London Museum Docklands is handing children a hard hat, a hi-vis and a trowel and letting them dig a real trench, then giving over an entire day to the under-fives for free. The Little Londoners Festival runs across the end of September.
The museum itself is free and open every day, which is worth saying first because a lot of the programme costs nothing on top of that. What follows is the pick of it, in the order it happens.
The big dig, 26 and 27 September
This is the one to book. Children aged five and up get kitted out in a hard hat and hi-vis, handed a trowel and a brush, and put to work on a trench built to replicate a real archaeological site on Gresham Street in the City. They dig down through the centuries, pull out genuine objects, then work out with an archaeologist what they have found and what the site used to be.
Sessions run about an hour and tickets start at £6.50. Trenches hold a maximum of six, and you will share with another family unless you pay for a full trench, which is the detail worth knowing before you book. Prams have to go in the buggy park downstairs.
Mudlarking weekend, the free half
The dig sits inside a wider mudlarking weekend on the 26th and 27th, and the showcase at the centre of it is free and drop-in: mudlarks bringing in thousands of objects they have pulled out of the Thames foreshore themselves, laid out on tables, with the people who found them standing behind them. There is a mudlarking trail through the museum and river crafts alongside.
Talks come from Dr Alessio Checconi and Nicola White, two of the better-known names in the field, on how the river shaped the city, from global trade down to the dockers and tradespeople who lived on its banks. It all runs as part of Totally Thames.
A free day built entirely for under-fives, 30 September
The Little Londoners early years festival takes over the museum on Wednesday 30 September, and every part of it is free. The framing is London in miniature, which sounds twee and turns out to be the opposite: babies and toddlers get a version of the city they can crawl through.
- River sensory space: under the Thames with sea creatures, a rocky riverbed and a lot of puppets
- Jobs on the docks: a storyteller-led drama session where little ones become sailors, dockers and fish porters, hauling ropes and sorting the catch. Separate baby and toddler sessions at 1.45pm
- Hartbeeps baby bells and Build it up: musical sessions for babies, one classroom-based from around eight weeks old, one in the galleries for babies from sitting to walking, with live music
- Carers’ choir: a singing session aimed as much at the adult as the child, and explicitly no-judgement about whether you can hold a tune
- Little London free play: 10.30am to 3.30pm, a miniature city with a fabric river to sail down and a St Paul’s to build
- Let’s dance mini disco and a bobbing boats craft table, both drop-in
It doubles up with Tots at the docks, the free drop-in play session that usually runs on the last Wednesday of the month, so the whole building tilts towards the very small that day. The next one after this is 28 October.
Quieter times, 20 September
Worth flagging separately. On Sunday 20 September the museum runs a relaxed day designed with additional needs in mind: muted or low-level sound across the galleries, designated breakout spaces, a sensory area, and craft activities you can drop into rather than book. Free, all ages, 10am to 5pm.
The activities that day are architecture-themed: decorating your own window to show something about your world, drawing an East London skyline from memory or imagination, and making a wearable papercraft London landmark to keep on your head for the rest of the visit.
Further ahead
Two for the diary. The pirate snowball family rave on 12 December, run with Big Fish Little Fish and DJ HiFi Sean, is free and takes over the Grade I-listed warehouse with disco, acid house and techno, a snow-themed sensory room and a licensed bar for the adults. The Victorian Santa’s grotto runs 20 November to 23 December from £15, with Dickensian decorations through the Sailortown gallery and a gift made from traditional materials rather than plastic.
The London x London Take: the honest reason to make the trip to this particular free museum is that most family programming asks children to look at things, and this asks them to do things: dig a trench, sort a catch, sail a fabric river. The 30 September day is the standout because a whole museum reorganised around people who cannot yet walk is genuinely rare, and it costs nothing. Book the dig separately and early, get a full trench if you can stretch to it, and pair either with an hour in the Mudlarks gallery, which is where you will lose your children anyway.
Need to know
- Where: London Museum Docklands, No. 1 Warehouse, West India Quay, London E14 4AL
- The big dig: 26 and 27 September 2026, various times, from £6.50, ages 5+, roughly 60 minutes, advance booking recommended
- Mudlarking weekend showcase: 26 and 27 September, free, drop-in, all ages
- Little Londoners early years festival: Wednesday 30 September, free, under-5s, various times
- Quieter times: Sunday 20 September, 10am to 5pm, free, all ages
- Museum: free, open daily 10am to 5pm
- Nearest station: West India Quay on the DLR, or Canary Wharf
- Booking: londonmuseum.org.uk
Making a day of it? Our guide to London with kids has the rest, and London’s free museums covers where else costs nothing.
