If you’re new to London it may seem daunting: it’s big, it’s smokey, the tube map crosses over all over the place. People often leave the city to try and make a better life for their kids, but actually London can be very family friendly. The South East of London is still filled with large, green spaces, and over the last few years has becomes more and more family focused as people have left the expensive “north-of-the-river” to settle in bigger houses at cheaper prices. Conveniently, Goldsmith sits in the north of Lewisham borough, on two overground stations and one train station. It has easy access to the whole of London, but if you’re looking to entertain the little terrors in your life, you needn’t go far.

The Horniman Museum in Forest Hill – Pic: Julian Osley

A few stops away on the overground you’ll find the Horniman Museum. Entry is free, and there’s something to do all year round. As well as actually having things to look at, as most museums do, there are things for sticky hands to touch. In their Natural World exhibition you’ll find the notoriously overstuffed walrus – apparently the taxidermists stuffing it had never seen a walrus before and simply stuffed it to capacity, leaving it even more rotund than it was supposed to be. You’ll also find stuffed everything else, from a tiger, to different breeds of dog. You can touch the stuffed foxes, and watch actual live mice run around a little enclosure. There’s a small aquarium in the basement, and a butterfly house on the grounds (which admittedly aren’t free), as well as a petting zoo that adults can enjoy too. The gardens are large, and give ample space for running around and letting go of stored up energy. Open all year, the Horniman is somewhere I repeatedly go back to.

London is far from lacking in green spaces, but south of the river we have some of the nicest. Take a walk around Crystal Palace park to find all the dinosaurs, take on the huge kid’s playground in Peckham, or go for a swim in the soon-to-be-reinstated ponds in Beckenham Place Park. They’re all dog friendly if you have a furry friend, but Beckenham Place is by far the best of the dog and children parks, giving lots of flat ground, so even if they run a mile you can still see them and they can still hear you.

Green Chain Walk, in Beckenham Place Park – Pic: N Chadwick

However, if structured, non-involved play is more your thing, there are soft play centres galore. Beckenham boasts a Gambados, and a smaller soft play centre in the spa at Beckenham gym. There are also soft play centres in pretty much ever South East London borough: Bellingham, Peckham, a small, free one in Bromley shopping centre for example. There is also an abundance of playgroups in churches and children’s centres. The real gem in the crown of children’s play is Under1Roof in Woolwich, a place where you can host parties, book classes, sessions, therapies, have a coffee with your friends, a family meal, or just get some cake in the play-cafe. You can also get your kids hair cut, buy them toys, make arts and crafts, get bespoke cakes and party supplies – anything you could possibly want for children, they have.

And this is only in the South East of the city.