The best London museums for kids

The museum splits its exhibits into four colour-coded zones, each with its own marvels. In Blue Zone, a life-size model of a blue whale quietens all but the loudest of kids. Geology takes centre stage in the Red Zone. It's a dramatic escalator ascent through the centre of the earth. At the top you'll find the ground-shaking earthquake simulator – a reliable source of giggles and a few shrieks of alarm.

This much-loved museum does a sterling job of presenting a fascinating and entertaining history of transport in the capital, with many vehicles to explore along the way. For children, the London Transport Museum has an under-fives play area decorated with Steven Appleby illustrations and the chance to sit in the driver's cab of a red bus and guide a Northern Line simulator through tunnels and up to platforms – (truth be told, it's fun for adults, too).

Rooms 62 and 63 of the Roxie Walker galleries are top of most children's agendas; it's here that the Egyptian mummies reside, exerting an eerie spell over visitors. Inventive and free family events run on Saturdays. Handling sessions take place daily in various galleries and there are some fantastic trail booklets available in the Paul Hamlyn Library that help kids of different ages get the best out of the museum.

What was once the Museum of Childhood has had a big refurb and is now Young V&A. A lot of thought has gone into making this museum child-friendly; after all, it’s a tease to see so many toys and not be able to play with them. To compensate, there are activity stations in each area with Lego, stickle bricks, a sandpit, board games, rocking horses, a book corner and many other treats. In addition, the museum hosts plenty of kids events at weekends and during school holidays.

No one's too young (or old) to get a kick out of a visit here. Icons of science (Stephenson's Rocket locomotive, Crick and Watson's DNA model) are treated with due respect, but this place couldn't be less stuffy with its games, simulators and interactive exhibits. The jewel in its crown is Launchpad, where 50 hands-on exhibits and experiments keep kids agog; here, they can make a rainbow or take a dizzying turn on the rotation station.

This anthropological museum has to be one of the most child-friendly venues in all London. Set in 16 acres of landscaped gardens, the Horniman provides extensive facilities for families, including a nature trail, weekend workshops and a Hands On Base where children can touch museum objects. There's an aquarium, and the Nature Base explores the natural world with exhibits including the Horniman Museum beehive.

There are guns, planes and tanks in the main galleries, but there's far more to the museum. The family exhibition 'A Family in Wartime' tells the story of how ordinary people braved the challenges of life at home during WWII through the eyes of the Allpress family, who lived in Stockwell. The unflinching Holocaust Exhibition, which traces the history of anti-semitism and its shameful nadir in the death camps, is not recommended for under-14s.

Having undergone a £23 million transformation, this free-to-visit Chelsea museum reopened in 2017 with fabulous displays and a serious focus on activities for kids of all ages. You can do a spot of square-bashing and see if you pass muster with the drill sergeant, take command of a battle and test your strategy smarts, then get stuck into the interactive tank experience where you can get behind the wheel, man the guns or be look-out in the turret as tank crew on a WWII mission in Normandy. In the Play Base area there’s an assault course and a themed soft play area, and at weekends and during school holidays there are lots of free activities.

This museum is a real one-off. Each step up the narrow, rickety, wooden spiral staircase leads you further from present-day London and towards the quiet ghosts of the past. Ghoulish exhibits are packed under its dark eaves. Go through a narrow antechamber to find Europe's oldest operating theatre, where sanitised reenactments are sometimes held. 

Lending weight to the idea that the best things come in small packages, this bijou gallery – the first to be purpose-built in the UK – is also a community hub of arty activity. Once a month on a Sunday families can come down for Art Sundays, aimed at 7-12-year-olds (although all ages are welcome). And then there are Family Fridays, where you can get your hands dirty doing 'expressive art-inspired' activities, led by artists. Holidays bring yet more activities, often involving making things along a seasonal theme.