Kids Club Gate Cinema, £1 Saturdays: Best Dad’s Day Out at the Cinema
My husband’s ace in the hole on a Saturday morning: Gate Cinema and Notting Hill with the kids. Hands down, this is the best day out if you plan accordingly.
The Gate Cinema is located just outside the Notting Hill Gate underground station. The cinema opens at 10am for families and they some pre-movie art activities for the kids to take part in while the adults grab lattes from the small cafe bar.
Once you have paid your mandatory Kids Club membership fee of £4 to join the club (licensing rule), your Kid’s Club tickets are £1 each. Kids juice and popcorn cost £2. Your cost to see a film with popcorn £7, extra for the adult’s indulgence.
The Gate shows a good mix between classics, slightly older runs and latest releases. Be sure to check the current listings here and find out what is on for this week.
The Notting Hill Farmer’s Market is on every Saturday from 9am – 1pm, located just offKensington Church Street. You can shop for Sunday dinner, for your picnic lunch, or just peruse and pick lovely sundries handmade and locally grown. Check here for more details.
After the film, you can head over to The Princess Diana Memorial Playground, aka “The Pirate Ship Park” and have a great play in the wonderful maze of delightful play apparatus. There is an enormous pirate ship with a soaring crows nest, there are tipis, musical instruments, sand, water play in the summer months, picnic tables for your own food or a snack stand with pizza and sandwiches in you choose.
Not too far of a walk, or one stop on the tube, Bayswater, is the Porchester Baths at the end of Queensway. You do have to bring your own towels, but they have a Saturday swim for families in a gorgeous Edwardian building with original, glass ceiling swimming pool. There are marble arches, statues, stairs, and ferns – an amazing testament to the public building works from a different era. You do not need to be a member to swim, and the fees are very reasonable, but check with the pool for times before you head out.
If the weather does not cooperate for the playground, cut through the park and head over to the museum campus. See the dinosaurs at The Natural History Museum, play in the Garden or Launch Pad at theScienceMuseumor head over to the V and A to make a craft with the art cart or watch a gallery play. There are family picnic areas in each museum, as well as loads of great food to purchase.
Notting Hill is very close to High Street Kensington and Trotters. Trotters is the place to take your kids for shoes, haircuts, and a great looking outfit. Independent and British, they are a great place to tick off a few errands on the list.
Of course, not everyone works on Saturdays and Mum can come along and go shopping in Notting Hill,Portobello Road, head over to Marylebone while Dad amuses the kids and then switch in and out.
After this Saturday the kids will go to bed Saturday night smarter, exhausted, well fed, with smart haircuts and outfits for the next party. Mum and Dad will wake up Sunday, turn on the telly, drink coffee and read the papers free of any guilt whatsoever after that Saturday.
0 Comments
Trackbacks/Pingbacks