💐 6 things to do in London this weekend with the kids (22–23 March)

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Hello DILFs!

I may have mentioned this last week, but given that parenting often involves repeating yourself 500 times before anyone listens, one more reminder seems fair.

The Dads in London Easter Holiday Guide is ready! It’s exclusive to DILF Club members and packed with the best family activities across the break. Think museums, workshops, shows, immersive experiences, and at least one event where a giant rabbit is inexplicably in charge of arts and crafts.

Some of these are free or cheap, and the best ones are disappearing faster than a £10 note at a school fair. That’s why DILF Club members already have access – so they can book the good stuff before the general public cottons on.

Not a member of The DILF Club yet? You can still save yourself from three weeks of regret:

For £36 a year, you’ll get the full Easter guide, weekly booking alerts, and access to my unnervingly detailed list of future family events – because someone has to be keeping tabs on where all the good stuff is happening.

Or don’t, and spend Easter explaining to your children why their “big day out” involves the same local playground you took them to yesterday. Totally your call.

Now, on with this weekend’s activities…

Jeff xx

1: Introduce your child to classical music – in a concert designed just for them

Family Concert: Close Up: Music for Curious Young Minds
Sunday 23 March, 15:00
Wigmore Hall, 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP
Adults £12, children £10
Age guidance: 7–11

Barely any tickets remaining!

They used the word “lively” twice in the event description, which – in my optimistic opinion – means they’re saying, “It’s fiiiine if your toddler climbs on stage and attempts to fart in time to Debussy’s Syrinx. Absolutely no worries AT ALL if your Year 2-er starts breakdancing while the musicians perform Gustav Holst’s Wind Quintet in A flat Op. 14 H. 67. We’re all here to have fun and muck around – and if a few oboes get wrecked in the process, well, that’s what insurance is for!”

So I’m suitably excited rather than shitting bricks for this “lively family concert” – the one that’s also “lively and interactive”. The organisers are fully expecting that the sense of decorum will be several notches below a Wetherspoons at closing time, and I imagine that any of the “interactive” elements will have been trial-runned (trial-ran?) on countless orchestra offspring to make sure it’s as fun as can be. 

I have to say I’m relieved that it’s a chamber music performance rather than a fully fledged orchestra: it feels more intimate, and less overwhelming for little ones. Also, if your child does end up wreaking havoc, at least you can make eye contact with every single disappointed musician individually.

Sorry in advance if this one has sold out by the time you read this: it’s extremely popular. My DILF Club members found out about it weeks ago, so they were able to book when tickets were still widely available. If you want to join The DILF Club and avoid missing out on popular events in future, it works out at just £3 a month and comes with a bunch of other benefits. 

Find out more: https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202503231500 

While you’re there… 

👍️ There’s an arts and crafts activity literally in the same building afterwards, with a theme connected to the family concert. The activity is free for anyone who attended the concert, but you’ll need to book in advance using this link.

2: Decode the silent language of royal fashion – because every sequin tells a story

Dress Codes: Decoding the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection
Saturday and Sunday, 10:00–16:00
Kensington Palace, Kensington Gardens, W8 4PX
FREE (but requires general admission: adults £20, children £10, under-5s free)

I’m firmly in the “Carry on and do your thing” camp when it comes to the Royal Family. They seem nice (most of them), they bring in tourists, they champion various causes, and they only cost each of us £1.29 a year – which feels like decent value for money.

At the same time, I’m not queuing outside the Lindo Wing or buying coffee table books about Princess Di. I don’t mind the royals, I just don’t think about them.

And yet… I’m bizarrely excited about this Dress Codes exhibition. Me! Someone who is equally “Yeah, fine, whatevs” about both royalty and fashion is now desperate to see an exhibition about royal fashion. Make it make sense!

I think it’s for a few reasons:

1: The exhibition unpicks the codes and protocols of royal clothing – why certain colours must be worn, what different outfits signal, and so on.

2: Attention to detail blows my mind, and these outfits are all over the details. Example: when Princess Diana named a cruise ship in 1984, her red Jasper Conran suit had tiny gold anchor buttons. Themed buttons!!

3: Some publications act like “Thrifty Kate” is groundbreaking for wearing the same coat twice, but the late Queen had all her childhood dresses constantly altered as she grew. She and Margaret even wore hand-me-downs, many of which are on display (and are very obviously “handed down”, judging by descriptions).

4: The outfits themselves are a mix of the ultra-famous and the rarely seen – including lots that have never been displayed before.

5: From the press photos, one of Queen Victoria’s dresses looks absolutely tiny. I need to see for myself just how short she really was.

So yeah: count me keen. I guess I care about royal fashion now. Send help.

Find out more: https://www.hrp.org.uk/kensington-palace/whats-on/dress-codes 

While you’re there… 

👍️ You must have seen The Churchill Arms in online listicles for “The best Christmas lights in London” – and that’s because, every December, the 275-year-old pub looks like this: 

Its facade isn’t exactly low-key the rest of the year either: 

So it’s a fun place to visit for lunch – especially if you prefer pairing your pint with a pad thai rather than traditional pub grub. 

3: Step inside Studio Ghibli’s most beloved world, now with even more theatre sorcery

My Neighbour Totoro (West End production)
Saturday 22 March, 14:00 and 19:30 (and other dates until 2 November)
Gillian Lynne Theatre, 166 Drury Lane, WC2B 5PW
£15–£160 per person
Age guidance: 6+ 

Note: there aren’t many seats available for this Saturday’s performances, but there are plenty of other dates. 

I once bought myself a messenger bag with a picture of Totoro on the front, even though I’d never seen the film My Neighbour Totoro. Like students who decorate their flat with Soviet propaganda posters and sip miso-spiked coffee from Che Guevara mugs, I didn’t need any context or background: it just seemed cool. Admittedly, I was 35 rather than 18… so it could be argued I have less of an excuse. 

Anyway! I stopped wearing the bag when literal strangers would talk to me about the movie. My nerves couldn’t handle it – especially when they referenced famous bits (what the heck is this “bus stop scene” all about??) and I had to feign knowledge and awe while sweating myself into dehydration. 

I don’t know why I never just saw the damn thing, but no matter: I’m now in a position to leapfrog all those Totoro know-it-alls and head straight to the newish theatre adaptation. The play originally premiered at the Barbican Centre in 2022, where it broke the venue’s record for ticket sales in one day and received such glowing reviews that even the marketing team probably thought, “Bit much”: 

“... a tender, remarkably beautiful family show that extols kindness and leans into the film’s emphasis on a world as seen through a child’s eyes” (FT).

“...it’s a triumph - a vital power surge of Anglo-Japanese creative electricity fit for these soul-sapped times” (Telegraph)

“... a delightfully classy evening at the theatre, quite unlike anything else currently on offer… powered by a beguiling combination of charm and wistfulness” (iNews)

The play ran for two seasons at the Barbican, and has now transferred to the West End. The prices are high – even for the West End – but I think/hope this is an expense you won’t regret. 

Find out more: https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/my-neighbour-totoro/ 

4: Find out if Victor Hugo was as dramatic with a paintbrush as he was with a pen

Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo
Saturday and Sunday, 10:00–18:00 (and other dates until 29 June)
Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BD
Adults £15, under-16s free

Which famous person comes to mind when you see these first names?

1: Tom
2: Jennifer
3: Justin
4: Leonardo

For me, it’s: Cruise (not Hanks, Hiddleston, Hardy or Holland); Aniston (not Garner or even Lopez); Timberlake (not Bieber); and DiCaprio (not Da Vinci).

However you answered, I’m going to guess you thought of one famous person for each name almost immediately. Which leads me to explain what was going on when I first read about the Victor Hugo exhibition…

“Victor Hugo??? Is this a parody exhibition or something? Victor Hugo? Is it just a selection of angry drawings about unfortunate mishaps, with speech bubbles that say, ‘I don’t believe it’?”

And this is the problem with name associations. I spent ten entire minutes going doolally with confusion about this new exhibition on the drawings of Victor Hugo before realising there are two famous Victors in this world – and I’d fixated on the fictional one, Victor Meldrew, from One Foot in the Grave.

Victor Hugo – the one who wrote Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame – also had a mishap-prone life, although his were arguably more life-threatening political disasters than minor suburban grievances. As a vocal critic of the death penalty, social inequality and Napoleon III’s rule, he was eventually forced to flee France and spent nearly 20 years in exile.

His private refuge was drawing: imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes; caricatures; travel drawings; and experiments with abstraction. His art inspired Romantic poets, Surrealist artists and other famous painters including Vincent van Gogh, but it’s rarely displayed publicly. (In fact, his drawings were last shown in the UK over 50 years ago.)

So if you’d like to see Victor Hugo’s lesser-known talent – and possibly confirm for yourself that he never once sketched a ruined shed while muttering “bloody typical” – now’s your chance.

Find out more: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/astonishing-things 

While you’re there… 

👍️ Do you know the history of the phone box? In the 1920s, the Post Office ran a competition to design a new kiosk – and a British architect called Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed the winning entry. It was referred to as the K2 (the original phone box design was the K1), and Sir Giles originally wanted it to be in silver and blue.

In the left entrance arch to the Royal Academy, you’ll find one of the very first cast iron K2s ever installed in London, and – next to it – the original wooden prototype on which it was based. It’s only had 13 reviews on Google, and every single one of them is for the RA rather than for the phone box. So consider this something of a hidden gem. 

5: Discover Lindt’s new flagship store – complete with truffle skyline

Lindt Flagship Store Opening
Saturday 09:00​​–21:00 and Sunday 12:00–18:30 (grand opening is on Friday at 14:00)
1–17 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7EA

If you ever want to thank me for all these incredible weekends you're now enjoying, I’ll make it easy for you: Lindt Lindor chocolates. The little balls. Milk chocolate. Extra dark. White.

In fact, if you’re in the Piccadilly Circus area this weekend, you could swing by the brand-new Lindt pick ‘n’ mix store and grab a handful for me while you’re there.

This place looks legit amazing. Whereas M&Ms World down the road feels like a lesson in how far brand loyalty will carry a business – just walls of M&Ms, eye-watering price tags, and merch nobody has ever wanted – Lindt promises an actual experience, not just an expensive reminder that you like chocolate:

🍫 A massive pick ‘n’ mix wall stacked with 14 different kinds of Lindor chocolates – the largest of its kind in the UK

🍫 The Lindt Chocolate Bar – where you can watch Lindt’s master chocolatiers make chocolates right in front of you

🍫 A Lindt ChocoBarista station, for coffee, hot chocolate, milkshakes, and Crema Gelata – ice cream made fresh in-store at the Lindt Chocolate Bar

🍫 Exclusive London-themed gifts, which you can personalise with bespoke ribbons and custom tags, in case someone in your life wants a sentimental chocolate bar (?)

🍫 And, for all you Instagram fans, a window display of the London skyline, made entirely out of Lindor truffles

M&Ms World people: it's not too late to add a chocolate fountain. Or something. 

Find out more: https://www.lindt.co.uk/blog/flagship-store-opening/ 

While you’re there… 

👍️ If you happen to be in the area on the previous day (Friday 21 March) at 14:00 exactly, the first 200 customers to purchase a Lindt item worth £10 or more will receive a goodie bag. The contents of the goodie bag haven’t been revealed, but I’d put my money on there being some more Lindt chocolates. 

👍️ Lock & Co. Hatters is just down the road and, at almost 350 years old, holds the title of the world’s oldest hat shop. It’s measured the heads of Lord Nelson, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin, and their head templates are still on display.

The strangest thing in the shop? The conformateur – a terrifying steampunk-looking contraption that’s been used for over a century to measure customers’ heads by stabbing pins into paper to create a template. Which, presumably, is less painful than it sounds.

It’s also the birthplace of the bowler hat – a style that came about when a farmer asked for something sturdy enough not to fly off in the wind. It worked, and soon 60,000 were selling a year. 

6: Find out if your child’s singing voice is Westminster Abbey-worthy

St Margaret's Chorister Experience Day
Sunday 23 March, 14:00–16:30
St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, St Margaret Street, SW1P 3JX
FREE
Age guidance: for Year 6 only

An exciting career opportunity! 

Calling all girls in Year 6! Do you enjoy singing? Would you like to belt out hymns in one of the world’s most famous churches while getting free singing lessons and a scholarship?

The St Margaret’s Choristers of Westminster Abbey are on the hunt for new recruits to join from September 2025. No experience required – just a love of music and a willingness to commit to the noble tradition of singing really well in a big, echoey space.

Successful candidates will be expected to do the following:

✓ Sing in St Margaret’s Church and Westminster Abbey (the place where kings get crowned – no pressure)

✓ Attend three rehearsals a week 

✓ Secretly enjoy the fact that most adults don’t get to perform here

Chorister Experience Day* is your chance to give it a go, meet the choir, and ask important questions (e.g. “Will I have to sing in Latin?”). Parents are welcome to stay and nod encouragingly.

Apply within. No X Factor audition dramatics required.

Pay: not at all competitive, if you’re talking about actual money. 

*It’s 2.5 hours. The word “day” is a bit misleading. 

Find out more: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-events/choral-and-music/2025/march/march-23-st-m-chorister-experience-day 

While you’re there… 

👍️ I still haven’t been to the famous-ish Regency Cafe, but I’ve read all the articles, seen the photos and skimmed the reviews, and it looks like the sort of place I’d enjoy. This is partly because the food is my sort of food, but mainly because the prices are my sort of prices.