Family Days Out in London on a Rainy Day – Indoor Activities Kids Actually Enjoy

Here’s how most Family Days Out in London go. You check the weather, sigh, Google “things to do with kids indoors london”, click on the first listicle, pick something that looks promising, travel 45 minutes across the city, arrive to find it’s heaving, spend 90 minutes in a building where your children are moderately entertained while you’re moderately exhausted, and then everyone argues on the bus home about where to get lunch.

We can do better than that.

London is full of genuinely brilliant indoor family activities – places where kids are actually engaged (not just tolerated), parents aren’t bored out of their minds, and nobody has to remortgage the house to pay for it. Some of them are completely free, some of them are so good you’ll hope for rain just so you have an excuse to go back.

We run Draughts – a bar, board game kitchen and lounge with over 1,000 games across our venues in Waterloo and Stratford. Kids aged 12 and under play free with us, so we know a thing or two about keeping families entertained when the weather’s doing its worst.

Here’s our guide to the best family rainy day activities in London.

The Museums Kids Actually Love

Not all museums work for children. Some are too quiet, too fragile, too “don’t touch anything.” These ones aren’t.

The Science Museum in South Kensington is five floors of exactly the kind of stuff kids want to interact with. The Wonderlab gallery (ticketed, but worth it) has over 50 hands-on exhibits covering forces, light, sound and electricity – children can create lightning, fly a virtual hot air balloon and watch live science demonstrations. The rest of the museum is free, and highlights include actual spacecraft, a working steam engine, and the computing gallery where you can trace the history of technology from Babbage’s Difference Engine to modern AI. Works for ages three to fifteen, which is rare.

The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill is one of London’s most underrated family destinations. It’s got a hands-on natural history gallery, a world-class collection of musical instruments kids can actually play, an aquarium with jellyfish and seahorses, and 16 acres of gardens (for when the rain stops). The walrus. You have to see the walrus. It was taxidermied by someone who’d never actually seen a walrus alive, so it’s been stuffed to maximum capacity and looks absolutely ridiculous. Free entry to the museum and gardens; aquarium and butterfly house are ticketed.

The London Transport Museum in Covent Garden is a hit with younger children especially. They can climb on vintage buses, sit in a Tube driver’s cab, and explore a century of London transport history through proper interactive exhibits. The All Aboard play zone for under-sevens is excellent. Adults will find it surprisingly interesting too – the design history of the Tube map alone is fascinating. About 21 for adults; kids under 17 are free.

The Postal Museum in Clerkenwell has a trump card: Mail Rail. It’s the miniature underground railway that carried letters beneath London from 1927 to 2003, and you can ride through the original tunnels. For children, this is basically an underground adventure ride. The museum itself is well done – interactive sorting machines, dressing up as postal workers, designing stamps. About 19 for adults, 12 for children; family tickets available.

The Grant Museum of Zoology near Euston is tiny, free, and absolutely mesmerising for kids who are into animals. It’s a single room packed with thousands of specimens – skeletons, taxidermy, preserved creatures in jars. The jar of moles is legendary and there’s also a dodo skeleton. There’s a giant deer with antlers wider than a car. It takes about 45 minutes, which makes it a perfect quick stop, and it’s free.

Indoor Activities That Burn Off Energy

Museums are great, but children need to move, these places let them.

Indoor climbing walls are one of the best rainy day family activities in London if your kids are old enough (usually five and up). Bouldering walls don’t require harnesses or training – children can climb at their own level while parents either join in or watch from the cafe. Sessions usually last about two hours and cost around £10-£15 per person.

Trampoline parks are pure energy expenditure. An hour of bouncing and your children will be too tired to argue about screen time for the rest of the day. Most trampoline parks have dedicated sessions for younger kids and separate areas for toddlers. Sessions typically run £12-£18 per child for an hour.

Swimming is the classic rainy day fallback for a reason. The London Aquatics Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (a short walk from our Stratford venue) is the facility built for the 2012 Olympics – Zaha Hadid designed it, and it’s genuinely stunning. Public swim sessions are affordable, and there’s a separate diving pool and splash area.

The Covered Markets Kids Don’t Hate

Markets aren’t the first thing most parents think of for a family day out, but the right ones work brilliantly. Kids like food stalls because they can choose what they eat. They like browsing because it’s walking around rather than sitting still, and covered markets mean rain is irrelevant.

Greenwich Market is family-friendly, surrounded by free attractions (the Cutty Sark is right there, the National Maritime Museum is free and excellent for kids, and the Royal Observatory is a short walk up the hill). The market itself has good food stalls and interesting craft stands. You could easily combine the market with the Maritime Museum and get a full day out of it.

Spitalfields Market at weekends is bigger and buzzier, with a huge range of food from around the world. Older kids (eight and up) tend to enjoy it more than toddlers. The surrounding streets are interesting for teenagers who fancy a wander.

Board Games: The Family Activity Nobody Thinks Of (But Everyone Loves)

Here’s something we see every single weekend at Draughts. A family walks in, the parents looking slightly nervous, the kids looking slightly suspicious. Twenty minutes later, the whole table is laughing, arguing about rules, and making each other play one more round. Board games are one of the best family activities in London, and almost nobody thinks of them.

Why it works for families: Modern board games are designed to be played together across age groups. We’ve got games that work for five-year-olds and their grandparents at the same table. Games where the kids beat the adults fairly. Games where you’re cooperating against the game itself so nobody loses. Games that take ten minutes and games that take an hour. Our staff will find the right one for your family in seconds – just tell them the ages and they’ll handle the rest.

Kids aged 12 and under play free at Draughts. That’s free access to over 1,000 games. The kids menu is £11 for a drink, main, side and dessert – think chicken goujons and chips washed down with a juice, then churros dusted in sugar with a chocolate dipping sauce, or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Parents get a proper food menu – short rib birria tacos, a double smashed cheeseburger, halloumi fries – a full cocktail bar, and the quiet satisfaction of watching their children put their phones down and actually play.

Draughts Waterloo is at Arch 16, Leake Street, SE1 7NN – three minutes from Waterloo station. The walk through the graffiti tunnel is an experience in itself, and kids love it. Call us on 020 7450 5339.

Draughts Stratford is at 5 Aquatics Walk, inside Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, E20 2AS. If the rain clears up, you’re in the middle of one of London’s best parks – playgrounds, waterways, the Tumbling Bay playground with sand and water play. If it doesn’t clear up, you’ve got 1,000 games and a kitchen.

Book at draughtslondon.com – weekends and school holidays fill up fast, especially for families.

Games Families Love at Draughts

Our staff will always recommend the best game for your group, but here are some of the most popular family picks:

Dixit is a storytelling game where players describe beautiful illustrated cards with a single word or phrase. Everyone picks a card from their hand that matches the description, and then you all vote on which was the original. It’s imaginative, creative and works brilliantly across ages because children’s lateral thinking often beats adult logic.

Codenames splits the family into two teams. A spymaster gives one-word clues to guide their team to the right words on a grid. It’s the most-requested game in our library, and it works just as well with a family of four as it does with a group of ten.

Sushi Go Party is a fast, colourful card-drafting game where you’re trying to assemble the best combination of sushi dishes. The artwork is adorable, the rules take two minutes to learn, and the strategy is deeper than it looks. Kids who are competitive will love it.

Exploding Kittens is silly, fast and loud. Draw cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and gets eliminated – unless they’ve got a defuse card. The illustrations are ridiculous, the gameplay is chaotic, and it’s the kind of game where the seven-year-old frequently beats the adults.

Practical Tips for Family Days Out in London

• Book everything you can in advance. Timed entry slots for museums, swim sessions at the Aquatics Centre, tables at Draughts. Turning up on a rainy Saturday without bookings and you’ll be queuing everywhere.
  
  
• Stick to one thing. The temptation on a rainy day is to cram in two or three activities. Don’t. Pick one good thing, do it properly, and everyone comes home happy rather than frazzled.
  
• Use the Tube, not the bus. London buses in rain are slow, steamy, and miserable for everyone. The Underground is faster and children generally enjoy it more.
  

Frequently Asked Questions about Family Days Out in London on a Rainy Day

Book your family day out at draughtslondon.com – evenings and weekends fill up fast, and you don’t want to start your date with “sorry, there’s a wait.”