London Baby On Tour – Your last chance to visit Dismaland!

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London Baby has been out and about quite a lot recently and so I invite you to read about one of my day trips – to Weston-super-Mare (near Bristol!). Dismaland has been the talk of the town in London, certainly for art lovers, hipsters, and people who usually don’t care about culture. When I was there, it seemed that every second person came visiting from London! So I thought that this definitely warrants the first “London Baby Day Trip” post on this blog – certainly if you have been doubting whether to go, you have less than a week left before it closes its doors forever on September 27th. 

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So what is Dismaland?

“Dismaland” – a “Bemusement Park”  is the brainchild of Banksy, one of the world’s most famous street artists. Continue reading →

Get in line! It’s London Open House Weekend!

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Good morning London Baby readers!

It’s a (hopefully not too rainy) weekend ahead, and its London Open House weekend. Before I even get started, I have a confession to make: as much as I love pretending I am an expert of all-that-is-London, Open House weekend is totally out of my expertise. Often, I have not been in town, and if I have, I was very unprepared. Usually, friends of mine are trying to win tickets for the hottest venues for us already months before in the lottery ticket system, but we are never successful. On the weekend, I found myself in some of the most absurd long Q’s at Battersea Power Station or elsewhere, so its not been such a success for me until now 🙂

However, it is a genuine and beloved highlight in the London events calendar, so I do want to give you a bit of background and one or the other tip of buildings to see.

So what is the London Open House weekend?

To celebrate and promote London’s architecture and design, more than 800 venues, many of them usually not open to the public, open their doors over this weekend. This Continue reading →

A sneak preview of the Literary Footprints Festival

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Happy Sunday everyone! Time for a new guest blog, this time from London Baby’s favourite London Guide. Rob Smith is a London walking guide with Footprints of London  and his guest blog looks at Literary Locations in London. In October Footprints of London are holding the Literary Footprints Festival – a series of walks celebrating London’s literary heritage. Continue reading →

Swimming like a King – the King’s Cross Pond Report!

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Dear all,

August Bank Holiday almost marks the end of the London Summer Season, so its time to get back from London Baby’s Summer Break! Thanks to Ramallah Baby for a few lovely guest posts (see here and here) – she is a London Baby in disguise!!!

London Baby used the break to go on vacation, but also many “staycations” in London during the weekend – can’t wait to share many new discoveries here. For starters, the Capital Ring has now been conquered- stay tuned for some posts on this.

Anyway, back to this post – its literally fresh off the press. Yesterday, I finally went to the King’s Cross Pond – the much talked about Pop-up swimming pond (not pool!) in the construction area of King’s Cross. According to the people behind it, its much more than a humble pond- no! In the self-marketing of the place, Icon Magazine sums it up as:

“Part art installation, part leisure project, the pool of naturally filtered water allows swimmers an unusual perspective on a rapidly changing part of London”

and-” ‘Of Soil and Water’: the King’s Cross Pond Club, the piece encourages visitors to enter the water and participate in the installation as a piece of experiential art.”

Big words! But lets see…

Continue reading →

Exploring London in weather that is not so good…

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I hope you saw this coming… when That’s Ramallah Baby wrote about things to do in London when the weather is good, of course I was also at the same time thinking about things to do when the weather is the opposite! It looks like the good weather in London is over for at least a couple of days – not surprisingly at all! However, there are still so many things to do that I absolutely love, and sometimes I even look forward to bad weather because it feels like you cannot do them when the weather is good.

1. BFI archive – for free! 

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Enjoying London in good weather – or what I would be doing in London if I was there right now…

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Ramallah Baby greets the London Baby Blog readers! 

It is an honour to be invited to blog about London, and having checked the great weather in London at the moment I really hope that you plan to make the most of it. It is very hot in Ramallah right now, and while I cool down in the Dead Sea and in the poolside bars here in Ramallah, Palestine, I am reminiscing about the great things to do in London when the weather is nice. Here is the beginning of my list…

1. Hampstead Heath Bathing Ponds

Pack your towels and sunscreen… as my number one thing to do on a hot day is to go to the bathing ponds in Hampstead Heath.

Continue reading →

London Baby Summer Guest Takeover!

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Happy Summer

Dear all,

after the first 3 months of operations, I hope that London Baby has passed the probation period of sharing a bit of London with you. I certainly learnt a lot in those three months (especially that blogging costs time :))) and I am very excited and looking forward to evolve and change the blog as it continues. Feedback is always more than welcome so please let me know what you think about it.

Before continuing, London Baby is taking a small summer break but that does not mean nothing will happen. On the contrary, I am very excited to announce that the editor of our “sister baby blog” Ramallah Baby will be taking over, sharing her London knowledge and even inviting a guest blogger or two!

So stay tuned for some new and exciting posts! And in case you are finding yourself missing Baby Power, check out http://www.thatsramallahbaby.com !

Happy Summer!

How to meet the Queen and get married to Prince Harry

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Royal Wedding Carriage Kate and William

Confession time: London Baby has a weak spot. For the Royal Family. Of the UK, of the Netherlands, and probably for most countries if I ever move to it and they have a royal family.

The bad news: even though I am so obsessed with them, I still have not managed to get a personal meeting with the Queen or to have married Prince Harry. Yes, the title is a pure attention sucker!

The good news: Living in London offers you countless opportunities to SEE members of the Royal Family in real life! and even better news: one of the best opportunities of the year is coming up TOMORROW (Saturday 13th June)!

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May challenge – Finish Line and a Big Thank you!

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May challenge finalMay is (almost) over and so the May challenge has come to an end.  Did I make the goal of getting a click of each country in the world? No! Am I amazed by the power of the Internet? Yes! Thank you for sharing the message and for visiting That’s London Baby from more than 60 countries (62 and counting)I hope you enjoyed the visit and come back 🙂 Please get if you enjoy the site, have any feedback, tips or anything else! London Baby will be on vacation for the next week, so no new posts, but the Twitter and Facebook pages might have the one or other update.

And don’t forget….free walks in London this weekend! Check out all info’s here! 

Free Walks this Weekend! Your guide to the Walk London Spring into Summer Weekend

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If you are still wondering what to do this weekend, or if you finally wanted to go on a guided walk and you have put it off for whatever reason, this weekend offers a great opportunity to get walking!

Walk London is having their annual spring weekend of free walks (there are further weekends in January and September). That’s more than 40 guided walks through all areas of London, all funded and paid for by TfL. Many of those are normally paid walks. They come in all sizes and interests – short walks, touristy walks, special topics (e.g. literary or spy walks), central location, outside, long walks….there is even one section of the Capital Ring covered!

They even created a map, showing the starting points of all walks:

Continue reading →