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  • 😴 46 (!!!) things to do in London this weekend with the kids (14–15 February)

😴 46 (!!!) things to do in London this weekend with the kids (14–15 February)

Author

Jeff – Dads in London
February 11, 2026

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Hey DILFs!

A RIDICULOUS number of things to do this weekend. Try not to be overwhelmed…

Happy scrolling!

Jeff xx

PS I haven’t included any “While you’re there…” sections this week, because there are so many individual events and I needed to save your (and my) sanity.

PPS Because there’s so much on this week, you might see a “[Message clipped]” notification at the bottom of your email. Simply tap “View entire message” to see the rest of it.

Relaxed Saturday Live: Brazilian Music
Saturday 14 February, 11:00
St James's Church, 197 Piccadilly, W1J 9LL
FREE – no booking required

People of St James’s, please take some photos of your Saturday Live performances!

If you’ve been reading Dads in London for a while, you’ll know I’m a megafan of St James’s Piccadilly. Not because of the religious stuff (although I’m sure that’s great), and not even for the Wren-designed building (even though it’s beautiful). No: I love St James’s because of their creative, inspired and happiness-inducing events programme that makes you feel like a regular – even if you only show up once in a blue moon.

Alongside the usual services, they run candlelight concerts, a free monthly gospel and soul music festival in the courtyard, art exhibitions, free counselling, Sunday breakfast for people who are homeless or on low incomes, the BEST carol concerts, and Relaxed Saturday Live music sessions for anyone who wants to start their weekend with some fellow humans – and maybe a musical style you wouldn’t normally seek out.

At this weekend’s Relaxed Saturday Live, the theme is Brazilian Jazz – and on the stage will be two British aficionados of the genre. There’ll be drummer and composer Rod Oughton (one of the UK’s “most exciting players”, according to Jazzwise Magazine), and tenor saxophonist Harry Brunt (“delicately thunderous… prioritising sensitivity and lyricism”). Together they’ll put on a performance that will transport you somewhere warm enough for sandals, caipirinhas and affordable açaí bowls.

Don’t worry if your kids occasionally interrupt your (and everyone else’s) daydreams: minor mayhem is very much expected. Everyone can hum along, tap their toes and even wander in and out if they want to. It’s a lovely, gentle start to the weekend, and you’ll be glad you went.

2: Hand your child to Jacqueline Wilson for the most legendary sleepover of their life

The Sleepover Club with Jacqueline Wilson
Sunday 15 February, 17:30 (overnight)
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
£82 per person(!)
Age guidance: strictly 7–11 only

An Evening with Jacqueline Wilson
Sunday 15 February, 18:00 (one-hour talk only)
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
From £14 per person
Age guidance: 7+

Note: the “talk only” event has almost sold out.

OK this event is EXPENSIVE with a capital E. And a capital XPENSIVE, to be honest. But before you say, “In my day, weekends were spent hauling coal up a hill, eating half a potato for dinner and calling a puddle ‘the seaside’ – not going to fancy shmancy events that cost more than my house,” hear me out. I promise: you’ll have a chance to use your “in my day” lecture soon – like when they’re next moaning about Alexa not being able to respond to their demands from halfway down the street.

So… it’s a sleepover with a bunch of fun activities and snack breaks, and breakfast the next morning. But before all that begins, you get to see Jacqueline Wilson IN PERSON and hear her discuss the Sleepovers series – how it started, why she made sleepovers such a big deal in the books, what it’s like returning to the characters 25 years later, and the brand-new sequel, The Seaside Sleepover. She’ll be joined by illustrator Rachael Dean, who’ll do a live draw-along on stage and sketch the characters in front of the audience.

Jacqueline Wilson is royalty in the world of children’s books – former Children’s Laureate, more than 100 novels to her name, and responsible for characters like Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather. She’s been around long enough that today’s kids read her while their parents (including me) bang on about having read her first.

Which makes the actual sleepover immediately afterwards a tidy way to round things off – especially as your kids will almost certainly leave the talk demanding one anyway, having just listened to an hour of stories where sleepovers are treated like the pinnacle of human civilisation.

If the overnight bit feels like a step too far (or your wallet needs a lie down more than you do), you can book tickets just for the talk – though there are only a handful of those left.

Beano Mischief at the Tower of London
Tower of London, EC3N 4AB
Saturday and Sunday, 09:00–16:30 (and daily until 22 February)
Free entry with admission ticket (adults £35.80, 5–15s £17.90, under-5s free)

Tickets for the Tower of London have always been breathtakingly expensive. I’d mostly made my peace with it on the basis that guarding the Crown Jewels and maintaining several hundred years of stone probably isn’t cheap.

But when I land on the website and there’s a big “press for mischief” graphic doing a jaunty little animation in my face, I start wondering if my ticket money is being funnelled into unnecessary whimsy. There’s also a trailer video that’s the most pointless thing I’ve ever seen – and if these digital escapades cost more than a tenner in total, I’d like the minutes of the meeting where they were approved.

Silly indulgences aside, this Beano trail sounds like a great way to entice kids around the entire Tower of London and learn lots along the way without it feeling like a history lesson.

The setup is that Dennis and co. have converted a go-kart into a time machine and crash-landed at the Tower, scattering bits of it across the site. It’s your job to follow clues and spot bits of missing kit tucked into different corners of the fortress, gradually piecing everything back together.

Beano characters pop up along the route, alongside a few of the Tower’s usual historical faces (Elizabeth I of England, Guy Fawkes et al.), all folded into the same bonkers storyline. You’re handed a short Beano comic at the start with the clues and map, which means the youngsters can lead the way rather than be dragged around. It’s a small tweak that makes a long, historic wander feel a lot more manageable.

Mini SPIN
Saturday and Sunday, 13:00 and 16:00
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
£20 per person
Age guidance: 5–11

Image: Kate Disher-Quill

Before Mini SPIN was a kids’ event, there was SPIN, which very much wasn’t.

It was created by Deaf dancer and choreographer Anna Seymour as a kind of corrective to traditional club and rave spaces – the sort of places that are supposedly about freedom and joy, but can feel pretty exclusionary if you’re Deaf, disabled, or just not part of the usual late-night crowd.

SPIN became an interactive, participatory “rave” led by Deaf hosts and a live DJ, designed around visual cues, shared movement and collective energy rather than relying purely on sound. It feels closer to a communal dance floor than a performance, with everyone moving together instead of facing the same direction watching something happen at the front.

Mini SPIN is simply that idea, resized for families.

Guided by three Deaf hosts and a DJ, the stage turns into a low-pressure dancefloor where kids and grown-ups move together, follow prompts, copy routines and generally bounce around for an hour. There’s no set choreography or pressure to get anything “right”, and nobody’s expecting a polished routine – you just join the crowd and have a go.

It borrows the language of club culture – lights, beats, a DJ, that loose rave energy – but transplanted into the middle of the day and aimed at people who still need to be home for tea.

If your child has ever treated the living room like a dancefloor anyway, this just formalises things a bit.

Chicos Mambo: Tutu
Saturday 14 February, 14:30 and 19:30 (and other dates and times until 21 February)
Peacock Theatre, Portugal Street, WC2A 2HT
From £18 per person
Age guidance: suitable for anyone 5+

I have mixed feelings about ballet. On the one hand, it’s objectively heroic – years of training, terrifying shoes, stress fractures on top of stress fractures, and the sort of dietary restraint normally associated with the Russian Air Force. On the other hand, when you watch something like the four little swans bit in Swan Lake, where everyone’s holding hands and bobbing sideways in perfect unison, it’s hard not to think: here we have four adults pretending to be waterfowl. Add in the ridiculous tutus and the extremely unforgiving white tights, and it strikes me as quite funny that we treat it all as sacred high culture.

So I’m relieved that at least one choreographer has clocked all this and decided not to treat ballet like a sacred object. Philippe Lafeuille’s answer is TUTU, which delivers properly impressive dancing while gleefully puncturing ballet’s sense of its own importance.

On stage, that translates into six very committed male dancers hurtling through a rapid series of short scenes that hop between classical ballet, contemporary, ballroom, gymnastics and a handful of other styles. There’s no real storyline: it’s more a string of sketches, with constant costume changes, wigs appearing and disappearing, and a steady rotation of dance forms being recreated properly and then immediately sent up.

So you’ll get bits of Swan Lake done completely straight – except the “little swans” are grown men in feathered tutus and beaks, waddling about with total commitment. Then a bare-chested lad is up en pointe looking improbably elegant, and five minutes later he’s doing something that looks suspiciously like Dirty Dancing. A rhythmic-gymnastics routine appears complete with ribbons and is said to be one of the comedic highlights of the show – and there’s also a solo involving a bearded dancer dressed in a mini tutu and rugby helmet. He starts off performing straight classical steps, then macho-grunts his way into the New Zealand national rugby union team haka before swinging back and forth between the two.

It also takes a fairly direct swipe at ballet’s old-fashioned rulebook about gender. The men do everything – pointe work, tutus, the lot – and treat it as completely normal, which mostly just highlights how arbitrary those rules were to begin with.

👉 Brief interruption in a horrible colour: if this newsletter has earned its keep, you can buy me a coffee. (Completely optional, of course.)

Other listings

This section now 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.

The Show for Young Men
Saturday and Sunday, various start times
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
From £16 per person
Age guidance: 8+

Family Day at the Palace of Westminster
Saturday 14 February, 09:00–18:00
Palace of Westminster, Cromwell Green Visitors’ Entrance, SW1A 0AA
Adults £27, under-16s free
Age guidance: suitable for all
Note: this has almost sold out. DILF Club members knew about this event weeks ago – when tickets were still widely available. Want to become a member? Sign up here for £3 a month.

Lip Sync Brawl
Saturday 14 February, 10:30–11:55 and 13:30–14:55
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
Free – no ticket/booking required
Age guidance: 5–11

Bollyqueer’s Big Boogie
Sunday 15 February, 10:30–12:30 and 13:30–15:30
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
Free – no ticket/booking required
Age guidance: 5+

Baby Gospel Family Concert, Wimbledon
Saturday 14 February, 11:30
Hillside Church, 37 Worple Road, SW19 4JZ
Adults £14.50, children free (up to 3 children per paying adult)
Age guidance: 0–8

Baby Gospel Family Concert, Walthamstow
Saturday 14 February, 16:00
Greenleaf Baptist Church, Greenleaf Road, E17 6QQ
Adults £15, children free (up to 3 children per paying adult)
Age guidance: 0–8

Baby Gospel Family Concert, West Hampstead
Sunday 15 February, 15:30
Emmanuel Church, Lyncroft Gardens, NW6 1JU
Adults £14.50, children free (up to 3 children per paying adult)
Age guidance: 0–8

The Cat Show: The Artist's Mews (art exhibition)
Saturday and Sunday, 11:00–18:00
The Bakery Art Gallery, 6 Charlton Place, N1 8AJ
FREE

Ruby’s Worry
Saturday and Sunday, various start times (and other days and times until 22 February)
Polka Theatre, 240 The Broadway, SW19 1SB
£14 per person
Age guidance: 3–7
Note: all shows have almost sold out. DILF Club members knew about this show weeks ago – when most tickets were still available. Want to become a member? Sign up here for £3 a month.

By Trial and Error (full review coming next week!)
Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 and 14:00 (and other dates/start times until 22 February)
Unicorn Theatre, 147 Tooley Street, SE1 2HZ
From £10 depending on date
Age guidance: 4–1​​0

Who Let The Gods Out
Saturday and Sunday, 14:00 (plus other dates and times until 22 March)
Polka Theatre, 240 The Broadway, SW19 1SB
£10 pe
r person
Age guidance: 8–13

The Jolly Postman (exhibition)
Tuesday–Sunday until January 2027, 10:00–17:00
The Postal Museum, 15–20 Phoenix Place, WC1X 0DA
Free with museum entry (adults £18.50, 2–15s £11, under-2s free)

Family Day: Peace, Love & Unity
Saturday 14 February, 13:00–16:00 (drop in)
William Morris Gallery, Lloyd Park, Forest Road, E17 4PP
FREE
Age guidance: 4+

Family Workshop: Reclaim, Repurpose, Revise the Rules!
Saturday 14 February, 11:30–13:30
Two Temple Place, WC2R 3BD
Pay what you can (booking required)

The Very Busy Bumblebee
Saturday 14 February, 11:00, 13:00 and 15:00
Woolwich Works, The Fireworks Factory, 11 No. 1 Street, SE18 6HD
£11.50 per person
Age guidance: 0–8

Touretteshero: Return of the Rebels
Saturday 14 February, 10:00–12:00 (reduced capacity session) and 13:00–16:00
Whitechapel Gallery, 77–82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX
Free (but booking required)
Age guidance: suitable for all

Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends (full review coming soon!)
Daily until 15 November, 10:00–17:45
Young V&A, Cambridge Heath Road, E2 9PA
£11 per person (under-4s free)

Voyage to the Deep – Underwater Adventures
Daily until 1 November, 10:30–17:30
Horniman Museum & Gardens, 100 London Road, SE23 3PQ
Adults £9.80, children £7, under-3s free
Age guidance: 2+

Octonauts: Adventure at the Horniman
Daily until 1 November, 10:00–17:30
Horniman Museum & Gardens, 100 London Road, SE23 3PQ
FREE

Samurai
Daily until 4 May, 10:00​–17:00 (Fridays until 20:30)
British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG
Adults £25, under-16s free

Gianni Versace Retrospective
Daily until 1 March, various timeslots throughout the day
Arches London Bridge, 8 Bermondsey Street, SE1 2ER
Adults £29.75, 5–15s £18.75, under-5s free

Sherlock Holmes: The Hunt for Moriarty
Saturday 14 February, 14:00 and 19:30
artsdepot, 5 Nether Street, Tally Ho Corner, N12 0GA
£20 per person
Age guidance: 11+

The Princess and the Pea
Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 and 14:00 (and Tuesday–Sunday until 20 February)
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
£12.50–£35
Age guidance: 2+

Andy and The Odd Socks
Sunday 15 February, 12:00 and 15:30
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
£18–£45
Age guidance: 3+

Cinderella Ice Cream Seller
Saturday 14 February, 11:00 and 14:00
Half Moon Young People’s Theatre, 43 White Horse Road, London E1 0ND
£9 per person
Age guidance: 5+

Chevalier: Hobbyhorse Circus
Sunday 15 February, 11:00 and 14:00
Jacksons Lane Arts Centre, 269a Archway Road, N6 5AA
£14 per person
Age guidance: 5+

Wall-E: Family Film Club
Saturday 14 February, 11:00
Barbican Centre, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS
Adults £5, under-18s £2.50
Age guidance: 5+
Note: this has almost sold out. DILF Club members knew about this event weeks ago – when most tickets were still available. Want to become a member? Sign up here for £3 a month.

Family Workshops - Dinosaurs
Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 and 12:30
Little Angel Studios, Sebbon Street, N1 2EH
£10 per person
Age guidance: 4–8

Family Day at the Saatchi Gallery
Saturday 14 February, 11:00–15:00 (book a 30-minute slot between these times)
Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, SW3 4RY
FREE
Age guidance: suitable for all

Slumber Stories Installation
Saturday and Sunday, various timeslots throughout the day
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
Age guidance: 2–5
Pay what you can (booking required)

Here be dragons! 
Saturday 14 February (also Tuesday 16 February), 10:00–16:00
Tower Bridge, Tower Bridge Road, SE1 2UP
Free with entry ticket (adults from £16, 5–15s from £8, under-5s free)
Age guidance: 6–10

Mundo Pixar Experience (full review coming soon!)
Daily until 28 June, various timeslots throughout the day
Fulton Road, Wembley Park, HA9 0TF
Adults £34, 3–15s £22, under-3s free
Age guidance: suitable for all (but prams will need to be stored in a designated area)

Marie-Antoinette: An Eye for Beauty (see my write-up here)
Daily until 31 March, 10:00–17:00
The Wallace Collection, Hertford House, Manchester Square, W1U 3BN
FREE

Love Letters: Love Letters: 500 years of devotion, longing, sacrifice and passion (see my write-up here)
Tuesday–Sunday until 12 April
The National Archives, Kew, TW9 4DU
FREE – no booking required

Water Pantanal Fire
Daily until 31 May, 10:00–18:00
Science Museum, Exhibition Road, SW7 2DD
Free – admission ticket required

Hawaiʻi: A Kingdom Crossing Oceans
Daily until 25 May, 10:00–17:00 (Fridays until 20:30)
British Museum, Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG
Adults £16, under-16s free

Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting
Daily until 4 May, 10:30–18:00 (until 21:00 on some days)
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE
Adults £23, 12–25 £5, under-12s free

Planetarium Go! (see my write-up here)
Until 1 March, various timeslots throughout the day
£15 per person per show (under-4s free, family packages also available)
Battersea Power Station, Circus Road West, SW11 8DD
Age guidance: different shows are suitable for different ages

Little Red Riding Hood (interactive play space)
Until 22 February (drop in during any time during your visit)
Discover Children’s Story Centre, 383–387 High Street, E15 4QZ
Free with entry ticket (adults and children £10, 1-year-olds £5, under-1s free)
Age guidance: 0–8

REPLAY: A Limitless Recycled Playground (see my write-up here)
Daily until 12 April, various slots throughout the day
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, SE1 8XX
£7.50 per person
Age guidance: different sessions for 6 months–3 years and 4–11 years (younger children can join older siblings in the older session if necessary)

Squirrel
Until 22 February, various times
Unicorn Theatre, 147 Tooley Street, SE1 2HZ
Adult + child £25, extra child £12.50
Age guidance: 6 months–4 years