Summer Sorted ➡️ Free London Days Out With Curious Kids (Week 1)

This issue is brought to you in collaboration with Horrible Histories® Gorgeous Georgians trail at Osterley Park & House.

Ever bitten off more than you can chew? I have, today, trying to cram an entire summer’s worth of free family fun into one lowly newsletter. Spoiler: it doesn’t fit.

So instead, here’s Week 1 of my Free Summer Holiday Guide for Curious Kids, packed with cultural adventures, community happenings and places with soul. I’ll work out how to share the rest (without sending a scrollable novel). Meanwhile, hit reply and let me know what you think of the shortened listing format.

Perhaps it’s a fitting metaphor for the summer holidays themselves - you don’t have to plan everything all at once - just take it one week, day or even hour at at time. But if you need something to look forward to, check out my big roundup of 100+ epic things to do with kids in London. It includes free and paid events for the whole summer break, with more to be added.

With my Out of Office on until September, we’re finally catching our breath after the hectic end of term. We played hide-and-seek in a chapel full of balloons in Martin Creed: Everything is Going to be Alright at Camden Arts Project, followed by a fun playground picnic with friends. We also tried out Ballie Ballerson’s first under-18s Kids Summer Special. With its ball pit, belting bangers, flashing lights and karaoke room, it proved a huge hit for our too-big-for-soft-play but still-a-kid-at-heart Museum Girl!

By some small miracle, I’ve had some child-free cultural time this week. I caught the opening of Showtime! at the Charles Dickens Museum (psst: they’re announcing some exciting family events soon). Museum Dad and I even managed a date day to Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits at Kenwood House, using my CSSC membership for free entry. And we only got slightly lost looking for The Hill Garden and Pergola after.

Let’s keep this newsletter on track - read on for my hand-picked list of free things to do with the kids this week.

London’s best family-friendly museum days, theatre shows, and cultural outings - curated for busy parents. If you love this newsletter, so will your friends. Pass it on!

Gorgeous Georgians trail at Osterley Park & House

AD | It’s your last chance this summer to follow the Gorgeous Georgians Trail at Osterley Park and House before it ends on 31 August 2025. Created with Horrible Histories®, this adventure winds through gardens and woodland into the house with wigs to try on, a Wheel of Woe to spin, putrid pirate games, and a farting Posh Potty <sniggers>.

It’s easy to make a day of it, with picnic spots, a woodland play area, community art on display, cycle paths, outdoor theatre shows, and a café for those all-important ice creams.

The trail is open daily and included with entry (free for National Trust members). Click here for opening times and prices.

Horrible Histories® is a registered trademark of Scholastic Inc and is used under authorization. All rights reserved. Written by Terry Deary. Illustrations © Martin Brown.

Free Summer Holiday Activities: Week 1 (28 July-3 August 2025)

Here’s a week’s worth of free, joyful things to do with your gang - all with either walk-up spaces, or still with some places to book.

🐐 Meet alpacas in the heart of Covent Garden, then make veggie instruments, join workshops and get your face painted at Vauxhall City Farm Family Farm Day (28 Jul)

🐛 Go pond dipping and bug hunting with scientists at the Natural History Museum’s BioBlitz (28 Jul)

🎯 Try croquet, giant chess and den-building at Morden Hall Park’s Summer of Play, with sporty Mondays and hands-on creative fun every Wednesday (28 Jul-27 Aug)

🔬 Shrink into the world of tiny physics with hands-on experiments, and quiz real scientists at Mimi’s Tiny Adventure exhibition launch day, Institute of Physics (29 Jul; book)

🎭 Craft fans and paper portraits inspired by ancient rituals in Art Explorers at London Mithraeum (29 Jul, book; ages 5–11)

🏖️ Set sail on a seaside-themed adventure for under-5s with Play Outdoors on the National Maritime Museum lawns (29 Jul).

💊 Roll pills like an apothecary, ward off plague with pomanders and invent a poison (on paper!) in Marvellous Medicine at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Museum (29 Jul, ages 5+, booking link not working). There’s more apothecary fun this week at Museum of the Order of St John (30 Jul)

🌌 Make pom-pom planets, craft kinetic comets and play with parachutes at Westminster Abbey’s Stars and Planets Family Day (29 & 31 Jul, book; ages 3+)

🪩 Dance it out at DJ Cheeky Meeky’s kids’ rave, with more parachute games, LEGO builds and crafty fun at Camden Market’s Family Day (30 Jul; ages 2-10)

🐝 Hunt for bees, spot butterflies, craft with nature and dance with Peut-Être Theatre at the Bee & Butterfly Bonanza Family Day in Eastbrookend Country Park (30 Jul).

🎭 Laugh along as four actors race through Much Ado and Macbeth in forty minutes each at The Scoop (30 Jul, ages 7+)

🦆🚣 Watch 3,000 rubber ducks race for charity, then cheer on fancy dress rowers at the Cosmic Dragon Boat Race at Merchant Square (31 Jul)

🐘 Get crafty, colourful and face-painted at the Elephant Fun Launch Party in Elephant Park. Plus sign up for their future events (31 Jul, ages 5-11)

🐚 Create cyanotype sun prints and knotted wool sea creatures with Arty Pants at Royal Docks Summer Splash (1 Aug). More crafty fun, free lido with sandpit, and kids’ swimming lessons run until 17 Aug

🐟 Explore Lucy Sparrow’s felt-filled Bourdon Street Chippy, stitched from 65,000 playful pieces at Lyndsey Ingram Gallery (1 Aug-14 Sep)

🎬 From Babe to Wicked, enjoy outdoor family film screenings at Everyman on the Canal, set on Yinka Ilori’s bold canal-side steps (daily until 17 Aug)

🚀 See live science demos in The Space Show, track down space objects on the Elio trail and hear how astronauts use the loo at the Science Museum’s Summer of Space (daily until 31 Aug, book)

Free weekend wonders: Greenwich Park Archaeology Festival (2 Aug) and Regent’s Roots Festival (2 Aug).

👀 4,000 pairs of eyes are better than one… let me know what you get up to, and what you thought of it! That way, I know what’s really worth sharing with other parents.

I’ll be back with more free activities in a few days.

Until then, have a fabulous week,

Please check listings before heading out. Events can change or be cancelled at short notice; and, despite my best efforts, sometimes I make mistakes.