Hey DILFs!

The other week I received an email from a reader called Alastair, who wondered if I’d like to share his new website/app with fellow dads in London.

I normally ignore such messages because they’re in no way relevant to all but the tiniest subsection of my audience (case in point: menopause supplements). But this one was called Pubs With Playgrounds, and I’m struggling to imagine a website with a more promising combination of words.

Pubs With Playgrounds maps more than 1,000 pubs and hotels with an actual outdoor playground, indoor play area or soft play – including plenty in and around London. Alastair says the idea grew from a shared Google Map after too many Sunday lunches where “family friendly” turned out to mean little more than a high chair.

I mean... what a fantastic idea. The website is beautiful and VERY user-friendly, and Alastair is adding more London options all the time.

If you want to check it out and download the app, visit pubswithplaygrounds.com – while wondering how on earth that domain name was still available in 2026.

And below are all the things you can do when you’re not drinking a pint next to a climbing frame – enjoy! 

Jeff xx

PS Congrats to Andy, who won four tickets to Luna Loves London (plus everything else at Discover Children’s Story Centre)!

Luke Jerram: Gaia
Sunday 30 August, 10:00–17:30 (book to choose a slot within these times)
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
£5 per person
Age guidance: suitable for all

Luke Jerram must be one of the most productive artists alive. He’s best known for making enormous spherical things and dangling them above our heads, but that represents only a surprisingly small proportion of his output.

There are his Glass Microbiology sculptures, which turn viruses and bacteria into beautiful glass objects; Lullaby, which involved a procession of bicycles carrying specially made music through residential streets at bedtime; and Sky Orchestra, which does something similar but with hot-air balloons floating over a city and broadcasting music down to the people below.

And then there are the moons. SO many moons.

But one of his best-known giant spherical things is Gaia. And if you’ve seen some of the above and are feeling thoroughly Jerramed out, I’m going to suggest stretching to just one more Jerram – assuming, somehow, you’ve missed the umpteen previous occasions on which Gaia has materialised inside a large London building.

On paper, Gaia doesn't sound like something that should have quite the effect it does. It’s a seven-metre globe made using detailed NASA imagery, internally lit and slowly rotating above your head to a surround-sound soundtrack by BAFTA-winning composer Dan Jones. It’s 1.8 million times smaller than the real Earth, with every centimetre representing 18km of the planet’s surface.

And yet visitors have been known to get surprisingly emotional about it. They talk about awe, wonder, suddenly appreciating how beautiful and fragile Earth is and generally developing feelings towards the planet that they probably weren't experiencing ten minutes earlier while chucking a plastic bottle into the wrong recycling bin.

It turns out there’s a name for this feeling: the Overview Effect. The term comes from what happens to some astronauts when they see Earth from space – where there are no visible national borders and the entire human race is living together on a small planet floating in an enormous amount of nothing. Astronauts have described an overwhelming sense of awe, a new understanding of how interconnected everything on Earth is and a feeling that perhaps we should do a slightly better job of looking after it.

Gaia is designed to give us earthbound types a little taste of the same thing. Obviously nobody is going to mistake the Royal Festival Hall for outer space, but seeing the whole Earth floating in front of you, rather than standing on an infinitesimally small bit of it, apparently does something to the brain.

Which is why, despite Gaia having made what feels like its 947th trip to London, I'm recommending it again. After all, musicians are allowed to do encore after encore. Theatre productions come back for revivals. Luke Jerram gets to keep hanging his enormous ball from the ceiling.

Find out more: https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/luke-jerram-gaia/ 

👍️ Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms will entertain your kids for as long as you need. We went (AGAIN) the other week and they could stayed there all day. I wrote about it here.

👍️ Oh look: it’s Luke Jerram again. He’s done another thing at the Southbank Centre called Stepping Out, which turns the steps outside the Royal Festival Hall into a giant musical instrument. The more people joining in, the more complicated the music becomes. 

A World Elsewhere
Saturday at 11:00 and 15:00 and Sunday at 13:30
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, Shakespeare’s Globe, 21 New Globe Walk, SE1 9DT
£18–£38 per person
Age guidance: 5+

I’m FAR too late in recommending this end-of-its-run show, so I went looking for an appropriate Shakespeare quote to admit as much. Unfortunately, all I found was “Better three hours too soon than a minute too late” (not helpful) and “It is too late” from Othello (not true – you’ve still got a week – and a bit morbid, given that Othello says it immediately before smothering Desdemona with a pillow).

So: I should have told you about A World Elsewhere weeks ago. But I didn’t. Blame the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, as Hamlet would say.

A World Elsewhere is a new family show that takes bits and pieces from Shakespeare and turns them into a story about a boy called Cass and the world inside his head.

Cass finds real life tricky, so he escapes into his imagination, which has been thoroughly Shakespeare-ified by all the stories his gran has read to him. His imaginary friends include Sarah, an extremely theatrical Shakespearean actress; Cobweb, one of the fairies from A Midsummer Night's Dream; and Big Guy, who is essentially a giant Action Man. Together they've fought kings, encountered witches, survived shipwrecks and generally had a lovely time making up ridiculous adventures.

Except suddenly Cass isn't having such a lovely time. His stories have stopped working properly, his friends start disappearing and something dark from the real world seems to be creeping into his imagination. So Cass has to venture into a strange Shakespearean Shadow Land to find them, encountering the likes of Puck and a heartbroken Romeo along the way.

There’s an even more exciting element to all this: you're not just sitting silently watching all this happen.

I haven't been yet, but reviews say that the actors are already messing around with the audience before the show has officially started, and the audience involvement continues throughout the performance. Children are asked to invent stories, supply jokes and facts, suggest what characters should do and occasionally become part of the story themselves. Audience participation can mean anything from pretending to be blobs of jelly on a plate to demanding that Cass burst into song.

There's live music, fight scenes, smoke billowing from trapdoors, actors clambering through the audience and a huge shadow monster representing the darkness invading Cass's imagination. And it all takes place in the Globe's small indoor Sam Wanamaker Playhouse rather than the big outdoor Globe Theatre.

There's also a proper idea underneath all the silliness. The title comes from Coriolanus – “There is a world elsewhere” – but here that “world elsewhere” is a child's imagination. And the play is partly about what happens when Cass reaches that awkward point where childhood imagination starts colliding with anxiety and the real world.

I should warn you that several reviewers reckon it loses its way a bit in the second half. It gets more meta, the plot becomes harder to follow and it starts trying to cram in ideas about fear, messiness, chaos and why stories don't need to make perfect sense. One reviewer noticed some of the younger children beginning to glaze over.

But apparently it doesn't stay there for long. Before too much existential contemplation can take hold, everyone's back to chucking around magic dust, singing, tickling, shouting suggestions and helping Cass rescue his imaginary friends.

Find out more: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/a-world-elsewhere 

👍️ The original Golden Hinde was the first galleon to circumnavigate the globe between 1577 and 1580, captained by Francis Drake. The Golden Hinde you’ll find in Bankside today is a full-scale replica – one that has also circumnavigated the globe – and a fully legit ship in its own right. 

The guides on board are fantastic: they know everything about the history of the ship, and have a fantastic way of explaining the challenges of navigating the seas and living in such cramped conditions in the 16th century. There are also lots of hands-on activities and interactive bits for kids, and tbh it all feels like a steal at £6 per person. 

Hands on Armour: Saturday Knight Live
Saturday 29 August, 13:30–14:00 and 15:30–16:00
The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, W1U 3BN
Free – no booking required (places are limited and allocated first-come, first-served on the day)
Age guidance: 5+

Before it became a museum, the Wallace Collection was just that: a vast private collection of paintings, furniture and porcelain, built up by generations of aristocrats with a weakness for 18th-century French art and the money to make it happen. The real star was Sir Richard Wallace, illegitimate (but fully funded) son of the 4th Marquess of Hertford, who inherited the lot and installed it in Hertford House – this central London townhouse. After he died, his wife left it all to the nation.

Usefully, if members of your family aren't into Rococo furniture, Sèvres porcelain and Fragonards, the house also comes with a very overstocked armoury. The Marquesses of Hertford had a full-blown obsession with the arsenals of other aristocrats, and Sir Richard Wallace made it worse by spending a small fortune on a French nobleman’s collection.

The armoury is always available to view, but this Saturday, Saturday Knight Live brings it all to life with a title that deserves a fist bump. Kids can try on real and replica armour, watch live demonstrations, make their own mini knight to take home, and quiz the Wallace Collection’s resident armour experts in a live Q&A.

Find out more: https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/events/hands-on-armour-saturday-knight-live-8/ 

👍️ Brown Hart Gardens is a raised public terrace just south of Oxford Street. Built on top of an old electricity substation, it’s now home to limestone decking, water features, plant-lit seating and a domed gazebo disguising the giant electrical box below.

Brilliantly, because it’s within the Grosvenor Estate, it’s subject to some particularly, umm, “unique” bylaws. You can’t be “intoxicated”, “unclean” or “in a verminous condition” – which is fair enough. But you’re also banned from “games, quarrelling, shouting, singing, and the practice of gymnastics” – and if you breach the rules, you’ll be prosecuted.

Open Air Dancing
Saturday 29 August, 14:00–16:00
Kensington Gardens (by the Bandstand near the Round Pond), W2 2UH
Free – no booking required
Age guidance: suitable for all

After extensive research into Scottish country dancing, I can now tell you four things I’ve learned:

So if you’ve always fancied dipping a toe into swinging but would prefer to start slow, if you want to experience the thrill of a stiff breeze around your undercarriage, and if you have an unusually good sense of direction, you’re going to LOVE this.

I should point out that kilts are absolutely not compulsory. Nor is being Scottish – although a stereotypically Scottish reluctance to part with your money will serve you well, because the whole thing is completely free.

The people responsible for the event are the London branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, which has been around for more than 90 years and has an admirably straightforward purpose: to get more people in London doing Scottish country dancing. That’s pretty much it. Nothing nefarious at all, even though the remit is suspiciously simple.

Which means no one's going to try to indoctrinate you into believing that haggis is delicious or Irn-Bru is a legitimate substitute for water. They just really like Scottish country dancing and would like you to have a go too.

So this Saturday afternoon, they’ll be setting up near the bandstand by the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens, with live music, an MC, and a mixture of popular dances and easier ones specifically chosen for beginners and children. You don’t need to know what you’re doing: the MC talks everyone through it, and you can just turn up and join in.

I’ve watched several videos from previous years to check exactly how intimidating this is, and it really doesn’t look daunting at all. There are children, adults, people who clearly know what they’re doing and people who clearly don’t. The only thing that bothered me was the severe lack of kilt-wearing: I’m talking literally zero.

But don’t let that stand between you and the ventilation you were promised. Kilts aren’t required, but there’s absolutely nothing stopping you from single-handedly improving the statistics.

Find out more: https://www.rscdslondon.org.uk/open-air-dancing 

👍️ The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Playground has had a £3 MILLION glow-up.

My first thought was: surely London has things more urgently in need of £3m than a playground that was already pretty amazing? You could improve playgrounds in more deprived areas. Help tackle homelessness. Fill approximately three-and-a-half potholes. Install air conditioning on the Central line.

But then I looked into it and discovered that this isn't how money, funding or indeed life works.

The Royal Parks is a charity, and the refurbishment was paid for from its own funds alongside public and private donations. So there wasn't actually a meeting where someone chose between a new pirate ship and keeping your local library open.

Also, the playground is 25 years old, gets more than a million visits a year, and quite a lot of the equipment had simply reached the end of its life. So this wasn't £3m spent tarting up a perfectly good playground for the hell of it: this was spending money where it was needed. 

The famous pirate ship has been replaced by a much bigger three-storey galleon, with two crow's nests, a tunnel slide, telescope, ship's wheel and wheelchair-accessible areas. There's a completely new three-tower treehouse with bridges and another enormous slide; the water-play area has been rebuilt around a 12-metre crocodile; the under-threes section has been redone; and there are new paths, toilets, planting and considerably better accessibility throughout.

So fair enough. And note to self: spend five minutes researching what i’m talking about before getting all angry inside my head. 

Kaspar: Prince of Cats
Until 29 August, various start times – see website
St Paul’s Church (aka The Actors’ Church), Bedford Street, WC2E 9ED
Adults £20, under-16s £18 (including booking fees)
Note: I’ve spotted much cheaper tickets via Groupon for various dates. Remember to use the code TOGETHER for even more money off. You love me, I know.)
Age guidance: 3+

Jeeves and Wooster in “Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves”
Until 4 September, various start times (matinees on some dates only) – see website
St Paul’s Church (aka The Actors’ Church), Bedford Street, WC2E 9ED
Adults £26, under-16s £21
Age guidance: 7+ (but see my review below)

Around the World in 80 Days
Until 30 August, various start times (matinees on some dates only) – see website
St Paul’s Church (aka The Actors’ Church), Bedford Street, WC2E 9ED
Adults £24, under-16s £19
Age guidance: 10+

The other day, we went to see Kaspar: Prince of Cats in the garden of St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden. It was marvellous, and my kids loved it so much they wanted to sleep on the garden benches and watch it again the following day. I eventually managed to coax them out with the promise of visiting the Kaspar statue that inspired the book, which lives just around the corner at The Savoy Hotel.

I wrote a preview of the show here, but having now seen it, I can be considerably more bossy: go and watch it.

Then over the weekend we went back to watch Jeeves and Wooster in “Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves”. Again: fantastic. This time my kids weren’t quite as engrossed, which isn’t particularly surprising given that the source material was written for adults and they were approximately 50 years younger than everyone else in attendance. The grown-ups loved it, though, and I reckon kids aged 10+ would find it hilarious.

Both shows are produced by a company called Alfresco Actors, which has one of the more specific theatrical remits I’ve come across: they make plays specifically to be performed outdoors, then tour them around gardens, vineyards, castles, amphitheatres and other places where roofs are considered an unnecessary extravagance.

And having now seen two of their productions, I think I’ve spotted something of an Alfresco formula. Each show has just four actors, who between them play ALL the characters – swapping accents, hats and bits of clothing so you can keep track of who’s who. They’re also actor-musicians, so everyone seems to sing and play at least one instrument, with original songs and live music woven into the performances.

Kaspar and Jeeves and Wooster are both still playing in the Actors’ Church garden this week, alongside the company’s third production, Around the World in 80 Days. I've now seen two out of three, and that's enough for me to feel pretty confident recommending whichever one takes your fancy.

Find out more:

Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain
Until 31 August, various start times depending on the day
Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EZ
£19.50–£33 per person
Age guidance: 5+

Last week I mentioned I’d be going to see this show. And I urged you to book tickets while awaiting my verdict, because the show was nearing the end of its run and I was sure we’d all enjoy it.

In the words of Simon Cowell…

We didn’t enjoy it…

[Big suspenseful pause]

We LOVED it.

[Huge cheering and applause]

It was incredibly funny, incredibly clever, and the physical comedy was ridiculously well-timed. There are loads of sequences where the two actors are ducking things, catching things, narrowly avoiding each other and generally moving at exactly the right split second to make the whole thing work. It looks effortless, which I assume means it was anything but.

And we all learnt a surprising amount too – both stuff we should probably have known already and stuff they’d never teach you in school.

If you haven’t been, there’s just one more weekend to go. Book it!

Find out more: https://theapollotheatre.co.uk/tickets/horrible-histories-barmy-britain-the-best-bits/

This section brings together both new events I don’t have room to expand on and selected older ones from past newsletters that are still running. If you see a “(see my write-up here)”, that’s your cue to click through and rediscover whatever Past Me felt strongly enough to write about.

Imagining Animals at the Tower of London (see my write-up here)
Daily until 31 August (excluding 25 August), 11:00–16:00
Tower of London, EC3N 4AB
Free with admission (adults £37, 5–15s £18.50, under-5s free)
Age guidance: suitable for all

Childhood in War (see my write-up here)
Daily until 28 February 2027, 10:00–18:00
Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, SE1 6HZ
FREE
Age guidance: suitable for all

Horrible Histories at Ramses and the Pharaohs' Gold: The Exhibition (see my write-up here)
Until 13 September, 11:00, 13:00 and 15:00
Battersea Power Station, 2 Circus Road East, SW11 8DQ
Adults £32.95, 5–15s £16.95, under-5s free
Age guidance: 5+

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Until 30 August, 11:00 and/or 14:00 and/or 16:00
Little Angel Theatre, 14 Dagmar Passage, N1 2DN
Adults £15.50, under-17s £13.50
Age guidance: 6+

Electric Summer (see my write-up here)
Daily until 31 August, 10:00–22:00
The Coaling Jetty, Battersea Power Station Pier, SW8 4NR
FREE
Age guidance: suitable for all

Miffy Afternoon Tea (see my write-up here)
Wednesday–Sunday until 31 August, 11:30, 13:30, 15:30 and 17:30
Cutter & Squidge, 20 Brewer Street, W1F 0SJ
Adults £45, children £25

Brainiac Live (see my write-up here)
Until 30 August, 11:30 and/or 14:30
Garrick Theatre, 2 Charing Cross Road, WC2H 0HH
£19.50–£36 per person
Age guidance: 5+

Dinosaur World Live (see my write-up here)
Until 6 September, 11:00 and/or 14:00
Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre, 3 Fulton Road, Wembley, HA9 0SP
£10–£27 per person
Age guidance: 3+ (but see warning below)

Uniqlo Tate Play: Lina Lapelytė, Serendipity Island (see my write-up here)
Daily until 31 August, 10:30–18:00
Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG
FREE
Age guidance: suitable for all

Story Street x the LEGO Group (see my write-up here)
Until 31 August, 11:00–16:00
Discover Children’s Story Centre, 383–387 High Street, E15 4QZ
Free with admission (adults and children aged 1+ £11, children aged 0–1 free)
Age guidance: suitable for all

The Comedy About Spies
Until 26 September, 14:30 and/or 19:30
Adelphi Theatre, Strand, WC2R 0NS
£20–£145 (tickets for a family of 4 from £80)
Age guidance: 10+

Cats (see my write-up here)
Until 19 September, 14:00 and/or 19:45
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, The Regent's Park, Inner Circle, NW1 4NU
£15–£97.50 per person
Age guidance: 5+

Summer in the Park 2026 (see my write-up here)
Until 30 August, various times depending on the activity
Brent Cross Town Pavilion, 145 Claremont Road, NW2 1FE
FREE
Age guidance: suitable for all

The Gruffalo (see my write-up here)
Until 6 September, various start times (see website)
Lyric Theatre, 29 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7ES
£10–£29.50 per person
Age guidance: 3+

The Timewalk Exhibition – An Immersive Journey Through Civilisations (see my write-up here)
Until 30 September, various timeslots throughout each day
Immerse LDN, Excel Waterfront, ExCel, E16 1XL
Adults £31.50, 4–15s £25, under-4s free (no ticket needed)
Age guidance: suitable for all

M.C. Escher: The Exhibition (see my write-up here)
Daily until 6 September, entry slots throughout the day
Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA
Adults £24.50, 4–12s £15.50, under-4s free (family tickets are also available)
Age guidance: suitable for all

Frida: The Making of an Icon (see my write-up here)
Until 3 January, 2027, 10:00–18:00 (until 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays)
Tate Modern, Bankside, SE1 9TG
Adults £25, 12–18s £4.37, under-12s free

House of Dreamers (see my write-up here)
Daily until 30 September, timeslots throughout the day
Immerse LDN, Excel Waterfront, ExCel, E16 1XL
Adults £28.90, 3–12s £23.90, under-3s free
Age guidance: suitable for all

Jeppe Hein: Appearing Rooms (see my write-up here)
Wednesday–Sunday until 31 August, 10:00–21:00
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
Free – just show up
Age guidance: suitable for all

King’s Cross Pétanque (see my write-up here)
Until Wednesday 30 September, 09:00–21:00
Pancras Square, King's Cross, N1C 4AG
FREE – just turn up
Age guidance: suitable for all 

1996: 30 years on (see my write-up here)
Mondays–Saturdays until 19 September, 09:30–various closing times depending on the day
Barbican Music Library, Barbican Library, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
FREE – no booking required
Age guidance: suitable for all

Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait (see my write-up here)
Daily until 6 September, 10:30–18:00 (Friday and Saturday until 21:00)
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE
Adults £27, under-26s £5, under-12s free