A museum that gets forgotten due to its location on the fringes of London; however the RAF Museum is actually easily accessible from the center of town (a 30-minute direct ride on the Northern line from King's Cross to Colindale). With hangars housing over 100 years of aviation history, the kids love feeling small among the saucy Spitfires, and ginormous Lancaster. The freedom to run about such a huge space, along with interactive ladders to climb and helicopter seats to investigate, make it a kiddie dream. The museum has a great worksheet where we learned that the Martin-Baker ejector seat, designed in 1944, had saved more than 6,400 lives, by 1995. By Londonist This card is also included in the following lists: Activities for families on a rainy weekend in London https://event-scouts.com/lists/2695/activities-for-families-on-a-rainy-weekend-in-london

What better way to while away your day from the rain than at the British Museum. Drum up some competition among your family, by splitting up (one adult per team) to clobber each other over who finds more treasure. Search for Greek Olympians, 8th century BC Mesopotamian graffiti of the Royal Game of Ur, some Chinese cherubs playing hobbyhorse on a Ming ewer, and pose with the Lewis Chessmen Rook (also known as the Berserker). Norse legend has it that the Berserkers would whip themselves into a frenzy before descending into battle — that's where the modern term berserk comes from. And with all this stuff going on. By Londonist This card is also included in the following lists: Activities for families on a rainy weekend in London https://event-scouts.com/lists/2695/activities-for-families-on-a-rainy-weekend-in-london

Wigmore Hall hits a high note with its fantastic kiddie concert series — from workshops for under-fives, in their carpeted downstairs room, to a truly impressive hour-long Saturday concert series for kids aged six and up. Our favorite is the Barbican Piano Trio, which plays pieces ranging from Schubert and Schumann to Beethoven and Saint Saëns. Innovative and interactive, the trio stops between pieces to highlight melody and tune. They even get kids up on the stage to divide up into teams behind the cellist, violinist, and pianist as they raise signs when certain notes are hit. They finish off with a wonderful bang: having the audience count to the beat, and scream 'boom' for the missing (drum) cannon of the Battle of Prague. By Londonist This card is also included in the following lists: Activities for families on a rainy weekend in London https://event-scouts.com/lists/2695/activities-for-families-on-a-rainy-weekend-in-london

Dodge the droplets of rain by going underground with Mail Rail. The museum and ride is the perfect activity to invite the grandparents to. With over 1,000 tonnes of cast iron track laid, the postal railway ran 22 hours a day and carried four million letters a day. The tunnels served other purposes as well, housing the Parthenon sculptures, Rosetta Stone, and over 600 paintings in 1918 when London had good cause to fear the German Zeppelin and bi-plane bombing raids. Used by the Royal Post from 1927, it's the fastest way one could cross London: 14 minutes to cross 10 kilometers. Mail Rail opened to the public in 2017 (a section of it, anyway). Your journey begins with a captivating film narrated by the personable Ray Middlesworth — a maintenance engineer for 30 years. He tells the story of the first railway (from 1863-1874 it was a pneumatic underground railway), crossing the world wars, and up through till it was finally closed in 2003. Once you're done, stop off at Exmouth Market for a hot chocolate after. Note: it's very popular, so you might have to hazard a guess when it's going to rain, and book ahead. By Londonist This card is also included in the following lists: Activities for families on a rainy weekend in London https://event-scouts.com/lists/2695/activities-for-families-on-a-rainy-weekend-in-london

Catch the kids' attention with a bloody king-beheading. Before visiting Banqueting House, I have fun spinning King Charles I's beheading into as grisly a tale as possible. My eldest Storsh, is used to my antics and loves paintings of St John the Baptist's head resting on a silver platter, as well of course as stories of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette's heads tumbling down into Place de la Concorde. So to color Inigo Jones's gorgeous classical hall before our visit, I give it my grisly best. The Banqueting House has a great film downstairs to introduce the story of the building before you ascend the grand stairs to the sumptuous chambers. Storsh loves the audio guide describing Rubens' divine ceiling, as well as the well-thought-out kiddie-corner where you can handle 17th-century relics found when excavating the basement. Top this off with their collection of fabulous costumes. By Londonist This card is also included in the following lists: Activities for families on a rainy weekend in London https://event-scouts.com/lists/2695/activities-for-families-on-a-rainy-weekend-in-london