Top 10 Theatres for Families and Kids in London

Top 10 Theatres for Families and Kids in London

20 November, 2009
by: Spoonfed Team

Be it Christmas, Easter, half term or summer, London theatre shows are a great way to inject some family fun into the holidays. Kids craft, youth productions, dance, and poetry are dotted all over the city, but where to start!? Well, here.

Quality time with the kids might be the appeal, perhaps you're looking to impress with your clued up cultural outlook, or maybe you just need them out the house for a bit. Whatever the reason, here's your definitive guide to London's best family theatres:

Unicorn Theatre
Innovative and inventive, you can rely on Unicorn not to fill its programmes with the same old hash. Classic stories have modern twists and tales of youth are challenging and poignant. They are pioneers of international theatre bringing a variety of culture to South London including productions from Denmark, Africa and Japan.

Best For: Little kiddies and just-about-pubescent terrors
Nearest Tube: London Bridge

Polka Children's Theatre
This theatre is spacious, making room for productions to be very creative and guaranteeing everyone a good view. Winter here is all about puppets and pantomimes and there are workshops and lots of interactive stuff all year round. Polka prides itself on making sure no two visits are the same. Your challenge will be getting your kids to leave.

Best For: Quality time with the kids
Nearest Tube: Wimbledon/ South Wimbledon

Half Moon Young People's Theatre

This theatre not only produces great theatre for kids but makes a point of getting them involved in creating the theatre too. It's great at including those often marginalised due to ability and culture and has lots of signed production and touch tours. Their programme is really good for young poets and has done amazing things for pre-schoolers with just sand, water and a bit of glitter.

Best for: Audience interaction and contemporary poetry, ages 3+
Nearest Tube: Limehouse

Lyric Theatre
The Lyric Hammersmith has a pizza place! And a roof garden! The theatre's pretty good too. It's got a good mix of comedy stuff and literary stuff, there's a lounge for comedians and musicians, it's kid-friendly and reasonably priced considering the unrivalled quality.

Best for: Hanging out before and after the matinee.
Nearest Tube: Hammersmith

Camden People's Theatre
CPT makes a point of keeping in good contact with a range of theatre production companies and solo artists ensuring that it always has a range of productions lined up. From contemporary dance, children's book story-tellings, and the best of new playwrights to short play festivals, scratch comedy, and inquisitive youth drama.

Best For: Dance and youth theatre
Nearest Tube: Warren Street/Euston Square

New London Theatre
This is a reliable venue for traditional productions, though they have been known to dabble with some interesting experimental stuff that's fun for all ages like the Blue Man Group. http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/london/event/blue-man-group/at/o2-arena/ Currently showing the hugely popular War Horse, we wouldn't be surprised to see them continue with the trend of staging high calibre productions of popular children and young adult novels.

Best For: Big shows. Ages 8+
Nearest Tube: Covent Garden

Chicken Shed
By their own measure, Chicken Shed theatre is extraordinary, pioneering, challenging, and dynamic; we don't disagree. The interactive educational experience that is Tales from the Shed is hailed all over the UK for its creation of a limitless, colourful world that encourages literacy, numeracy, imagination and fun. Education and outreach are top of the list here so everyone is included and respect and citizenship are priorities.

Best for: Storytelling 
Nearest Tube: Cockfosters

Little Angel Theatre
The productions at LAT use every kind of puppet you can think of from hand to marionette and everything in-between. The family focused puppetry here is credited for drawing on a wide range of cultures, themes and styles. The programme is always varied and the shows  can be hilarious, magical, dark and thought provoking.

Best for: Puppets!
Nearest Tube: Angel

Trafalgar Studios
If you're a big brother or sister, a particularly cool aunt or uncle or a renegade grandpa with an older tribe of teens to win favour with, Trafalgar studios is the place to do it. This place can be relied on to provide quality shows with brilliant actors usually already established  on screen or stage.  It often tackles the heavier side of theatre, so if you've got Dimblebys of the future on your hands, you can be sure to get a good debate out of something showing here.  

Best For: Almost adults and literary teens (15+).
Nearest Tube: Charing Cross

National Theatre
Great for providing excellent theatre at good prices, National Theatre caters for know-it-all teenagers desperate to be challenged and university freshers returning home to the folks.  Perfect programming means the school holidays are sorted by blindly pointing at the show calendar and sometimes there are free tickets for 15-25 yr olds. You can also rely on this venue for hit adaptations of popular teen novels as well as classic kids theatre like Dr Seuss's Cat in the Hat

Best For: Pre West End hits
Nearest Tube: Waterloo


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Spoonfed Team