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For Tiny Londoners & Their Adults

Bablands is a resource for Londoners who find themselves with a small creature to dress up and entertain. Part-magazine, part-guide, Bablands follows the adventures of Bab as she seeks out London's coolest kids' shops, best child-friendly hangouts and under-fives activities that won't make mummy want to gauge her eyes out with a weaning spoon.

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East Dulwich is so lush. And this playground is awesome. It’s got everything: lots of swings, castle-shaped toddler climbing frame, big kids’ wooden adventure structure thing, tunnels, hills, a goal that doubles as a climbing platform, nice views, pub next door serving coffee and croissants. We could have stayed here all day if it wasn’t the first of four we’d planned to pack in 😬 Do you know this park? What do you think?
North Greenwich is well weird. It basically consists of a massive tent, an art gallery that’s also an estate agent, a cable car to nowhere, a bridge to nowhere, a series of incoherent art installations and a Costa. And yet weirdly I really like it here. In normaltimes @nowgalleryse10 puts on some amazing exhibitions (favourites have included @camillewalala ‘s WALALAxPLAY, @hattiestewart ‘s I Don’t Have Time for This and @kinska ‘s My Opera House). The cable car, while utterly pointless, is a pretty reliable hit with children. And the whole place is PEDESTRIANISED, which has to be music to any toddler parent’s ears.
I was really excited about Max Roach Park (named after a black American jazz drummer who visited the park in 1986). I’d seen pictures where it actually looked like it was built on ancient castle ruins and had hyped it up to Babu as “the really cool castle playground“. But when we finally made it here, after numerous plans to visit were thwarted by endless lockdowns, it was well... a bit shite.
Really fun day doing a Camberwell playground crawl. Such a cool part of London and so many great playgrounds we never knew existed. This one in Brunswick Park was the third of the four we visited, and Babu’s personal favourite. The equipment is beautiful and there’s a smaller toddler version of this big kids’ structure behind where I’m standing, which came in very handy. The playground also offers the usual swings, bouncers and an accessible roundabout, and is right next to an adorable park cafe selling homemade cakes and tasteful gifts. There’s also a small gallery in the park, although obviously its closed at the moment and has taken over the old toilet building, which was unfortunate because we all really needed a wee. An excellent way to blow off steam pre- or post- @southlondongallery when it reopens.
These two were such babes today. Sometimes just the thought of taking them out on my own all day is so overwhelming I spend the morning paralysed by fear and just sort of faff until it’s too late to do anything and we just have to watch the Frozens on repeat until it’s time for bed again. Today was SO NEARLY one of those days, but I’m glad it wasn’t. We did manage to get in a lift without Roma though 😭
Today we visited the weird knobbly Wapping playground I’d had on my list for ages. Old pictures from when the slide was basically one long, straight tube with a massive walkway leading up to it were what drew me to it in the first place, but even in its current, slightly more pedestrian incarnation it’s still kind of cool. I mean, look at that landscaping 👀
It’s taken us three months and three separate trips to complete the WanderArt trail, but we got there! This is the last bit, @emilyforgot ‘s Fabrique. It’s probably the smallest work on the trail but one of my favourites I think - largely because it really doesn’t look like much as you approach it but Babu probably got more play value from it from anything else on the trail, and the longer we looked at it the more details we discovered.
Morniiing ☀️(no idea why I’m doing a sun emoji since it’s literally SNOWING). I finally made some guides! It’s basically just playgrounds and indoor play places at the moment, plus a few community gardens and a couple of city breaks. They’re all works in progress and I missed a couple off because the Guides function is RIDICULOUS and a massive pain in the arse if you’re trying to include years-old posts (seriously, if you have any Guides wisdom please do enlighten me) BUT we have tried and tested ALL of them 👍 Thanks so much for all the lovely comments and messages and to everyone who’s shared them. You’re very nice people.
Did you know you can have a day at the seaside without leaving Zone 1? I’d seen the sand sculptors down here a million times but it had never occurred to me as a family activity. I think I assumed you needed a special licence or something - which you do if you’re planning on doing any serious mudlarking (actually, I think technically even building sandcastles requires permission... but I didn’t know that 😬). Anyway, try not to steal any Viking artefacts and you’ll be fine. You’ll also need to check the tide times before you head down, OBVIOUSLY (again, didn’t even occur to me).
Visited Mint Street Park with @candygreene about 18 months ago and it was properly pants. Broken, fenced-off climbing frame; literally a pair of mini trampolines and a swing for amusement; and the amazing, strictly-six-plus adventure playground adding insult to injury in the background.
Will you just LOOK at this beauty 😍 I can’t remember who sent me a picture of this (was it you @clarejamesclare ?) but oh my God THANKS. Actually, we were incredibly underprepared for how terrifying this was going to be. I thought it would be a really cute scoot spot for both girls but no, this is a SERIOUS PUMP TRACK, filled with massive men on massive bikes literally flying through the air (it took a lonnng time to get an empty shot). It was not the one for the two year old, but luckily there was a cute playground just next door that she absolutely loved, as well as a big flat scooting path that runs through the middle of the park. The five year old took a while to warm up but within half an hour she was flying too - and totally holding her own in among the adult skater men. Really recommend for confident scooters and riders... just for the love of GOD take a helmet (and yes I know she’s not wearing a helmet here 😑)... and some coffee (we couldn’t find any).
Actually left the borough today and it was heaven. Played in new playgrounds, got coffee from new coffee shops, window-shopped new kids' shops, saw friends we hadn't seen in over a year and felt something approaching vaguely normal.
Adorably weird dalek pod things in one of our favourite and most-undervisited playgrounds. Roma made me sit in the red one for about 20 minutes when we visited last week, and every time I tried to get out she shouted "NO! YOU STAY THERE!" 😂😭
Both girls in bed by 9pm new time isn't too terrible right? 🥴 I mean they've both been up since 6am old time and neither of them naps at all and Roma is currently wandering around their bedroom and Adam and I are so done we're both just kinda passed out on the bed but IT COULD BE WORSE, RIGHT?
We keep walking into central in the hope that's it's more exciting there than it is on the outskirts, but of course it's just as dull. On Wednesday we visited an apocalyptic Covent Garden and yesterday we wandered an ominously silent Mayfair. Both were kind of lovely, but Roma complained that there weren't enough playgrounds in either (well, she didn't really say that but she did shout "PLAYGROUND" a lot). Come to think of it, I don't think there are ANY playgrounds in Mayfair 😯
Yesterday we broke into a playground in Clerkenwell and it was probably the biggest thrill of the entire lockdown. And when I say "broke into" I mean I caught the gate behind some residents who were leaving 😐
Lovely, comforting hangs with our favourite people today. Snacks and sandcastles and trespassing for the win 🙂
The big yellow climbing frame at the Alexandra and Ainsworth Estate, from our return visit a couple of weeks ago. Our first trip there has to be one of my favourite discoveries of all time. @kerri_and_sprog had found it online and the photos looked promising but nothing compared to the excitement of actually taking the bus up there and seeing the kids interact with it.
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