😸 41 things to do in London this weekend with the kids (25–26 July)

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Hey DILFs!

What are we all thinking about Toy Story 5? I stayed awake throughout – which is a huge ringing endorsement because, if you round up, I fall asleep during 100% of all films. The marketing people can feel free to add it to their Tube posters if they like:

“I stayed awake throughout.”

★★★★★

Jeff, DadsInLondon.com

Other people seem to have more complex opinions than my binary "fell asleep/didn't fall asleep" review system – and the overriding consensus of Toy Story 5 appears to be: "They should have stopped after Toy Story 3. The fourth film was a disaster. The fifth redeems the franchise. But they still should have stopped after Toy Story 3.”

The good thing about children is that, once they like something, they don't spend much time worrying about whether the fourth one should or shouldn’t have happened – they're in for life. So if they've enjoyed even one Toy Story film, they'll almost certainly be up for a Toy Story event opening in London next week. It's free, but you do need to book in advance – so I'm giving you advance warning because this thing is going to fill up quickly.

Bonnie's Playtime: The Experience is a free, 30-minute mission to help Bonnie track down Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest of the gang by completing a series of activities. Every so often, Bonnie returns, at which point everyone has to remember the first rule of being a toy: freeze. It’s on at Westfield White City between 29 July and 9 August, and at Westfield Stratford between 21 and 31 August.

So that's for you to sort out in time for next week (and beyond). This week has plenty to keep you busy too.

Have fun!

Jeff xxx

1: Enjoy the least plot-driven musical ever written

Cats
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+

While writing this newsletter, I realised I've never known what Cats is actually about – even though I've seen the darn thing three times. Worse, not only did I never know the plot, it had never even occurred to me that I didn't know the plot.

So I did some research and it turns out the plot is... generous. The gist is this: once a year, a tribe of cats called the Jellicle Cats gathers for the Jellicle Ball, where their leader, Old Deuteronomy, chooses one of them to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn. Before he decides, we spend most of the musical meeting the various cats who might be chosen – each introducing themselves in song. Then an elderly outcast called Grizabella sings Memory, explaining how lonely she is and remembering happier times. Everyone suddenly decides they like her again, and Old Deuteronomy chooses her.

The reason it's such a strange setup for a musical is that it's based on a collection of funny poems by TS Eliot called Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, where each poem is about a different cat. But there's no story connecting them – something Andrew Lloyd Webber only realised once he'd set the poems to music. The solution was to build a story around the Jellicle Ball, which Eliot had randomly mentioned a couple of times.

So that solved the plot problem, but not the emotional one – and if a musical doesn't get you in the feels, it's an automatic failure. So director Trevor Nunn's solution was to keep reading Eliot until he found something a bit more melancholy, eventually landing on poems about memory, growing old and loneliness that inspired Grizabella and Memory. Which means the most famous song in Cats wasn't in the original cat book at all: its lyrics were written by Nunn.

The original production disappeared from the West End in 2002 after a 21-year run. There was a brief revival in 2014, but this is the first brand-new London production in decades – and it's only at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre for seven weeks.

So if your children have never experienced the gloriously baffling non-plot of Cats, this is the time. They'll get the songs and the extraordinary dancing in a fantastic venue – but whether they understand what's going on is, history suggests, largely optional.

Find out more: https://openairtheatre.com/production/cats

While you’re there…

👍️ Most other cities would kill for somewhere like Regent’s Park, so be sure to make the most of what it has to offer. There’s Marylebone Green Playground (which has some of the most unique playground equipment in London), the beautiful English Gardens, the world-famous Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens and my son’s favourite: the Japanese Garden Island.

👍️ Did you ever read Saturday by Ian McEwan? The entire novel takes place in Fitzrovia – and most of it in Fitzroy Square specifically. Fitzroy Square is the home or former home of tons of famous people and institutions – including Ian McEwan himself. Many other books are set there, and multiple movies and TV programmes have been filmed in the square too. It’s a lovely place to walk around and go blue plaque-spotting, and the (locked) garden in the middle is beautiful – even from outside the railings.

2: Fill the summer with free skateboarding, dancing, football and basketball

Summer in the Park 2026
Until 30 August, various times depending on the activity
Brent Cross Town Pavilion, 145 Claremont Road, NW2 1FE
FREE
Age guidance: suitable for all

If you’re going to create a mini-town from scratch, surely you shouldn’t give it a name that has anything to do with an awful giant road junction and shopping centre beside the North Circular? Yes: everyone will know where it is. But they'll never actually go because “Brent Cross” = “grim”. It's like opening a vineyard and calling it “Swindon Roundabout”.

But because I wasn’t on the branding team, they’ve named the new mini-town Brent Cross Town. Against all expectations, it looks marvellous – like King’s Cross Central but with less pretentious restaurants, nicer outdoor spaces and more stuff to actually do.

Eventually it'll have 6,700 homes and more than 50 shops, cafes and restaurants, plus loads of green space, schools, offices and places to play sport. Enough, basically, to be a proper town.

The nice thing is that they're not waiting for everything to be finished before trying to make it feel like a town. This summer they've packed it with free events and activities, and everything kicks off this weekend. If you go, you’ll have your pick of the following:

Summer in the Square (Wednesday–Sunday until 30 August): a rotating line-up of local food vendors, free lawn games and live music every weekend.

Skateboarding (Wednesdays and Sundays until 30 August, 10:00–13:00): qualified coaches will help children of all abilities. The skateboards and safety gear are provided, so all you need to do is turn up. It's free, but you do need to book. Warning: this one is booking up fast!

Football Frenzy for ages 6+ (Sundays until 30 August, 14:00–16:00): relaxed drop-in sessions featuring football tennis, crossbar challenges, penalty shoot-outs, skill-based drills and informal mini-matches. No booking required.

Street Dance for ages 8+ (Saturdays until 29 August, 11:00–12:00 and 12:30–13:30): instructors will teach children a range of street dance moves in a relaxed, beginner-friendly session. It's free, but you do need to book.

Basketball for ages 8+ (Saturdays until 29 August, 11:00–12:00 and 12:30–13:30): experienced coaches will help children of all abilities improve their basketball skills through a series of fun drills and games. It's free, but you do need to book.

Find out more: https://brentcrosstown.co.uk/event/summer-in-the-park-2026

While you’re there…

👍️ Our Yard is a volunteer-run community cafe and garden, where members of the local community grow fruit, vegetables and flowers. There’s also a pottery studio where your kids can go for lessons while you sit in the garden with a coffee.

The reviews are all astoundingly good, and mention the lovely plants it has on sale, the delicious home-cooked meals (lots of it prepared with food grown in the garden), the incredible cakes (especially the basque cheesecake) and the carefree vibe. If your kids need any more convincing, a couple of reviewers mentioned an “insect hotel” called Bugingham Palace.

3: Kick off a lifelong Julia Donaldson obsession

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

I have many parenting regrets – one of which is not force-feeding my eldest more Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler while he was still too young to object. The books are special: they’re funny and rhythmic, and they somehow get away with plots that would confuse plenty of adults. I wouldn't have thought small children could keep up with stories built on bluffs and double-bluffs and general trickery, but that’s clearly because I don’t know children as well as JD and AS do.

If your own offspring are still young enough, get them into the Donaldson–Scheffler universe immediately – and then you might stand a chance that when they’re older, they’ll want something more satisfying to read than schoolyard-banter books with fart jokes on every page.

The perfect way to kick off their new Donaldson–Scheffler obsession is to take them to see The Gruffalo on stage. It's about a tiny mouse who keeps escaping hungry predators by claiming he's off to meet a terrifying monster called the Gruffalo. The bluff works perfectly, because each animal suddenly decides it doesn't fancy ending up as the Gruffalo's dessert. But then the Gruffalo turns out not to be imaginary after all…

For the stage adaptation, three actors bring the whole story to life using clever costumes, catchy songs and lots of imagination. The book is only about ten minutes long if you read it aloud, so they've fleshed it out with extra jokes, music and audience participation to make it a satisfying hour without losing what made the original so good.

It's almost guaranteed to make them fans. And if it inspires your kid to pick up the book afterwards, you've potentially dodged some terrible future reading choices. Congratulations on your excellent parenting.

Find out more: https://nimaxtheatres.com/shows/the-gruffalo-2026

While you’re there…

👍️ For a complete change of pace, go see Zurbarán at the National Gallery. I wrote about it here.

👍️ Or the National Portrait Gallery has the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award 2026 at the moment, as well as the Marilyn Monroe exhibition (which I wrote about here).

4: Hear Holst with a side of explosions (matinee | evening)

BBC Proms: Horrible Science - The Big Bang Proms Experiment
Saturday 25 July, 14:00 and 18:00 (link for matinee performance; link for evening performance)
Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP
£14.24–£48.92 per person
Age guidance: suitable for all

I don’t quite know what’s going on. There’s just a few days to go before Horrible Science at the Proms, and I was convinced I’d have to delete this entry from the newsletter because it would have sold out ages ago. But there are still seats available. For both performances. This isn't how Proms tickets behave!

Rather than dwell on why this is happening, let's focus on the upside. You have the chance to take your kids to the Proms – one of Britain's greatest cultural institutions – and you won't have to wait in an online queue for hours (like I did last year) to get tickets.

This year's family Prom is based on CBBC's Horrible Science, with Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and a few other famous scientists popping up between pieces by Holst, Borodin and John Williams. And in case you're worried it's all sounding a bit worthy, there's also a plot involving a villain called Dr Big Brain who's trying to conquer the universe.

That mixture of classical music and daftness may seem like a tactic to get the kids involved, but it’s actually a historically Promsy idea. The Proms began in 1895 when founder Robert Newman wanted ordinary people to enjoy classical music – so he kept tickets cheap, let audiences eat, drink and smoke, and gradually made the programmes more ambitious over the years. His hope was that people who'd come for the easy pieces would gradually realise they quite liked the difficult ones too.

It’s cheeky, but I'd say it worked. More than 130 years later, the Proms are still the world's biggest classical music festival, with an audience ranging from lifelong classical music obsessives to children who only came because someone mentioned Dr Big Brain.

Find out more:

• Matinee: https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2026/horrible-science-the-big-bang-proms-experiment-matinee

• Evening: https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/proms/bbc-proms-2026/horrible-science-the-big-bang-proms-experiment-evening

While you’re there…

👍️ A guided tour of the Royal Albert Hall seems like a spectacular way to spend an hour. There are multiple themes of tour, and they all look incredible. Prices vary depending on the tour.

5: Visit five ancient civilisations in one afternoon

The Timewalk Exhibition – An Immersive Journey Through Civilisations
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

Which ancient civilisation fascinates you most? Egypt? Babylon? The Maya? Göbeklitepe (which I definitely copied and pasted)? Rapa Nui? Can't decide? You're not alone, because neither could the people behind this new immersive exhibition.

Timewalk takes you through projection-heavy recreations of them all, in the suitably historic surroundings of a warehouse beside the ExCeL Centre.

You'll begin at Göbeklitepe (I really must Google this) before travelling through Babylon, Ancient Egypt, the Maya and Rapa Nui, with each civilisation getting its own immersive room full of giant projections, music and lighting effects. The organisers say it's all about revealing the invisible threads that connect humanity across thousands of years, which is a lovely idea. But when humanity's invisible threads are competing for our attention with the giant pyramids and erupting volcanoes on display, we all know what's going to win.

It's clearly aiming for wonder rather than academic rigour (evidence #234: it ends with a "photobooth experience"; evidence #235: there's an interactive area with "body-tracking technology"). You won't leave as an archaeologist, but you might leave with a child who's suddenly decided they need to know everything about Ancient Egypt.

Find out more: http://fever.pxf.io/E0GeYK

While you’re there…

👍️ Nothing noteworthy or useful is near Excel London (unless you enjoy terrible customer service while getting your passport renewed), so I’ve employed a bit of artistic license with the concept of “there”. Stick with me on this…

“There” is the journey as much as the destination, right? And what kind of journey is just as exciting – if not more so – than anywhere you might end up? A journey on the DLR, of course! So: hop on the DLR and have the best time ever, get off at Canning Town, then enjoy a leisurely walk along the water to the lighthouse on the Trinity Buoy Wharf. There, you can listen to Longplayer – a piece of music that’s been playing since 1999 and won’t finish until 2999. Created by Jem Finer of The Pogues, it’s designed to run for 1,000 years without repeating.

Other listings

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.

Luna Loves London
New exhibition, open daily 10:00–17:00
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: 0–8

Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam
Tuesday–Sunday until 25 October, 10:00–18:00 (until 21:00 on Fridays)
Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD
Adults £15, under-16s free

Royal Docks Summer Splash
Daily until 16 August
Royal Victoria Dock (next to City Hall), Kamal Chunchie Way, E16 1ZE
FREE (no ticket required)

Miffy Afternoon Tea
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

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

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

Alice in Wonderland (see my write-up here)
Daily until 2 August, 12:00 and 15:00
Riverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline Street, W6 9BN
£25–£49 per person
Age guidance: 5+

There’s a Tiger in the Garden
Until 9 August, various start times (see website)
Polka Theatre, 240 The Broadway, SW19 1SB
£15 per person
Age guidance: 3–7

Disney’s The Lion King Exhibition (see my write-up here)
Daily until 31 August, 10:00–18:00
London Zoo, Outer Circle, Regent's Park, NW1 4RY
Free with zoo admission (adults £34.50, 3–15s £24.10, under-3s free)

The Magic Garden
Daily until Saturday 10 October, 10:00–16:00
V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL
FREE
Age guidance: 5+

In Other Worlds: Liam Young (see my write-up here)
Tuesday–Sunday until Sunday 6 September, 10:00–17:45 (until 19:45 on Fridays and Saturdays)
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
Adults £19, 5–15s £6, under-5s 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

Everyman on the Canal (see my write-up here)
Daily until 16 August, films at 12:00, 14:30, 17:00 and 19:30
Regent's Canal Towpath, N1C 4PQ
FREE
Age guidance: depends on the movie!

Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica
Tuesday–Sunday until 6 September, 10:00–17:00 (until 19:00 on Thursdays and Fridays)
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
Adults £19, under-16s free

Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience
Daily until 30 August, various timeslots throughout the day
Science Museum, Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD
Adults £22.90, 10–17s £20.35
Age guidance: must be 10+

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

Summer Exhibition 2026 (see my write-up here)
Tuesday–Sunday until 23 August, 10:00–18:00 (Fridays until 21:00)
Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD
Adults £23, under-16s free

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

Arthur
Until 9 August, various start times (see website)
Polka Theatre, 240 The Broadway, SW19 1SB
£10 per person
Age guidance: 6–12

The Art of Mini Golf
Until 26 July, various timeslots (see website)
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, SW11 5TN
£15–£25 per person (depending on time/date)
Age guidance: “The Art of Mini Golf is not recommended for children under 9 years old. Entry is at parents’ discretion. Please note that one artwork contains drug references and imagery that young viewers may find disturbing.”

Pirate Pixie & The Mermaid
Various dates until 26 July, 10:45 and (usually) 14:15
Whippersnappers, College lodge, Old College Gate, College Road, Dulwich Park, SE21 7BQ
Adults £17.50, children £28.50
Age guidance: 3–7

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

Serpentine Pavilion 2026 by LANZA atelier (see my write-up here)
Until 25 October 2026, check website for precise timings each day
Situated by Serpentine South, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA
FREE

Beano Havoc at Hampton Court Palace
Wednesday–Sunday until 23 August, 10:00–17:30
Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, KT8 9AU
Free with palace admission (adults £32, children 5–15 £16, children 0–4 free)