Saturday Morning Family Concerts at Morley College (61 Westminster Bridge Road, near Lambeth North Station) are great fun for 3-8 year olds. Children are encouraged to participate through marching, dancing and examining the instruments. There are two short (45 minute) sessions beginning at 1030 with a 30 minute break for juice, coffee, crisps and cake. Pay at the door (children £5, adults £8, family ticket (2 adults + 1 or 2 kids) £20). Concert dates and further information by email from Shirley Anderson or phone 7326 1545.

The Polka Theatre is Britain's only theatre just for children and young people. Its productions cater for all ages from 3-16. It is only 30 minutes from the Oval via the Northern Line to South Wimbledon and then a short walk.

The nearest child-friendly swimming pool - with a sloping "beach" and occasional waves - is at the Latchmere Leisure Centre on Burns Road, Battersea SW11 (7207 8004). It is open at weekends from 0930 to 1930.

The London Swimming School offer excellent term-time tuition for anyone from nervous tots through to strapping teenagers. They teach at the University of London Union pool, just near Goodge Street on the Northern Line, and they offer a range of convenient lesson times on both Saturday and Sunday. Small group lessons cost around £80 a term but individual lessons are also available. You can click here to email them or phone Mark Jaggers on 07912 202 219.

Childrens' tennis lessons in Vauxhall Park are provided by John Peters (je_peters@msn.com & 7582 5320).

There are plenty of good parks in our area, and Battersea Park is well worth the short journey. It has a children's zoo, boating lake, adventure playground, cafe and much more.

Click here for a list of free events (such as the Easter Egg Hunt in Vauxhall Park, and the Lord Mayor's show) in and around Vauxhall

Other web sites are also full of ideas. Try:-

• Children's London,
• Wizziwiz,
• Planit4kids,
• the British Tourist Authority, and
• About Britain.

Child-Friendly Places to Eat

There are two branches of The Lavender in the area, one on Vauxhall Gardens (112 Vauxhall Walk, 7735 4440) and one at 24 Clapham Road, near the Oval (7793 0770). They don't have changing facilities, high chairs or kids menus but "they don't mind you crashing into the bar with twins in a silver cross pram either. And breast-feeding mums seem to get larger portions - or maybe the portions are always large."

Slightly out of the area, but handily placed for when you are shopping in Brixton, Bar Lorca, at 261 Brixton Road, is a huge tapas bar which does great fresh paella for Sunday lunch. It's bright and airy and there is plenty of room for the kids to run/crawl around in a large room next door to the main bar. There are some toys available to play with including cars to ride on and building blocks. Toddlers can probably find something to munch among the tapas...such as calamares, chicken and of course chips. Not sure if they have changing facilities but the staff are very amenable and probably won't object to nappy changing in the larger room. High chairs are available.

Gandhi's restaurant at Kennington Cross (347A Kennington Road - 08710 752 455) is also reported as very child-friendly - assuming your children are old enough to appreciate Indian food, of course!

Just across the road, The Windmill Fish Bar (7582 5754) at 211 Kennington Lane, on the corner with Windmill Row, has been featured in the media for its high quality fish and chips, and is very friendly to young and old.

Also right opposite, Pizza Express (7820 3877) at 316 Kennington Road (on the corner with Windmill Row) is part of a child-friendly and generally excellent chain of pizza restaurants.

And one parent reports that when they popped into the The Dog House, Kennington Cross for a quick drink on a Sunday they obligingly produced a plate of chips (not on the menu) for their toddler despite the Sunday lunch rush.

I am grateful to the Kennington Families Network for much of the above information.

Please contact me by email if you have any information which could be added to this site.