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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 Babu and Roro as they seek out London’s coolest kids’ shops, best child-friendly hangouts and activities that won’t make mummy want to gauge her eyes out with a weaning spoon.

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Obligatory trip to see the @hedonism_wines Easter display on our Mayfair gallery crawl yesterday. Love how extra these guys are (I’m talking about the wine shop but to be fair Lily and Roma are pretty extra too). The display crosses two big windows and there are two bunnies with egg balloons to meet. We also managed FIVE galleries between pickups (but skipped two from our list because they involved breakables and just no). Mayfair trips always put me on edge a bit but we all get so much out of experiencing art and we have just as much right to be there as anyone else who isn’t covered in the remnants of their four year old’s lunch, right?! Plus it’s all freeeee.
@studiovoltairelondon might be my favourite gallery you know. I mean, how many galleries do you know with toilets that are actually ART (with the exception of @sketchlondon and @tjboulting - I feel like there might be a book in this). Also their cafe @julietscafebar is *chef’s kiss*, and they run exhibitions that look like this immersive masterpiece from @francelisemcg which is on in the Project Space until the 2nd of April. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the gift shop…
Do I recommend Thin Air @thebeamslondon with young kids? No! It was a nightmare 🙃 Not because the staff weren’t accommodating or the show was bad - they were lovely and I actually quite liked the show, but unless your kids don’t mind being repeatedly plunged into total darkness and you don’t mind repeatedly losing them in a huge pitch-black warehouse then this probably isn’t the one (to be fair it does say on the website they don’t recommend it for under-6s but I only just saw that now lololol). We walked straight through the downstairs rooms because it was just so dark (I brought Roma’s ear defenders in case it was too loud but the prospect of darkness didn’t occur to me). Upstairs there were three further rooms - one where you can create a sort of digital artwork of yourself (it was very busy in here), another that was closed while the artist fixed it, and the room pictured, which we LOVED. We spent about 10 minutes in here dancing through the beams of light, but that alone wasn’t really worth the £20 😬 On the plus side there are two cafes serving REALLY good coffee ☕️
@daisy_collingridge always warrants a special trip 😍 This is Susan and I love her. Part of the With + Without group exhibition at @unitlondon on until the 6th of April.
Retro arcade games, vintage cartoons on repeat and old Dandy annuals - what more could you need on a Sunday afternoon? I’ve walked past @mamashelterlondon so many times and thought how fun it looked with its 12 billion lampshades. Today we visited for work research and I can confirm it’s super child-friendly. It would be a great place to meet friends with kids in tow too. Big sofas for the kids to loll around on, a decent kids’ menu, loads of books scattered around and if all that fails then the ceiling is really cool 🙃 (plus the new Haggerston Park playground is right around the corner!).
Would I travel all the way to Ealing for a single play structure? Yes. Yes, I would. And I did. And if you think this looks as cool as I do then you should do (and if not, maybe don’t). I did a module on modernist art at uni and found it so interesting, and even if I’m not in love with Anthony Caro’s entire aesthetic, I LOOOVE this so much. This is the only play sculpture in the exhibition and you’re not allowed to touch anything else, so bear that in mind if you’re making the trip. Also bear in mind that at busier times they’ll be allowing kids on in small groups at certain times rather than it being a free-for-all indoor playground situation, so check before heading over if you’re concerned. Pitzhanger offers regular kids’ workshops, including free Open Sundays art drop-ins and paid Mini Makers messy art sessions for under-5s on Wednesdays and Fridays. Check the website for details and to book the latter. Anthony Caro: The Inspiration of Architecture is on at @pitzhanger until the 10th of September and is included in general admission, which starts at £7 for adults and is free for 0-15s.
Even in the freezing cold and rain, the @vamuseum Ramadan Pavilion by @ramadantentproject is so joyful. Designed by architect @shahed.saleem , it takes the form of a colourful, deconstructed mosque - its parts drawn from the V&A collection of drawings and photographs of historic Islamic architecture. The pavilion celebrates the holy month of Ramadan and will host a series of public events, tbc. We were at the V&A anyway today to see the Donatello exhibition but to be honest I’d have probably made a special trip to see this anyway since I LOVE a pavilion. This one will be in situ in the Exhibition Road Courtyard until the 1st of May and it’s totally free to visit with no need to book - just turn up.
Kept having dreams about Brutalist playgrounds (specifically an underground one in a tube station), had a Google and came up with this beauty from 1969. It’s neither underground nor in a tube station but it’s 54 years old and still standing, which must be some sort of record. It’s a single, spiral-shaped structure with a slide and various tunnels, but the climbing opportunities mean it offers a lot more play value than you’d think. We didn’t stay long today because it was freezing, but I’m keen to come back in the summer 🤍
I love both Julian Opie and @lisson_gallery ‘s Bell Street space and this exhibition still massively exceeded my expectations. The VR bit is probably the best VR experience I’ve ever had. That said, I’ve had some TERRIBLE ones, ranging from technology that didn’t work properly to flat out being told it would probably be best if I didn’t bother with it at all because I had young kids with me. Here the kids were actually *encouraged* to wear the headsets and experience the virtual gallery themselves - even little Greta who’s two! The staff were so welcoming and brilliant (they always are here) and I was just blown away by the whole thing. This playground-like structure is in the garden and obviously you’re not allowed to climb on it because it’s art but I can’t say we weren’t tempted. We didn’t book and it was fine as it was a weekday lunchtime but I’d recommend booking anyway as only two people can do the VR at a time. On until the 15th of April. Closed Sundays and Mondays.
WBD 2023: Mildred Hubble and Princess Bubblegum AKA tell me your children are polar opposites without telling me 🖤💖
20 awesome things to do with kids in London in March ‘23 is now live 👀 Lots of great stuff on this month - and more than half of it is totally free 🙌 Link in bio. Feel free to share 🙂
Testing out the new Haggerston Park playground a couple of weeks ago. The bridge that connects the two playgrounds was still closed while the grass around it settles, but the rest was all open - including the shipwreck, and slide tower. We did wonder about the bridge, which connects the toddler and junior sections but makes it alarmingly easy for toddlers to fall off the deep end like lemmings. We liked that the junior playground isn’t gated and kind of blends in with the rest of the park, although it did mean people were playing fetch with their dogs right next to the equipment (Babu is TERRIFIED of dogs). Looking forward to seeing it fully opened.
I was determined I wasn’t going to go to this and then a few people went and it actually looked quite good so I gave in and booked tickets and I hate myself for being such a sucker for this stuff. Basically it’s a series of six rooms themed around six different fashion designers, and in each one you can scan a QR code for a special room-specific Snapchat filter. There’s also a wall-mounted ‘phone’ in each where you can virtually try on outfits, then at the end you get do do a Vogue cover shoot. It’s a bit daft and I felt about 200 years old downloading Snapchat and then trying and failing to get some of the AR things to work, but it was a laugh, the staff were really nice and helpful, and the kids thought it was hilarious. It’s also free so you might as well if you’re in the area, but probably not a massive tragedy if you can’t either 🤷‍♀️
I can’t tell you how much I LOVED this exhibition oh my GOD. I thought when it first popped up on the Hayward site it looked like a bit of me but probably not a bit of Roma (but when has that ever stopped me? 🙃). Anyway, I was wrong - she loved it! @bigfatsatsuma went to the preview and said it reminded her of the Colony Sound exhibition that was on at Marlborough Gallery in Mayfair in 2019 - possibly my favourite exhibition ever - and she wasn’t wrong. If you went to that exhibition and enjoyed it then you’ll absolutely love this. The maze of rooms downstairs is so disorienting and fun, and comes complete with dead-ends, weird smells, creaky doors and a general sense of dread. I wouldn’t recommend it with kids necessarily - you’re briefed before you go in on the bits they might find scary (they got it totally wrong btw) and the fact that there are uneven floors, small spaces, dark bits, sharp bits etc. - but we had a great experience. You’re meant to hold their hands which we mostly did. And you can’t take buggies in. Buggies would be a nightmare here. So take slings etc. if you’ve got tiny ones. Honestly I’m so obsessed with this I think I’m going to have to go back with Babu.
Lightroom is open 🥳 It feels like ages since I first saw this advertised and then the opening was delayed by a month, but it’s finally here! I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one as we heard it was pretty much a big Hockney documentary and I wasn’t sure how the girls would cope with that. But while the artist does give a commentary the whole way through, the film is entertaining enough to be engaging even if you’re not a Hockney super fan (I do actually really love his work so maybe I’m a bit biased). On the downside, Lightroom is literally one (very big) room. While I don’t mind not being able to wander from room to room like you can at Frameless, it does make the experience a lot more intense as you basically have to sit still for just under an hour. Also, because there’s a story to follow, you do feel like you need to be pretty quiet so people can listen, as you would at the cinema. That said, our three were pretty chilled throughout. I felt quite anxious when we first got there and realised we basically just had to sit down and be quiet, but I made a point to avoid eye contact with everyone in case we got looks because that always enrages me 🙃
One from our little wander around central on Thursday. A huge maze that isn’t a maze has popped up in the @somersethouse courtyard. It’s called Whorled (Here After Here After Here), it’s by Mumbai-based artist Jitish Kallat and it comprises 336 metres of signage reminiscent of UK motorway signs, but signposting locations across the galaxy as well as closer to home. The girls had fun running around the spirals and spotting locations we know and those they’d like to visit (they both want to go to the Peekaboo Galaxy so I guess I’d better start saving).
Beyond the Streets @saatchi_gallery is so good. I haven’t seen a major exhibition I’ve loved this much in ages. It’s laid out across the entirety of the gallery and there’s SO MUCH to see, including some really brilliant immersive installations like this Lego one. Obviously I read absolutely nothing but that’s true of every exhibition I take my kids to 🙃 Hard recommend.
New book. They say the best things in life are free - well, as this book aims to demonstrate, many of the best things in London are too. Within its pages you’ll find everything from sky-high gardens to riotous gigs and inspiring lectures to roller discos - all totally free and open to all. While this isn’t a book of kids’ places, a lot of the venues do welcome children - although some of the ones that don’t provide the perfect excuse for some me time (free yoga, anyone?). I’ll put a preorder link on my Linktree now. As always, thanks so much for your support 🤍

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