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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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Most Popular

  • London's coolest playgrounds by area
    London's coolest playgrounds by area
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    London play fountains and splash pads by area
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    Seven of the best sightseeing playgrounds in London
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    100 cool things to do with babies and toddlers in London
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    Find Winnie the Pooh in 100 Aker Wood at Aldenham Country Park
  • Explore a candy-themed soft-play wonderland at Bella Boos
    Explore a candy-themed soft-play wonderland at Bella Boos

Bablands on Instagram

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.
‘I Who Was Awestruck at the Shape of the Secret I Found in the Cosmos’, my favourite piece from Yayoi Kusama’s ‘I Want Your Tears to Flow with the Words I Wrote’ exhibition at @victoriamirogallery for no other reason than it’s squishy and pink.
Interrupting #fountainwatch to bring you a sort-of review of this really cool exhibition we saw at @frithstreetgallery the other week. Ack Ro’ by @jakiirvine comprises a 13-channel video installation accompanied by 28 looping pink neons, all spelling out anagrams derived from the words Cracklin’ Rosie, the title of a Neil Diamond song (because why the hell not?). Unlike Kate Dunn’s The Tabernacle at TJ Boulting, which we saw immediately before, this exhibition felt gorgeously calming and the girls silently choreographed a sort of slow, floaty dance to it, whereas they were proper head banging in the previous one 😂
We drove past this playground again on Sunday and I was once again struck by how strange it is, then I realised I never posted about it the first time we visited. So here we are. It’s called Central Venture Park, it’s in Peckham and I’m not sure how I feel about it. Basic setup is very generic toddler playground to the front, absolutely massive hillside slide behind that and then this cool skate bowl/toddler captivity pen behind that. It’s got some other bits dotted around too: a climbing rock, a sort of weird platformy thing and some palm trees. Could have had a water pump but might have made that up. It’s big and very odd - mostly because to get to the slide you have to climb a really steep hill that’s covered in impossibly slippy felt, but only at the top. I’ll be honest, this one probably won’t be making it onto the coolest playgrounds in London post 😬 Have you been here? What do you think?
Who needs baby raves when you can go and see @bellissi.mama ‘s The Tabernacle - Welcome to Pharmakon at @tjboulting , which is basically a baby rave only it’s ART.
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