Morning, London! Happy Thursday! London’s first 7pm sunset of the year (sounds like an Oscar nomination) is happening next weekend. I read that somewhere, and it felt like good news. Speaking of which, I haven’t seen any of the recent Oscar winners—Anora, The Brutalist, Emilia something—not even Wicked, which we wrote about when it took over London. Is there a study on how many movies/TV shows one watches before vs. after kids? Yes, there is—my own study.

Here’s something fun: On Saturday, 29 March, heritage buses from the 1950s and 60s will take over Route 19, running between Finsbury Park and Battersea Bridge. No booking needed—just rock up, hop on for free, and maybe even get an old-school paper ticket from a conductor. All aboard the nostalgia express!

Plenty of you asked where to buy the official “I’m not obsessed with the weather” London Scoop T-shirts 🤣. Come on, I was kidding—surely I can do better than that? Let me brainstorm a few ideas… goal is to create something you’d be proud to rock while making a late-night Kit Kat run. Maybe we even end up in Vogue.

Let’s see what else we’ve got for you today:

• 🎙️ London Snippets: Bits that caught our eye

• 🧠 Casual Einstein: Two new playground-worthy facts

• ❓ Trivia: Know your London?

• 📅 Readers’ Favourite: Family events this week

But first, the weather. London did its best impression of a malfunctioning thermostat yesterday, swinging 21 degrees from -3°C to 18°C—because consistency is overrated. And today? Hotter than Porto, Ibiza, and Barcelona. Spot the overly optimistic shorts-wearers shivering outside the pub later.

. LONDON SNIPPETS .

Bits that caught our eye

🎬 Lights, Camera, West London! A historic site in West London is getting a Hollywood-worthy makeover, with new film studios and 3,000 jobs on the way. Expect more A-listers, more productions, and maybe, just maybe, a celeb sighting at your local Tesco. Full story

🌸 Britain’s Poshest Town Is Just Outside London. The Telegraph has spoken, and Henley-on-Thames takes the crown as Britain’s poshest town. Because, let’s be real, anywhere that hosts a Royal Regatta was never losing this race. Expect scenic views, boutique shops, and a quiet understanding that your car should probably be a Range Rover. Bruton (Somerset) and Harrogate (North Yorkshire) round out the podium. Full story

🚄 Oxford Street Gets a Flat-Pack Upgrade! IKEA’s much-anticipated arrival on Oxford Street is set for a May launch—because nothing says prime retail real estate like a maze of stylish showrooms and the lingering smell of meatballs. Speaking of which, IKEA’s new 130-seater Swedish Deli will be dishing out its signature meatballs for £4.95 and hot dogs for just 75p—a rare Oxford Street bargain. Full story

 .CASUAL EINSTEIN .

2 for 1: Wow your kid and outsmart the other parents

Here are two cool facts to help you sound like the smartest parent on the playground—or to fill those awkward silences with the other dads.

Fun Fact: Your bones are actually stronger than steel. Pound for pound, they’re five times stronger, making your skeleton a high-performance, impact-resistant masterpiece. Flexible collagen keeps things bendy, while tough minerals give it superhero strength. So next time you trip over a Lego, just remember—you’re (technically) built tougher than a skyscraper. 🦴💪

London Fact: The Bank of England has massive underground vaults that store around 5,000 tonnes of gold—worth hundreds of billions of pounds. So, technically, when you’re walking near Bank station, you’re just a few feet above one of the world’s largest gold reserves. Anyone fancy grabbing a shovel and going halves? 💰🏦

. TRIVIA .

Think you know your London?

. EVENTS SCOOP .

What’s on this week?

🎪 Miniature Travelling Circus @ Little Angel Theatre
Date & Loc: Mar 20th- Apr 19th, Islington
Roll up! Roll up! Take your seats for the smallest circus in town. George the ringmaster has quite the challenge on their hands. The circus isn’t quite what it once was but even still, George has curated a programme of acts more bedazzling than ever.
Age: 2-5yo | Price: from £13 | Info

⚓ Mudlarks Family Gallery @ London Museum
Date & Loc: Mar 20th-23rd, Docklands
Mudlarks brings the docks to life through interactive play, which keeps little ones occupied and stimulates their development. Find out what the docks were used for and what life would've been like for sailors many years ago.
Age: Under 8s | Price: from £3 | Info

🌳 Mini Makers: Messy Play @ Pitzhanger
Date & Loc: Mar 21st, Ealing
Engaging, child-led activities and creative art-making, featuring cardboard construction, painting, sensory play, drawing, and more. Your children will build their confidence, creativity, and fine motor skills while making a mess that you won’t have to clean up at the end!
Age: 1-5yo | Price: £15 | Info

📖 Singing, Stories & Crafts @ London Transport Museum
Date & Loc: Mar 21st, Covent Garden
Weave your way into the far reaches of the city using a maze of railway tunnels as you follow the ‘Underground Mouse’, soar gracefully over London’s iconic landmarks with ‘Kayla the Kestrel’, or adventure across the Atlantic Ocean for a taste of the Caribbean with the ‘Canteen Queen’.
Age: Under 5s | Price: from £24 (kids free) | Info

🎨 Saturday Snappity @ Kingston Museum
Date & Loc: Mar 22nd, Kingston
Each week features engaging activities such as music and crafts based on weekly themes inspired by Kingston Museum.
Age: Under 5s | Price: £2 | Info

🎭 Three Little Vikings @ Lyric Hammersmith
Date & Loc: Mar 22nd, Hammersmith
Three brave little Viking girls save the day in this bold and funny adventure story for little rebels, by the creator of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Little Red and I Can Catch a Monster, Bethan Woollvin.
Age: 3+ | Price: £10 | Info

🎶 Story Space @ Tate Britain
Date & Loc: Mar 22nd-23rd, Millbank
Explore the growing Story Space book collection, celebrating books that centre children of colour, featuring books by black authors, indigenous authors and authors of colour from around the world. Story Space also includes books by authors and about characters who have protected characteristics such as disability, sexual orientation and religion/ belief.
Age: Everyone | Price: No cost | Info

🎭 Sisters 360 @ Polka Theatre
Date & Loc: Mar 22nd-Apr 27th, Wimbledon
Fatima and Salima are the closest, coolest, hijabi step-sisters in all of Bradford and they will win the Tiny is Mighty skateboarding competition, there is no doubt about it. Inspired by real-life skateboarding sisters Layna, Maysa and Amaya, and their hero Olympic Medallist Sky Brown.
Age: 8-12yo | Price: from £11 | Info

🎶 OAE Tots: A Watery Adventure @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, Southbank
These workshops run alongside the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s FUNharmonics family concerts. Dive into water-inspired music at this interactive children’s workshop led by musicians from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Age: 2-5yo | Price: from £3 | Info

🎶 FUNharmonics: The Snail and the Whale @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, Southbank
Set sail with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and two unlikely friends on an ocean adventure for families, in this musical adaptation of the well-loved tale.
Age: 5+ | Price: from £8 | Info

📖 Yo Comics! @ Stanley Arts
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, South Norwood
Yo Comics Fair is a free comic fair made for kids and by kids. The first South London comics & zine fair for kids, where kids will also be selling and making comics of their own. And it’s all free!
Age: Everyone (workshops for 7-14) | Price: No cost | Info

🎶 Family Concert: Music for Curious Young Minds @ Wigmore Hall
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, Marylebone
A lively family concert, presented by Aga Serugo-Lugo and featuring five wind musicians (flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon and horn). Together they breathe life into the wondrous world of chamber music.
Age: 7-11 yo | Price: £10 | Info

🎶 St Margaret’s Chorister @ Westminster Abbey
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, Westminster
Find out what it’s like to be a member of the St Margaret’s Choristers of Westminster Abbey – ideal for girls currently in Year 6. We are also recruiting girls currently in Year 9 and Year 11 to fill two upcoming vacancies.
Age: 10+ | Price: No cost (booking required) | Info

🎉 Three Little Vikings @ Arts Depot
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, North Finchley
Different location/date to the one at Lyric Hammersmith. Three brave little Viking girls save the day in this bold and funny adventure story for little rebels, by the creator of the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Little Red and I Can Catch a Monster, Bethan Woollvin.
Age: 3+ | Price: from £12.50 | Info

🐭 The Snail and the Whale @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, Southbank
Set sail with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and two unlikely friends on an ocean adventure for families, in this musical adaptation of the well-loved tale.
Age: 5+ | Price: from £8 | Info

📖 Making Comics Together @ Stanley Arts
Date & Loc: Mar 23rd, Norwood
If there’s one thing more fun than making comics, it’s making comics TOGETHER! Come and join Neill and Logan Cameron for a fabulous workshop.
Age: 5+ | Price: No cost | Info

🌳 Winter Sculpture Park @ Thamesmead
Date & Loc: Mar 22nd-23rd, Thamesmead
40 artworks. 2 months. 6.5 acres of wild grassland. ​Roam and get lost amongst the former Thamesmead golf course along the banks of the River Thames. Closed to the public for over a decade, naturally rewilded, and home to local intrigue and exploration, the disused golf course provides the perfect backdrop.
Age: Everyone | Price: No cost | Info

🎭 Playing Macbeth @ Globe Theatre
Date & Loc: Mar 20th- Apr 20th, Southbank
Experience a daring new production of Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank: Macbeth in the Globe Theatre. This fast-paced, 90-minute version is created especially for young people and is the perfect introduction to Shakespeare for everyone.
Age: Everyone | Price: from £5 | Info

📖 Rug Rhymes @ Southbank Centre
Date & Loc: Mar 28th, Southbank
Come and get snug as a bug while National Poetry Library puppets Federico and Firebird share some of their favourite poems, nursery rhymes and rhyming stories.
Age: 0-5yo | Price: £4 | Info

🌸 Sounds of Blossom @ Kew Gardens
Date & Loc: Mar 20th-Apr 6th, Kew
In collaboration with the Royal College of Music, Sounds of Blossom will bring the spring blooms to life. Music students from the college have composed new music, commissioned by Kew and inspired by the glory of spring. These new compositions will be played around the Gardens in Kew’s blossom hotspots.
Age: Everyone | Price: from £7 | Info

🎶 Play Tuesdays @ National Maritime Museum
Date & Loc: Mar 25th, Greenwich
Explore the Museum and the collection with your family through facilitated play, songs and stories led by early years specialists.
Age: Under 5s | Price: £4 (adults free) | Info

🎶 Pirates @ National Maritime Museum
Date & Loc: Mar 29th, Greenwich
Pirates traces the changing depictions of pirates through the ages and reveals the brutal reality behind the fiction. The exhibition explores the perception of piracy in popular culture – from comical characters like Captain Pugwash and Captain Hook to anti-heroes like Long John Silver and Captain Jack Sparrow – and examines why the idea of a pirate’s life still fascinates us today.
Age: 7+ | Price: from £7.5 | Info

🎶 Family Station: Explore & Play @ British Library
Date & Loc: Mar 30th, Kings Cross
Explore the Library through a range of creative activities designed for families. Enjoy fun sensory items, a pop-up reading corner with braille and tactile editions, and art materials to experiment, draw, and build.
Age: Everyone | Price: No cost | Info

🧸 Beegu @ Unicorn Theatre
Date & Loc: Mar 22nd-May 4th, London Bridge
Alexis Deacon’s much-loved tale about friendship, respect and the importance of including others is brought to life in this heart-warming stage adaptation written and directed by Debbie Hannan. Lost on Earth after her spaceship crashes, Beegu wanders off to find some friends.
Age: 3-7yo | Price: from £10.50 | Info

🎭 My Neighbour Totoro @ Gillian Lynne Theatre
Date & Loc: Daily, Covent Garden
Winner of six Olivier Awards, this "utterly beguiling" (The Stage) and “jaw-dropping” (Metro) staging of the celebrated 1988 animated feature film is brought to you by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Executive Producer Joe Hisaishi, and adapted by Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer).
Age: 6+ | Price: from £65 | Info

🧠 Hello Brain! @ Francis Crick Institute
Date & Loc: Daily, King’s Cross
Firing inside your head, the neurons in your brilliant brain make more connections than there are stars in our galaxy. From hallucinations to lab-grown neurons, we're inviting you into the ever-morphing world that makes you...you.
Age: Everyone | Price: No cost | Info

⛸️ The Flight of the Babushka Baboon @ Puppet Barge
Date & Loc: Mar 20th-30th, Little Venice
The story of a baboon who wants to fly to the moon in a hot-air balloon. This dreamlike production uses string marionettes, shadow puppets and moving poetry to tell the story of Babushka baboon’s journey. Will she escape the hunters and save the elephant? Will she achieve her dream?
Age: 4-10 | Price: from £10 | Info

☀️ Helios in the Painted Hall @ Old Royal
Date & Loc: until Mar 25th, Greenwich
See the Painted Hall in a new light. Looking for some winter sun? See Luke Jerram’s newest and most ambitious artwork, Helios, at the London premiere at the Old Royal Naval College.
Age: Everyone | Price: £16.50 | Info

🎭 The Pea and the Princess @ Polka Theatre
Date & Loc: until March 30th, Wimbledon
Leap into a high velocity adventure into the world of a Ninja Princess on a mega-mission, a practical Prince concocting the best inventions, a Queen with a slightly worrying crown obsession, and a very green baddy indeed.
Age: 3-7yo | Price: from £10 | Info

🎸 Meet the Organ! @ Sinfonia Smith Square
Date & Loc: Apr 19th, Westminster
Come and meet the biggest and most powerful musical instrument – the organ! In a workshop with organist Benjamin Collyer, you’ll get the chance to discover how the organ works, and explore the keys, pedals, and stops. From thunderously loud, room-filling music to soft delicate sounds, you’ll see how this giant instrument is brought to life.
Age: Everyone | Price: No cost | Info

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