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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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We went to the most glorious family event on Sunday morning. @thetogetherspace_e17 is a pop-up space where children and families with and without learning disabilities can come together to socialise and play. Founder Alex decided to set up the Together Space having experienced the social segregation between people with and without learning disabilities, in a bid to help create a world where all children can grow up together and celebrate difference, and where families can feel supported, share their experiences, and relax together without stigma or awkwardness.
Posting this because Ro and Adam are there right now, and also because I’m in hospital and need some sunshine (I just FaceTimed them and the sky is definitely not this blue 🤣). This has been sitting in my drafts for months. I have a really bad habit of putting off posting things to the point that they seem irrelevant and then they just sit there forevermore. This is the newish Agar Grove Estate playground near our house. It took bloody ages to go up and I kept popping down to see if it was finished, then on the last occasion one of the builders asked me what I was doing and told me to go away 😂
Looking through the photos we took at the @acuteart Presents @kaws : New Fiction exhibition at @serpentineuk , I almost can’t tell what’s AR and what’s physical sculpture. I’m not a huge fan of KAWS’ paintings but I’ve always loved his Mickey Mouse/Cookie Monster characters, and the AR element here was so much fun. Roma found the fact that she could see all these weird invisible creatures through my phone screen and appear in photos with them hilarious - especially when we got outside into the forecourt and discovered another Cookie Monster sitting on the roof, and another ‘Family’ that we couldn’t frame without making it look like they were standing on her head. The staff here were so brilliant and really took the time to make sure I’d set up the app properly and that we found all the creatures lurking around the gallery. Between that and the trauma helicopter landing right next to us in Kensington Gardens, I think this was one of the best days Roma’s had in ages. We went home via Buckhill Playground, which is proper old school and obviously nowhere near as good as Diana Memorial, but we’d never been and it was right there. KAWS: New Fiction is on at Serpentine North gallery until the 27th of February and is free to enter - just book a slot via the website. See my stories for lots of AR silliness.
There are still tickets left for both performances of The Elves & the Shoemaker from Theatre of Widdershins at @lyrichammersmith this Sunday. We went when it was on at @halfmoon_theatre the other month and enjoyed it so much. It’s aimed at ages 3+ but we risked it with Roma and she was okay-ish. The show is just under an hour long and by the end she was getting really restless and kept running across the stage, which was probably fairly annoying for everyone else 😬, but for the most part she was really engaged - and the two five year olds LOVED it. It’s a one-man show, which always blows my mind, and there are loads of funny moments and clever touches. Go and see it if you can/don’t have Covid like EVERYONE else seems to 😷
Been gagging for a session like this for two years 😭 The best kind of open-ended art workshop where the kids were armed with more materials than they knew what to do with and encouraged to do their worst with every surface in sight. We used paintbrushes, spray bottles, windscreen wipers, syringes, flour shakers, textured balls, pipettes and even our own shoes. There were no rules and the mess was unholy. It was beautiful.
It’s always a good day at @discover_story . We were sad to hear that a burst water pipe had flooded the basement so we couldn’t revisit the Fairy Tales exhibition as we’d planned to. Hopefully it didn’t cause too much damage. We went to the Fairy Tales preview on Roma’s first birthday (nearly two whole years ago 😭) and haven’t been down there since. Very excited about the new exhibition coming at Easter though! To be honest we easily managed to fill the two-hour session with just the two story worlds and the recently refurbed story garden, and all three of our kids had a blast. It’s quite pricy if you don’t live in Newham (residents get a discount), especially with multiple children, but it’s a nice treat now and then - especially if you combine with a trip to the library I posted about yesterday, which is just a five-minute walk away, and one or more of Stratford’s brilliant playgrounds (check the London’s Coolest Playgrounds by Area post on my website). Someone messaged me yesterday with a picture of yet ANOTHER playground that’s just opened in the East Village (thank you that person). It’s nothing particularly spectacular but it looks cute and it’s always good to have options. It’s next to Signorelli on Victory Parade if you’re down that way.
Have you ever seen a more adorable children’s library than this? I mean, it has its own tube train, for crying out loud. @thehardlifeoflily posted about this a couple of weeks ago and I knew we had to go immediately, even if it’s VERY sadly not in our borough so we can’t actually borrow books from here. Still a lovely, FREE place to hang out with little ones and read though. It’s got some stupidly cute TFL-themed reading nooks and a brilliant selection of books for all ages - much, much better than any of our libraries in Camden. Anyone can wander in and it’s just a few minutes’ walk from Zapspace and Discover, as well as the copious brilliant playgrounds Stratford has to offer.
Light Festival at @batterseapwrstn really made up for Winter Lights at Canary Wharf being postponed for me, even if it’s a lot smaller. Winter Lights is great but it’s always really hectic, whereas this was so lovely and quiet. This was my favourite piece - Run Beyond by Angelo Bonello, which is on display in London for the first time. The figures looked so spectacular against the backdrop of the power station and the way each one was lit up in sequence to give the illusion of a single figure flying through the air was just mesmerising. Other favourites included the Digital Origami Tigers by LAVA, Victor Engber’s Greenhouse and Felipe Prado’s interactive Picto Sender Machine, which Roma was sadly too short to interact with 😭 It’s only a six-work trail but it’s lovely, and you could combine with a trip to Battersea Park Zoo or the playground, where they’ve recently installed some new equipment (or @playbirdies mini golf, which we love). There’s also an amazing looking new playground coming to the power station complex in February, so if you hit the trail towards the end of its run you should be able to check that out too. The trail is on until the 27th of February and you can find the map on the BPS website or via QR codes located on Light Festival signs around the site - which is just a couple of minutes’ walk from the very handy new Battersea Power Station Northern Line station. Anyone planning on heading down to see this?
We had our first proper post-pox outing today and it felt amazing. Roma was so happy to be out and about again and lovely @squish_space was the perfect activity to lull us back into doing things (although I have some pretty full-on kidney surgery coming up next week so don’t expect the doing things to last 🥴). Squish Space runs for hour-long sessions on selected days. It’s free but you need to book and sessions fill up quickly. Wondering what to do afterwards? Kids eat free at the Barbican Kitchen with an adult ordering a main meal, and there’s a children’s library that runs story time sessions on a Monday afternoon (and also usually rhyme time sessions, but these aren’t currently running). All details and booking via the @barbicancentre website.
There are only five days left to see this absolute dream of a show, It’s Not Mi! by @rachela_maclean at @_joshlilley I was half expecting Roma to be really freaked out by this, but she was actually obsessed with it and didn’t want to leave. The whole exhibition is themed around a fairytale of Maclean’s own creation, and the centrepiece is an animated film that’s reminiscent of the original Snow White - only even creepier. The main character, the pink-faced, youthful Mi, is like one of those dolls that you turn upside down and there’s another body and head stuffed up their skirt, except the other Mi is a wizened old witch with grey skin and bad teeth. The exhibition is immersive, the space having been decked out as a weird, candy-coloured dystopia, complete with unsettling tapestries, nightmare-fodder sculptures, and a wall piled with boxed Mi dolls (and I won’t spoil the surprise but if you already found regular dolls scary then you might want to avoid these). I would say combine this with the new Leigh Bowery exhibition at @fitzroviachapel round the corner but it’s sold out for its entire run! If anyone has tickets going spare please let me know as I’m desperate to see it 😭 It’s Not Mi! is free to enter and you don’t need to book, but make sure you check their opening times before you go!
Is anyone else actually going out and doing anything at the moment? I feel like even if we weren’t dealing with multiple family illnesses we’d still probably be bumming around at home. There seems to be very little happening right now, and even if there was we’re skint and it’s so COLD. Here’s something we did just before Christmas. Illuminocity is a light trail consisting of five installations across three sites in a small area of the City. It’s not my favourite light trail ever but I did really like these giant Anglepoise lamps by @hennemanjeroen - which I’m sure look even better when it’s actually dark, but we were quite keen to get home and out of the cold, despite the big flasks of mulled wine we’d taken out with us 🥶 The installations can be found at London Wall Place, Citypoint and Principal Place from 3pm-9pm daily until Wednesday the 19th. Also just FYI, one of the two installations at London Wall is up on one of the highwalks - but there is a lift.
I’ve updated the Bablands map! Roma has chicken pox and I’m awaiting surgery so we’ve barely been anywhere in ages. It’s all a bit shit but on the plus side I’ve had a bit more time to work on my blog, which was getting a bit neglected and was annoying me. You can find the new map by clicking on the London Guide heading (apologies for the clunkiness, it could really use a redesign). I’ve added all the playgrounds from my coolest playgrounds list and all the indoor play areas from the new list I published yesterday, plus a bunch of other stuff that’s worth checking out. I’m also going to add all the fountains in the spring, but I cba right now. It feels like a lonnng time before we’re going to need those 😬
New on the blog today: London’s coolest indoor play spaces by area. Same format as the massive playground post, but the shit weather edition. This isn’t an exhaustive list of the capital’s indoor spaces - just the ones we really like, whether it’s a play cafe, a coffee shop that happens to have toys, a museum children’s gallery or even a particularly nice soft-play centre. There are about 50 places on the list and I’ll be adding to it as I find more. I don’t often ask people to share my stuff because it’s always a bit cringe, but this took fecking ages so please do share it if you find it useful 😂 Link in bio.
New Year’s Day wander along the South Bank to see the Winter Light show/stave off the madness that our collective back-to-back illnesses have inspired. Obviously no one gave a crap about the creepy old Corsas with lights in except me. Babu’s exact words were “these cars are stupid. Why are they here? It’s SO STUPID” (I’m sure I didn’t have opinions this strong at five but maybe I’m wrong). All three of them were much more interested in this traffic cone, but there were a few other light sculptures that they did like, including David Ogle’s Loomin, which was there last year, and Jakob Kvist’s Dichroic Sphere, which looks a lot like the Crystal Dome from the Crystal Maze. Most of the sculptures, including this - @anneroininen ‘s Car Show - are in place around the @southbankcentre until this Sunday the 9th. We combined with a trip to the Jubilee Gardens playground, which is always better than I remember.
Very excited about the brand new soft play that just popped up at @yogaloftlondon in Queen’s Park. It was hectic this morning with lots of nurseries/schools still not having gone back, but I can see this becoming a favourite of ours over the next few months, especially since it’s on our branch of the Overground (my all-time favourite way to get around with kids). Sammy’s Soft Play sessions run from 9am to 5pm every day (including weekends), last for an hour and cost £4.50 for 0-2s and £6 for ages 18 months to 5. I was a bit confused by the age crossover but I think there might be a separate play area for the smaller kids, which would explain it. And the absolute best thing about Yogaloft (aside from the all-day, every-day soft play) is it also has an amazing vegetarian/vegan cafe serving great coffee, buddha bowls, sandwiches, wraps, soups, cakes and baby food, so you can sit down for lunch before or after your session, or even grab something to enjoy ringside while your little ones play. Oh, and the toilets are dreamy too 🚽
One good thing about being stuck in hospital is at least people are leaving me alone to write 🥴 20 awesome things to do with your little Londoners in January 2022 is now on the site, link in bio. Of course we may still go into lockdown and literally all of this might be cancelled! Such exciting times. Amazing mural by @ayshatengiz 🐶
🙅‍♀️ CLOSED 🙅‍♀️
Checking out the @annie_morris_studio x @idriskhan_studio Christmas tree for @theconnaught just before we were struck down by the pox. We’ve just hung the stockings and put out treats for Father Christmas and I’m so excited to see their little faces in the morning. Speaking of stockings though, I saw @annieridout asking who wraps their kids’ stocking presents and I’m genuinely SHOOK by how many people don’t. I mean I’m all for saving myself work but don’t your kids just tip out all the presents all in one go?! At least wrapping them up buys you at least another five minutes where they’re occupied? 🙃

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