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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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So happy I finally found the playgroup I wanted to take Babu to when she was a baby. Only four and a half years late 😭 Seriously though, @playhappening is EXACTLY what I was searching for back then: something small and calm where my neuroses about my tiny bean being squashed by gargantuan toddlers would be quelled; with beautiful, soft, thoughtfully chosen playthings that would encourage experimentation; and, most crucially of all, somewhere where we’d be left the hell alone, free from condescension and fricking ADVICE. Oh and it’s a five-minute walk from where we used to live when Babu was a baby 😭😭😭

I wrote a book! It’s called An Opinionated Guide to Kids’ London and it’s being published by the brilliant @hoxtonminipress, who along with their very talented copy editor @florencemaisiefilose have been the most amazing people to work with ❤️

Our favourite sculptures from the Mayfair Sculpture Trail, @manolovaldes’ Blue Infanta Margarita. There are seven temporary sculptures on the trail and they’ll only be in situ until Sunday (27th), so you’ll need to get your skates on if you want to see them. There are 22 sculptures in total but 15 will be remaining after Sunday, including all the sculptures in the Mayfair portion of the #wanderart trail. These beauts are on the edge of Berkeley Square, where you can also see a herd of @coexistence.story elephants. We didn’t take Babu’s scooter and she was a bit over it after the first few sculptures so we didn’t do many, but I’m hoping to get back and see the remaining temporary ones this week if Roma will let me. Check the @mayfairartweekend website for full details and locations.

Elephants! So excited to finally see the @coexistence.story herd up close. We passed them going past the Saatchi on the bus about a month ago and got off to have a look, but we weren’t allowed on the grass 😭

I’ve been a bit obsessed with @emilyforgot ever since Ro and her little bestie Jo @candygreene played in her Never Lost maze for @l_d_f_official in 2019. We’ve since enjoyed her Fabriques sculptures for #WanderArt in Belgravia, and I was so excited when I saw this Bricolage commission she made for the Principal Place development in Shoreditch - because look how cool! The design is inspired by the geometric building blocks we play with as kids, and I’m so in love with the colour scheme and how brilliantly clamberable it is for little ones. Good for hide and seek and colour naming, and there’s a @black_sheep_coffee right next door 🌈

Aw man. I’m so disappointed by the Moomintrail at @walthamstowwetlands. We haven’t got tickets for the accompanying exhibition until July because I’m STUPID and couldn’t find the link on the - in my defence, ridiculous - website so assumed you didn’t have to book any 🤦‍♀️

I have a lot of feelings about @museumofthehome. So do the residents of Hackney - 78% of whom said that the statue of Robert Geffrye that STILL stands outside the museum makes them feel negative (8.2% said it makes them feel positive, which just blows my mind. How can you possibly feel positive about a statue of someone who made their fortune trading human beings?).

Back to soft play today I guess! Gives me a break from #fountainwatch Stories admin anyway 😂 This is from our absurdly short play session at @sciencemuseum’s The Garden last month. They’re currently running 20-minute slots to accommodate as many kids as possible each day, which I obviously get, but personally I don’t think it’s worth the tears when they’re abruptly pulled away from the water play ☹️ Actually, to top off the silliness we were five minutes late to our session because I can NEVER find the lift that goes down the basement, so it was a mega stressful 15 minutes of constantly reminding them to make the most of all the stuff because we were going to be chucked out soon. The Pattern Pod was booked up that day (also running with 20-minute slots), as was Wonderlab, so thank God for the Who Am I? gallery! Won’t it be lovely when everything goes back to normal 😬

Leyton Leisure Lagooooon. I don’t think it’s actually called that anymore but I really like the word lagoon so that’s what I’m calling it. First saw this on @becky_fundays ages ago and have been meaning to go since.

Pink pals at @boldtendencies a few weeks ago. I’ve go so many drafts it’s making my phone malfunction, so I suppose I’d better start actually posting them.

We went to Barking Splash Park yesterday, which was alright if a bit spenny for what it is (I’ll talk more about it in a separate post). I had no idea, however, how great the playground directly next to it is!

@sculptureinthecity officially starts tomorrow! We always love doing this one. It’s like an arty treasure hunt and you can either do the whole thing over a couple of trips (or one if you’re VERY ambitious), or just choose your favourites from the list of works on the SITC website like we did last year. You could jazz it up a bit with treats for each one they spot, or for older kids you could make your own treasure trail task sheet like @bigfatsatsuma does sometimes.

I am all about these benches. This one was my favourite and the reasons are fourfold: 1. It’s called The Friendly Blob. 2. It comes with its own plant pot and coffee/snack holder. 3. It’s easily the most comfortable of the nine. 4. Would you just LOOK at it?

I’ve updated my mega fountain list from three years ago with all the amazing intel you guys have given me over the last week 🥳 I’ve added links to hopefully the most helpful info about each fountain/splash pad/paddling pool and put whether it’s currently on/open or not (although I may regret doing that 🥴). Thanks so much for all your help with this, you’re all keeping each other’s kids super happy in what can be a challenging time of year where little ones are concerned, which is really lovely! Please keep the info and pics coming and I’ll keep updating and trying to keep it as current as I can. Link in bio 💦

My second-favourite bench from the super-fun (yes, really) bench trail around the City last week. My favourite one was annoyingly unphotogenic 😕The trail is part of @londonfestivalofarchitecture and there are nine benches in total - all a 5-10 minute walk from each other, so you can see them all in a morning if you want to. It’s almost better than a sculpture trail when you’ve got a toddler in tow because the benches are all so clamberable. Plus you can see some of the @sculptureinthecity sculptures while you’re at it because they’re all in the same area. Check @londonfestivalofarchitecture Insta and @sculptureinthecity website for locations (SITC starts officially on Tuesday). This is A Cuppa by @themadhatters.co and you can find it at 20 Middlesex Street until the 30th of June.

Little stop-off halfway through our bench trail (yes, really) on Tuesday to 1. Change Roma’s spectacularly pooey nappy and 2. Check out the newish Electric City: God’s Own Junkyard x Leadenhall Market exhibition. If you’ve ever been to their OG museum/cafe situation in Walthamstow you’ll know how chilled GOJ staff are when it comes to little kids coming near all the really expensive neon art - and how lots of it is handily arranged at toddler height. Well, this place is the same, except there’s no cafe (but lots of cafe options in the market).

Continuing the pink theme with the beautiful new @serpentineuk Pavilion, designed by @_counterspace under the directorship of @sumi_v .

Eeeep. I feel like a bit of a git posting this when I know so many people didn’t get tickets for the first run. I know it’s on for another year (it ends a year tomorrow) but I really hope everyone who wants to gets to see it. It seems nuts that you only get two minutes in there and yet it’s sold out until October.

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