It’s not easy to find good hamburgers in London. Unless you go to Byron.

Byron is a proper hamburger joint, hoping to ‘do a simple thing, and do it properly’. They source good meat from Scotland, mince it fresh every day, and then cook it medium so it’s pink and juicy. They then place it in a soft, squishy bun with minimum fuss and fanfare, and ’serve it with a smile’. I love that.  They also serve great milkshakes, good French fries and other sides, and have a kids menu.  Byron now has several locations across London, so check their site to see which one is nearest to you.

Click here for visitor information and opening times.

Imagine a children’s shop stocked full of great toys, baby equipment, children’s decor and stylish furniture… doesn’t that alone sound impressive? Now, imagine this store has buggy parking, kiddie toilets and baby changing facilities, a little café, and an indoor play space for kids — aaahhh, it’s like heaven for parents! This heaven is called Huggle, and it’s a newly opened shop located in Swiss Cottage (just opposite the leisure centre). It was started by a local husband and wife team who spent two years researching the market before opening up their shop and who completely get what it’s like to be a new parent struggling to find the best products for their kids.

CONTACT:

Huggle
8-10 Winchester Road
London, NW3 3NT
Phone: 020 7483 2826

The River Café hardly needs an introduction. This well-known restaurant is both a celebrity hang-out and a favourite brunch locale for London families.  The prices are high, but the food is so good it’s worth it.  I once read somewhere that the best Italian food in Europe can be found at the River Café — meaning even better than Italy itself. I’m sure that made the Italians angry… and perhaps it was a generous compliment, but the food is really that good.  The restaurant is located on the Thames and has a grassy courtyard separating it from the river. On a sunny day you can sit outside and let your kids run around while you finish your meal.  Otherwise, they have paper and crayons to keep your kids entertained inside.  Perfect for family brunch on the weekend. Just make sure to book well in advance.

The British Museum, founded in 1753, is dedicated to the history of the world’s different cultures. The collection includes a large and impressive section devoted to ancient Egypt, and it is here where you will find the famous Rosetta Stone, treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb, a piece of the Sphinx’s nose, impressive Eqyptian sculptures, and real mummies (which never cease to impress my kids!). We also love the Medieval Europe gallery and the section for Ancient Greece and Rome. The museum is absolutely stunning and certainly worth a visit. It’s also (rather surprisingly) very geared for families with a Children’s Multimedia guide, free activity backpacks and designated family trails. There’s also the Ford Centre for young visitors on the lower floor which has feeding and changing rooms for babies.

Check out the Family Visits section of the website, which lists all the different activities available for children, as well as the Young Explorers page which has online games and other interactive and educational activities.

CONTACT DETAILS:

British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom
Phone: 020 7323 8000
Open daily from 10:00-17:30

(Image from Flickr)

Sometimes you just feel like eating pizza. So easy, so tasty, so casual… and kids always love it! Rossopomodoro is a Naples-based pizza chain with three locations in London (Chelsea, Covent Garden and Notting Hill). All their ingredients come from the Napolitan region of Campania — even the water used in their pizza dough is rumoured to come from Naples! Pretty impressive for a Pizza chain. They also have highchairs and welcome children — they’re Italian after all.

The Borough Market is not for the crowd-fearing or for the buggy-pushing — its popularity is widespread and it gets crowded! But, if you’re a food lover (and who isn’t?), it is definitely worth visiting. It is London’s largest and most renowned food market with more than 130 food stalls and culinary experts. It has been around (in this very location) for more than 250 years and continues to get better with each passing year. This is where the chefs and well-known restaurateurs can be found on Saturday morning picking from the finest fish, meat, cheese, produce, etc.  Kids will love trying all the samples, checking out all the displays (my kids love the fish stalls!), and taking in the buzz of foodie talk and knowledge.  Just don’t take a buggy if you can avoid it — carry babies in a carrier. And if you can, go on a Thursday or a Friday — Saturdays are insane! Check their website for more info. (Image from Flickr)

CONTACT DETAILS:

Borough Market
8 Southwark Street
London, SE1 1TL
Phone: 020 7407 1002
Open: Thursdays (11am-5pm), Fridays (12pm-6pm), Saturdays (8am-5pm)

The Tricycle Theatre, located in Kilburn (North London), is a publicly subsidized performing arts venue most well known its ground-breaking, politically charged performances. They specialise in presenting plays which reflect and promote the cultural diversity of its community.  The venue includes both a large theatre and a 300-seat cinema as well as smaller studios for workshops and other small plays.  They also have a Children’s Theatre Programme which puts on some of the sweetest little shows for kids, often with the use of puppets, live music, storytelling and singing…and with an added ecological or social message to their stories.  We recently went to see The Three Billy Goats Gruff and it was great fun!

CONTACT DETAILS:

The Tricycle Theatre
269 Kilburn High Road
London NW6 7JR
Phone: 020 7328 1000
Box office 020 7328 1000 | tel: 020 7372 6611 | fax: 020 7328 0795 |

I tease my husband that one of his requirements when picking a new place of employment is that there is a Konditor & Cook within walking distance. (There are 6 locations in London and my husband has worked near to 3 of them.) Their wonderful cakes and pastries are his (not so secret) indulgence and I can’t blame him — I am yet to taste something that K&C has to offer which doesn’t blow me away. Every cake, muffin, croissant is melt-in-the-mouth heaven.

Konditor & Cook was started by German-born Gerhard Jenne, who studied to be a ‘Konditor’ (pastry chef) in Germany before coming here and learning to be a ‘cook’ in London. Other than tasting good, Gerhard’s cakes look the part too and can be customised for any occasion (I love these mini-wedding cakes pictured). He has even written a book on how to decorate Wacky Cakes & Kooky Cookies. Everything the team bakes or cooks uses organic free-range eggs and natural butter, and if you need your whistle wetting further you can see their menu here.

Konditor & Cook have shops in Soho, Borough Market, Waterloo, Chancery Lane, The Gherkin and on the South Bank. Click here for full details.

Mo. x

The Hanover Gate playground, located on the west side of Regents Park, has just recently been renovated and now includes two different play areas: a traditional playground for younger children and a new timber tree-house section for older, more adventurous kids. It’s also a great little spot to spend a sunny afternoon because it’s right next to the boating lakes and boat house where you can rent pedal boats (both family-sized and single) and float around, taking in the beauty of the park.  (The children’s boating pond is only open on the weekends and is meant for kids aged 5 and up — they have to be able to reach the pedals.) There’s also a little restaurant in the Boat House with outdoor seating facing the lake. It’s a beautiful setting, especially when the weather is cooperating.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Hanover Gate Playground:
Hanover Gate, Outer Circle
Regents Park
London
NW1 4RL

Boats available April-Sept, every day from 10.30am, closing time varies from month to month, weather permitting. Kid’s mini-boats available on weekends. Cafe open 364 days a year.

View map here.

The tour takes in some key London highlights (Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and The London Eye) but it’s the tour guides who make it (ours got the whole ‘duck’ quacking when it saw another duck – the kids were in hysterics and couldn’t stop talking about it for days)! It is cheesy but brilliant — but you have to be the sort to throw yourself into these things — not for those who embarrass easily.

Duck departure point:
DUCK STOP
Chicheley Street
London, SE1 7PY

BOOKINGS
+44 (0)20 7928 3132

The playground in Paddington Street Gardens is one of my favourite in Central London.  I love that it’s tucked away off the beaten path in Marylebone, slightly hidden unless you know it’s there. It means that it never usually gets too crowded, and you get the sense that all the kids there are from the neighbourhood. The playground has been recently renovated so all the equipment is new and the grounds are well looked after. In redesigning the playground they did a good job of catering to both babies and bigger kids as they have a variety of toys to play on. Plus, I love when playgrounds are covered in that rubbery flooring — it’s nice for babies to crawl around on, and means safer falling for the older ones.  Not to mention… it’s located just off my favourite street in London — Marylebone High Street. So it’s a great spot to take a break/have lunch/let the kids run around whilst visiting the many great shops on the high street. Just turn off Marylebone High Street onto Moxon street and walk to the end (or you can access the gardens from Paddington Street.) For more details, click here.

The hotel is small but charming, the staff always friendly and the location could not be better — Charlotte Street is lined with one good restaurant after the other, and is located just north of Oxford Street and Soho and within walking distance to many of London’s tourist attractions.

The hotel’s rooms are not big, but the Junior Suites and the Penthouse are definitely big enough for extra beds/cots (at no extra fee). The rooms don’t have kitchens, but all the rooms have minibars and the hotel offers 24-hour room service.  They’re happy to have families and children stay with them, even offering kids a welcome pack upon arrival. And I was just there over the Easter weekend, and they had organized an egg-hunt in their library for all the kids staying there — cute!

The Charlotte Street Hotel is part of the Firmdale Hotel Group which includes other favourites like the Covent Garden Hotel, the Soho Hotel and the Knightsbridge.

CONTACT DETAILS:

The Charlotte Street Hotel
15-17 Charlotte Street
London W1T 1RJ, United Kingdom
Phone: 020 7806 2000

Apart from being a huge space to run around with fascinating trees, flowers and plants, there is also a dedicated indoor children’s area called Climbers and Creepers. All the zones have an educational element relating to plants and their habitat and have been so cleverly thought out to cater for a really wide age group (quoted as age 3 – 9 but there are great touchy-feely bits too which are good for babies).

On the other side of the gardens is the Treetop walkway (designed by the architects of The London Eye) which is 18 metres up in the air and 200 metres around — giving you an opportunity to see the tops of the trees and those who inhabit them. At ground level there is a tunnel with an exhibit giving insight to what happens under the trees (good for any bug and creepy-crawly enthusiasts!).

The duck pond in front of the Palm House (near the Victoria Gate) is great for spotting all sorts of water birds and they even have an explanation of the different species with sound-buttons to hear their different calls (fondly called the ‘quack-board’ in our house and it is always the first thing my 3-year-old wants to go and play with — our favourite is the call of the Eider).

And this is just the start of the fun, with Badger Sets, an aquarium and greenhouses* full of exotic plants, trees and plant life (The Evolution House exhibits Stromatolites, which are the oldest living organisms on the Earth and we see them as small bubble eruptions in a sandy pool of water at the entrance — coooooooooool!)

Kew is also well equipped for fuel stops with plenty of cafes and restaurants all serving good children’s options (they do those clever lunch boxes where you can pick 5 picnic-esque bits to make up a lunch, and in every box there is a pack of seeds to take home and plant).

So why has it taken me so long to write this post? Kew has been working on a new outdoor children’s playground for outside Climbers and Creepers. They had some issues with planning permission (it was meant to be up and running in the Autumn of last year) so I wanted to wait to be able to tell you about it and when it would be ready. Well we went to Kew last weekend and it is well and truly underway (see pics). It will be launched in time for the Easter holidays on 2nd April. It is called Treehouse Towers and looks a whole lot of fun for up to 300 children — a properly exciting place to let off some of that chocolate-easter-egg-energy! We are very excited about its launch and will definitely be heading down there to try it out.

* Note the greenhouses at Kew are not your ordinary greenhouses — they are possibly the most beautiful greenhouses in the World! The Palm House has 700 panes of glass and is considered the most important Victorian glass and iron structure in the world. And The Temperate House is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the World — pretty impressive stuff.

Kew Gardens:
Royal Botanic Gardens
Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3AB
email: info@kew.org
24-hour visitor information line: +44 (0)20 8332 5655
Opening times:
Kew opens at 9.30am every day except 24/25 December.

Two years ago our Christmas got canceled on Christmas Eve — well the trip we had planned to Switzerland did anyway. It was our first Christmas with a child and you know how important they are! We were devastated. I think the only thing that saved us was Melrose & Morgan, our local deli in Primrose Hill (where we lived at the time). We turned up at 12pm to a packed store of everyone collecting their orders and they thankfully managed to make us up one of their ‘Christmas’s in a box’. It honestly saved the day.

But Melrose & Morgan is not just for Christmas, their fantastic home-cooked meals are perfect to take home, heat up and make you look like a domestic goddess. Sadly my better-half isn’t easily fooled – Melrose & Morgan’s food is just that bit too delicious for him to believe it was made by me whilst I had 2 children hanging off my arms.

Each day the kitchen prepares a different menu using seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. Additionally they have a range of staples including their home-made pies, freshly baked bread, mouth-wateringly delicious cheeses and sweet treats for every occasion. I keep one of their pies and some of their home-made ice cream in my freezer for those “its 6.45pm, there’s nothing to eat in the house and the kids are going crazy” evenings (of which we tend to have 4 a week).

I’m not big on branded merchandise but my one exception is Melrose & Morgan’s mugs, aprons and my favourite canvas shopping bags with their simple red font spelling evocative foodie words such as ‘picnic’, ‘cheese’ and ‘custard’ (I love that one in particular!).

Melrose and Morgan:
42 Gloucester Avenue
London, NW1 8JD
Phone: 020 7722 0011
Nearest tube Chalk Farm or Camden