95 Best Sports & Activity Venues In Greater London

Draw a circle round where you live and ignore everything outside it. London's size means the difference between two similar venues is almost never worth crossing the city for, particularly with children who will be tired on the way home. After that, filter by whether the activity has a height or age minimum, since that removes a large slice of the list for anyone under about eight. What is left is usually a manageable handful.

It is one of the easier things on this list to start cold, because the equipment is provided and progress is visible within minutes. White Spider Climbing and CroyWall Climbing Centre are both rated 4.8 and both recorded as indoor. What we cannot tell you is each centre's own rules on supervision and minimum ages, which vary between walls and change. That is a phone call, and it is worth making it before you drive anywhere.

Morden Park Pool is the plainest answer: swimming has no scoreboard unless you bring one. London Bicycle Tour Company is the other, a ride rather than a race, and it puts the activity outdoors without turning it into a contest. Both sit oddly among the karting and climbing entries that dominate this heading, which is exactly why they are worth pulling out for a child who has had enough of being ranked.

They stretch it. The Dare Skywalk Tottenham and Karts of London are both experiences with a strong element of spectacle, closer to a day out than to a session of doing something. That is not a criticism, but it changes what you should expect: these are one-off treats rather than the sort of place a child goes back to weekly. If you want the second kind, look at the pools and climbing centres instead.

BigShots Golf UK is recorded with both indoor and outdoor space and is the sort of format where a small child hitting badly and an adult hitting well can share a bay without either being bored. Swimming does the same job. Most of the rest of this heading splits a family by height or ability, with one parent watching from a bench, so it is worth asking who is actually taking part before you book anything.