhibition, not of ‘twists’ but illusions. From the Ames Window to the Beuchet Chair, a bunch of popular optical illusions are presented in interactive displays that let you see the illusion at work, with helpful notes that explain both the illusion and the expected effect.

Slick, interesting and without the whiff of Instagram-appeasing basicness that other new London attractions with the word ‘museum’ in the name tend to possess, it’s a very pleasant way to kill a bit of time – maybe bolted on to a central London shopping sesh – whether you take kids or not.

248 Oxford Street, W1C 1DH. From £24.50.

Electric Shuffle was created by the people behind ‘social darts bar’ Flight Club, but this time, instead of slinging digital darts, it’s all about the classic game of shuffleboard with a high-tech twist. 

Offering high-energy competitive fun, decent cocktails and party bites, it’s an ideal venue for team get-togethers and group celebrations, with well over a million visitors having enjoyed some competitive fun across its venues since the first one opened in 2019. Games start from £10, or you can book bottomless brunch with an hour of gaming from £43 each.

1 Lewis Cubitt Park, N1C 4EJ. From £10 per person.

You may not have practised hitting balls in a batting cage as a kid but you’ve almost certainly watched kids doing it – in American movies and sitcoms. If you feel that you missed out on a sporting rite of passage, fear not: it can be done right here in London. Sluggers at Roof East in Stratford is a place where you can step into a batting cage and thwack baseballs to your heart’s content. Bring a group and take it in turns to swing – whoever hits the most targets will be declared the winner.

Great Eastern Way, E15 1XE. From £15 per session (for up to 6 players). 

Even if you have literally never wanted to be part of the crew of a spaceship you’ll have a fun time at Parabolic Theatre’s Bridge Command, an immersive theatre show that sees you and your fellow contestants take command of the bridge of a spaceship and undertake a variety of missions that run the gamut from diplomacy to warfare. 

Participants are put in military jumpsuits and ‘teleported’ into the depths of space and onto an Earth battleship to search for Gravium, a critical resource to save humanity. 

63-64 Albert Embankment, SE1 7TJ. From £49.

A hole in the fabric of space and time has opened up in Shoreditch. It leads to a pristine alien planet named Avora, in which the humanlike natives protect themselves from the planet’s toxic atmosphere by knocking back a substance called lumenol, served in delicious cocktail form.

Thoroughly entertaining, if vaguely ridiculous, this immersive sci-fi experience involves various fun and insta-friendly scenarios; guests have to don jumpsuits, forage for garnishes, and interact with aliens as they traverse various rooms filled with glowing plants and sacred trees.

Your £40 entry gets you three entertainingly-presented cocktails, and it’s not hard to score more. It’s really quite fun, a night of drinking given a loose structure, some kitschy distractions and an entertaining absurdity. 

Unit 5C, Rosewood Building, E2 8GY. From £40. 

Boat tours are hands down one of the coolest, most fun ways to soak up the city’s sights. The River Thames isn’t just a river, it’s a full-on sightseeing superstar. From the Tate Modern and St Paul’s Cathedral to Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, The O2 and Canary Wharf, you’ll cruise past some serious icons.

Thames Rockets is probably the most thrilling boat ride of the lot, zooming down the river at up to 30 knots. There’s also the speedy Thames RIB experience in which you can live out your 007 dreams with Paul McCartney’s ‘Live and Let Die’, Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ blasting through the speakers. 

Various boarding points. Prices vary. 

If you were the kind of kid who always asked for a T-Rex for Christmas and really relate to Ross from Friends (and have an equally impressive collection of fossils), spend the night at the Natural History Museum. ‘Dino Snores for Grown-Ups’ combines kiddie activities like a science show and live animal workshop, with the best of adulthood: stand-up comedy, drinks and nibbles and a late-night night monster movie marathon. Let’s just hope the fossils don’t come to life after dark. 

Natural History Museum, SW7 5BD. Regular dates. £235 per person. 

Just like the old TV show, the Crystal Maze experience includes dozens of game rooms in four different zones and a glass geodesic dome strong enough to handle eight adults flailing around in it. The experience allows you to play the game, just like you saw on your screens during childhood. There are gamemasters, team tactics, crystals and everyone who plays gets to wear a bomber jacket. 

The joy of this experience is in the incredible sets, the brilliantly silly hosts, the games so faithful to the original show that you can nearly remember their secrets, and the opportunity to blast your team-mates with frustrated yells and not have to deal with any hatred when their two minutes are up.

22-32 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EU. From £26.50 per person. 

Alongside pillowy pitta breads, tuna tartare, dry aged pichana and beautiful cocktails, the waiters at Lagana will serve you a cup of crayons. Each table at this Greek restaurant in Shoreditch is covered with blank white table cloths and diners have full permission (if fact they’re strongly encouraged) to scribble all over it. Dollar signs, bubble writing, the ‘Cool S’; it’s a fun reminder of all the drawing techniques you spent hours trying to master as a kid. 

19 Willow Street, EC2A 3HU

If the idea of being locked in a room fills you with dread then Sensas might be a good escape room option for you. The attraction secluded in one of Vauxhall’s railway arches doesn’t really involve any escaping at all, but rather a seriously entertaining multi-sensory team challenge with an important message behind it.

In teams of 4-15, you’ll work your way round a series of themed rooms each designed to test one of your five senses. The idea is that it demonstrates just how much we would all struggle when deprived of any of these. In tasting, sniffing and feeling your way to victory, you’ll collect points that will be converted into an actual cash donation towards local partner charity supporting people with disabilities.

Arch 17 Miles Street, SW8 1RZ. From £38 per person. 

Fancy yourself a bit of a racer? Then buckle up for F1 Arcade, the Formula One-inspired gaming experience that opened in Westfield last summer, where speed demons have the chance to go wheel-to-wheel without ever setting foot on a real racetrack.

The experience centres around 39 state-of-the-art full-motion racing simulators, each equipped with giant 4K screens and designed to make every corner, overtake and collision feel as realistic as possible. Players compete in a series of fast-paced races, with two back-to-back events packed into each 20-minute session. The combination of moving simulators, immersive sound design and cinematic visuals creates an experience that feels closer to a Formula One broadcast than a traditional arcade game. 

One New Change, EC4M 9AF. From £15 per person. 

We all remember those Pizza Express and Frankie & Benny’s birthday parties we attended as kids. If you want to replicate that somewhere a bit more classy, but just as vibey, with food that’ll satisfy even your fussiest of friends, book a table at Bar Etna. The cheese-packed pizzas here are sublime, big enough for sharing and customisable with a range of add-on toppings, the atmosphere is cool (and, crucially, slightly chaotic) and the £6 soft serve is a far better version of the kind we once went crazy for at Pizza Hut’s Ice Cream Factory.

47 Newington Green, N16 9PX. Pizzas from £19.

Located in a plum spot in Knightsbridge, The Paradox Museum joins the likes of Dopamine Land, the Balloon Museum and Bubble Planet on the ranks of what can only be described as ‘Instagrammable immersive family attractions’.

You’re not going to learn a lot about famous historical paradoxes here, although there are QR codes to scan if you’d like more information. For the most part, it leans on optical illusions and cool mirror-based tricks, less so actual paradoxes, though there are fun nods to things like Schrodinger’s Cat. 

The ‘zero-gravity room’ is a big spinning padded room rather than a literal negation of gravity, but is still so popular that you need to reserve a spot in an online queue to get in. Most of it is just goofy fun, and some good photo opportunities, from a sofa where one person’s torso sticks out of one side and another’s legs the other, to an upside down tube station and a David Bowie mural.

90 Brompton Rd, SW3 1JJ. From £24.

With four floors of educational and entertaining exhibits, including the Apollo 10 Soyuz capsule and the Power Up gaming experience, the Science Museum can already instil some childlike wonder and curiosity into most adults, and its creative afternoon tea experience offers even more excitement. 

The kids menu has stuff like cupcakes with a ‘blood’ syringe and a test-tube rack filled with various sweets like fizzy sherbet, chocolate popping candy, crushed coloured moon rocks and edible soil.  Because what kid doesn’t want to eat mud? Adults can enjoy a solar system-themed cupcake and petri dish jelly, with savoury sandwiches too. 

And with both menus there’s an opportunity to get creative, using chemistry to make your own lemonade by mixing acidic lemon juice and baking soda. Because it doesn’t matter how old you are; deep down, everyone loves playing with their food. 

Exhibition Rd, SW7 2DD. Wed-Sun 12pm to 3pm. £32 per adult. 

Regular golf is serious business. But crazy golf? Well that’s an entirely different ball game. With blasting music, flowing beer and cocktails, some bizarre fibre-glass obstacles and (sometimes) prizes up for grabs, the various crazy golf courses across London are a wild ride. The craziest runs transport you to Jurassic-era jungles, English Riviera fairgrounds, tiki bars and haunted nightclub toilets. 

Various venues. Prices vary.