Exploring London - 3

Don’t miss the 900-year-old Tower of London. Kids who like ghosts won’t be disappointed in the Beefeater guided tour. The Crown Jewels in the Waterloo Block are also part of the show: You are taken along on a moving conveyor belt past a bewildering variety of gold and glitter, including the Cullen diamond, which is more than 530 carats. To prepare kids for the visit, see the online Tower of London kids guide.

If you want to watch the 700-year-old Ceremony of the Keys, in which the Tower is locked up by the Chief Yeoman Warder, you can get free tickets. You must book in advance by sending a request listing the names of all attendees, a selection of dates, a return envelope, and British postage stamps or International Reply Coupons to:

Ceremony of the Keys Office, HM Tower of London, London EC3N 4AB, United Kingdom.

• Fountain at Trafalgar Square.
• Linda Uruchurtu

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square, commemorating Lord Nelson’s naval victory over Napoleon, is home to the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, and the beloved parish church of St. Martin in the Fields. It is also home to crowds and crowds of pigeons, which children may enjoy feeding, but I tend to view as pests. If you are an inveterate art lover, you could spend the entire day at the galleries—don’t miss Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks or Holbein’s Ambassadors in the National Gallery. If you have an older child who is interested in the fine arts, the National Portrait Gallery offers a series of art workshops, such as body casting, digital photography, or stenciling portraits in the style of Andy Warhol. The National Gallery also sponsors NGA kids, a series of activities including workshops, films, and guided tours.

The parish church of St. Martin in the Fields is also worth a visit. The church itself has lovely and inexpensive candlelit baroque concerts if you’d like some Vivaldi after dinner (call +44 0 20 7766 1100 to book concert tickets). Downstairs is the Crypt Restaurant, one of the more unique eating establishments in London, and the London Brass Rubbing Centre, where your children can make rubbings from a huge selection of replica medieval brasses of kings, princesses, St. George and the Dragon, or even William Shakespeare. The Rubbing Centre is open until 10 p.m. so parents can finish their meal while children are kept busy. 

• One of many exhibits in the British Museum of London.
• Francesco Gasparetti

The British Museum

The granddaddy museum of them all, the British Museum in Bloomsbury (tube stop: Russell Square) is visually stunning inside and out. The museum is best known for its collections of Egyptian and Greek antiquities. Not to be missed are the Rosetta Stone, which gave Enlightenment linguists the key they needed to crack the code of hieroglyphics, and the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens.

The British Museum also has an excellent series of programs for children, and what kid isn’t interested in mummies? There are free activity backpacks, trails for kids to guide them around the exhibits, and a free children’s library. The shop has loads of affordable children’s souvenirs, including hieroglyphic stamp pad sets and a mummy pencil case that was popular with my niece. There are also hands-on activities throughout the museum, where you can handle museum objects and ask the curators questions.