20 awesome things to do with kids in London: September 2023

Southbank Centre’s sold-out REPLAY: A Limitless Recycled Playground has been extended until the 30th. Built entirely out of waste materials, this beautifully designed open-play environment was one of summer’s must-sees, with plenty of extra slots added. Paid.
The last in Anomalous Social Club’s Daytime Disco Summer Series will be held at The Home on the 2nd. Expect storytelling, rhyme time, yoga and mindfulness, craft-based making, music workshops and DJs, as well as a fully licensed bar and healthy kids’ snacks. Paid.
Uniqlo Tate Play: Shadow and Light Make Studio will be at Tate Modern on Wednesdays and weekends from the 2nd September-18th October. Create dream-like spiritual worlds and imagined futures using immersive light, glowing objects and mirrored surfaces. Free.
V&A hosts Design Baby: Explore the Hallyu! on the 6th. Join artist Rosie S. Kang for a child-led, multi-sensory play session inspired by the museum’s Korean objects. Make Korean flower patterns, move to K-pop music and explore scents, textures and colours with your 0-3. Paid.
Pan~//Catwalk will be in Canary Wharf on the 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th as part of GDIF. Using fashion, live music and theatre, this performance challenges the urge to label others based on how they appear, revealing instead a mind-opening celebration of self-expression. Free.
Open House London returns from the 7th-17th, with family-friendly highlights including activities on West Poultry Avenue with Museum of London, Red Door Studios: Family Workshop and Hounslow Heath Infant’s School amazing Adobe Playground. Free.
British Museum is running two Little Feet sessions for 0-5s this month. On the 8th, Make a statue or create a colourful collage in Get Creative, then on the 21st explore the China’s Hidden Century exhibition and create your own floral artwork in Exhibition Explorer. Free.
AssemblePlay and Sir John Soane’s Museum are hosting Let’s Play at Open House 2023 in Lincoln’s Inn Fields on the 9th. AssemblePlay give kids of all ages a chance to create their own unique structures out of the wide variety of resources provided. Free.
Colourscape Festival returns to Clapham Common from the 9th-17th with its newly designed 70-chamber Festival Two Colourscape. Walk through a labyrinths of multicoloured chambers, illuminated by daylight and with a live soundtrack from resident musicians. Paid.
The Great Supper by Sara Shakeel returns to NOW Gallery from the 16th September-15th October. Part of Greenwich Peninsula’s District for London Design Festival, the installation is an assemblage of everyday objects saturated with Shakeel’s trademark crystals. Free.
London Design Festival returns from the 16th-24th, with highlights including The LEGO Piece Garden, Nice to Meet You Again by Morag Myerscough, Donna Wilson’s 20-year anniversary show, the Rangoli Mirrored Cosmos, Play by Art Practice and Fundamentals of Caring. Free.
There’s lots on at the Design Museum this month. Check out REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion exhibition from the 16th; climb, hide within and inhabit ANTIFURNITURE from the 26th and immerse yourself in interactive exhibition Email is Dead from the 28th. Paid/free.
There’s plenty to do at the RA in September, including Family Workshop for Children with SEND: Miniature Worlds on the 17th, Early Years Studio: Shape on the 20th, Marina Abramović from the 23rd and Family Studio: Modular Spaces on the 24th. Paid/free.
Little Explorers: Tudors for Tots is at the National Portrait Gallery on the 20th. Meet storyteller Olivia Armstrong and embark on an interactive, sensory adventure into the world of the Tudors before making your own fun accessory to wear home. Free.
Frieze Sculpture returns to the English Gardens, Regent’s Park, from the 20th September–29th October. This year’s exhibition will feature 22 leading international artists, among them Tomas Saraceno, Yinka Shonibare, Ayşe Erkmen, Ghada Amer and Hank Willis Thomas. Free.
First Light for babies aged 0-18 months is on at Half Moon from the 21st-22nd. Bathe in sound and light with your baby as you explore the wonders of how their senses develop. Sit, lie down or stand while sharing this intimate and immersive experience together. Paid.
RIBA is hosting Family Fun Day at The Building Centre: Comfy Houses on the 26th. Expect hands-on experiments and doll-house retrofitting sessions, magical storytelling, Retrofit Jenga and a fun art workshop retrofitting London’s skyline as a hat. Free.
Egg and Spoon is on at Polka from the 27th September-1st October. An interactive romp through the seasons, the performance invites 1-3s to enter the performers’ magic circle and open all the gifts of nature, with no expectation to sit still. Free.
Horizon 22, Europe’s highest free public viewing platform, opens on the 27th. Located at 22 Bishopsgate, the second-highest building in the city after the Shard, the gallery will be located on the 58th floor and reachable via two high-speed lifts. Free.
Monet: The Immersive Experience opens on the 29th. Explore some of the painter’s most compelling paintings in a 360-degree digital art exhibit and immerse yourself within a 20,000-square-foot light and sound spectacular featuring two-storey projections. Paid.