(Picture by Gaetan Lee.)
Sometimes it seems like children get to do all the fun stuff. Feel like creating a collaborative see-through fantasy city? A clay bust? Run around squealing in fountains, without anyone looking at you strangely? All of this and more is possible at Somerset House… unless you’re an adult.
Somerset House is located on the north bank of the Thames, just by Waterloo Bridge. Its big grey buildings always seem a little grim and ominous, but the fountains sprouting out of the ground in summer (replaced by an ice-rink in winter) are the first sign that everything isn’t as it seems. Although it might look like a bank or a fleet of barristerial offices, Somerset House is home to a cafe, a restaurant, the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Film4 Summer Screen outdoor cinema, a Summer Series of outdoor live music, and, at the moment, some wonderful fountains and a lot of very interesting free family workshops.
If you want to go to one of the family workshops, you’ll need a 6 to 12-year-old; but assuming you have one of those, there’s a different event each Saturday afternoon, from 2:00 to 3:30. Free tickets are available from 1:00, so there’s plenty of time to arrive, pick up your tickets, enjoy the fountains and the area, and then settle in for the workshops.
If you stick around until nightfall, the fountains add coloured lights to their orchestrated bursts of water — though presumably they’re turned off for the duration of the outdoor film screenings. And if you’re there on the first Saturday in a month, you can also sign up for one of the tours, even if you aren’t aged 6 to 12.
Family Workshops: Somerset House, Strand London WC2R 1LA. 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. every Saturday. Free, tickets available from Seaman’s Hall from 1 p.m.
