Visiting London with Babies

Visiting London with Babies

We created this page to help tourists visiting London with Babies navigate through the city. As London is such a big city with so much to do and so family-friendly, we will try to keep it short and sweet.  The main objective of all of our City Travel blogs is to give you specific information about traveling with Babies you would not necessarily be able to find on google, trip advisor,etc. We hope that you will find the information useful and that it will help improve your stay or encourage you to travel to London with your Babies.

Local Tips…

Baby Apps

• NCT baby change App – a guide to baby changing facilities near you. It is excellent!
• Hoop App  – Provides you a list of baby friendly activities based on your childs age and current location. There might be a small charge for the classes via the app. If you are in London for a longer period of time please see my `Baby Activities in London Blog´ on local free activities.

Breastfeeding Cafés

Breastfeeding is legal and accepted anywhere, however you will not see very many women breastfeeding in public, as apparently only 1% of mothers in the UK Breastfeed exclusively. Both Westfield malls (Stratford and Shepherd´s Bush) have recently built a parent room with pods for mothers to be able to breastfeed in private and various baby change facilities and microwaves to be able to warm up milk.

• East London – Husk Coffee & Yurt Café
• North West London – Portman Baby Café
• West London- Masbro Baby Café
• South East London- Quaggy Baby Café

Baby Foods and Products…

• Boots is really good for having a range of baby foods and products.If you need baby products definitely look for them there.
• Otherwise you should also be able to find baby formula, weaning foods, etc at Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury´s (any chain super market).

Travel & Transportation …

• Free travel for children up until the age of 5. Therefore there is no need for you to buy them tickets for London Public Transport (Tube, Bus, DLR, Overground, etc. )
• If you are traveling with the stroller/pram, please see the London tube map to see which stations have step free access. Where you can see a wheelchair there should be an elevator or click
• ​All of the stations on the DLR have an elevator. The majority of stops along the overground as well. Please note that if visiting London over the weekend I would not recommend staying at a hotel, airbnb near the Overground as lately it has always been down for construction.
• My husband and I bought a travel stroller (mountain buggy nano) primarily for our travels, but also for when we go into central London, due to the fact that not all stations have an elevator. As this stroller is lighter I am also able to carry it up the stairs myself. People are quite friendly in London and do normally offer to help you carry the stroller up the stairs.
• Some of the tube stations with step free access are:
  • Earl´s Court
  • Westminster
  • Euston
  • Kensington
  • King´s Cross St Pancras
  • Tottenham Court Road
  • Waterloo
  • Canary Wharf
  • London Bridge
  • Bank
  • Stratford

If you are at a station where there is no ticket service agent and you cannot purchase an oyster card. Please not that you can use your contactless credit card to tap in and out. It still charges you the same. The contactless allows you to travel anywhere in London.

• If you forget to tap out, I believe you will be charged the daily cap amount for the day depending on the zones. https://www.toptiplondon.com/transport/tickets/oyster-card

Tourist Attractions… 

• The majority of London´s tourist attractions are free for adults, except for Madame Tussauds, London Eye and Tower of London.
• If staying in the Canary Wharf area, I recommend taking the Ferry (Thames Clipper) to the tourist attractions. You can use your oyster card/contactless and it takes you to Tower Bridge or the London eye. It is a great trip as it is outdoors, it takes approximately 10-15mins instead of 30-40min via the tube, you can get some really nice pictures of the tower bridge from the Thames.
• The South Bank area in known for being a great location for families with babies and toddlers. The closest tube station is Waterloo (Jubliee line). They have various family friendly attractions sea life aquarium, museums, sandpit, waterpark (Summer only) as well as various baby & child friendly restaurant (i.e Nandos, Giraffe, Vapiano, Pret a Manger, Wagamama, etc.)
• Battersea Park Children´s Zoo & ZSL London Zoo have baby change facilities.
• Mudchute Park & Farm, Surrey Docks Farm, Vauxhall City Farm, Hackney City farm are just a few of many petting Zoo´s in London.
• London has an abundance of Parks. Depending on where in London you are staying as it is a huge city there will most probably be a park close by. Hyde Park has 3 playgrounds and other popular parks just to name a few are Regents Park, Victoria Park, Greenwich, Clapham Common, Hampstead Health, etc.

Baby & Child Friendly Restaurants…

• Apparently most restaurants and gastropubs are tolerant of parents brining their children, however before getting a table ask until what time you can stay.
• We realised that sometimes you have to leave the venues at around 5 or 6pm if you have a child. This for example is the case at the trendy restaurant/bar called the prince london https://www.theprincelondon.com/food and pergola roofgarden. Totally worth going there with your kid(s) but probably in the afternoons, due to their licensing restrictions.
• Creating a full list of Baby friendly restaurants in London is on our list and as you might be able to guess is very time consuming. My suggestion would be to use the NCT babychange app as it show you a peg of where the change table is and lists the name of the particular restaurant. It is quite up to date.
• The majority of chain Restraurants have changing facilities such as Nandos, Vapiano, Wagamama, Franco Manca, Burger & Lobster, Jamie´s Italian, etc.

All in all you will see that London is a very family friendly city and us Mothers at JetLifeBaby love living here. The beauty of living in a big city such as London is that there is always something new to do and you never get bored. The visit london and timeout sites are quite up to date with everything that is happening, but if you have any additional questions in relation to London and/or prior to visiting please feel free to contact us via Instagram @jetlifebaby or email hello@jetlifebaby.com

Happy Baby Happy Travels,

Marisa