The best things to do around Leicester Square with kids

Right in the busy heart of tourist London, the chances are you’ll find yourself in or around Leicester Square with kids at some point during your stay in the city.

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Whether you’re drawn here by its movie and theatre links, or have your sights set on Lego and M&Ms, the square and its surroundings are full of family attractions – not to mention being a stone’s throw from Covent Garden, Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square.

So if you’re looking for things to do near Leicester Square with kids, I’ve picked out some of the best options for different ages, as well as some family-friendly places to eat in the area.

Follow the Movie Character Trail

Young movie fans can snap some photos with their favourite film characters along Leicester Square’s family-friendly Scenes in the Square trail.

The unique art installation features a collection of bronze statues scattered around the square. You can find Harry Potter on his broomstick playing Quidditch, Paddington Bear eating a marmalade sandwich on a bench, and Mary Poppins floating into the sky with her umbrella. 

It was previously home to a full-sized replica of the Iron Throne from the hit show Game of Thrones, so while that has moved on, it’s worth keeping an eye out for new arrivals too.

Following the trail is one of the top free things to do in Leicester Square if you’re visiting London on a budget.

For more of the best things to do in London with kids, check out my top tips

Snap some photos in the Lego Store

What kid (or adult for that matter!) wouldn’t enjoy visiting the largest Lego store in the world!?

Spread across two huge floors on the corner of Leicester Square, the Lego Store is best known for its many amazing interactive Lego sculptures. You can see a life-size Lego doubledecker bus, take a family photo with Lego Shakespeare, and admire the 20+ foot tall model of Big Ben with its working clock face.

You’ll also find plenty of cool Lego merchandise and limited edition items on offer. Obviously, you don’t have to buy anything but it’s pretty difficult to visit the store with kids and not walk away with something. 

The Lego Store is so popular that there’s often a queue to enter. But don’t let this put you off as the line usually moves fairly quickly.

Indulge your sweet tooth in M&M World

One of the best things to do in Leicester Square with kids with a sweet tooth is visiting the chocolate-lover’s heaven that is M&M World.

At 35,000 square feet over four floors, M&M World is the largest sweet store in the world. Kids can build their own pick-n-mix from the world’s biggest chocolate wall, featuring over 100 M&M varieties, have their ‘colour mood’ analysed, and even get their faces printed on an M&M.

Plus the vibrant and busy store sells far more than just sweets. You’ll find colourful M&M branded kids clothing, towels, mugs, toys, and so much more.

Needless to say, it’s very easy for the costs to add up: this isn’t the place to grab some cheap choc!

Splash around in the Leicester Square fountains

Leicester Square Gardens is a peaceful green space right in the centre of the lively square. During the warm summer months, it’s the perfect place to cool down and escape the hectic streets of London’s West End for a while.

Adults can relax underneath the large canopy of trees, while children will love splashing around in the fountains that shoot up from the ground around the square’s Grade II listed Shakespeare statue. 

For more free things to do in London with kids, check out my top picks

Listen to the Swiss Glockenspiel

Leicester Square was once home to the Swiss Center, a unique attraction built to showcase Swiss culture and promote tourism in the country. 

After the building was demolished in 2008, the Swiss Glockenspiel, with its bells and figures, found a new home on a pole close to its former site to commemorate the attraction (you can read more about its history here).

The Glockenspiel features 27 bells and many Swiss figurines, including mini bell-ringers, set in a traditional Swiss alpine backdrop. Several times each day, the bells ring and the figures move in a fun five-minute performance. 

It’s a quirky detail that a lot of visitors miss, but a fun one for younger kids – not to mention being another of the best free things to do in Leicester Square for families.

Treasure Map Trails

One of the best ways to explore Leicester Square with younger children is taking on the challenge of a Treasure Map Trail.

Perfect for families with 5 to 12 year olds, this Leicester Square and Chinatown Rogue Robots trail challenges little ones to find many hidden treasures around the neighbourhood, including sculptures, statues, gargoyles, and more. The trail takes around 90 minutes to complete.

Priced £6.99 for the folded trail, there’s 10% off if you use the code MUMMYTRAVELS. And as well as the brightly coloured illustrated map that’s posted to you, you’ll find some interesting facts on the map to help get kids more engaged in local history as you navigate the square and search out its treasures.

Watch a film at the cinema

Leicester Square’s cinemas are like no others in the country, with their state-of-the-art film technology and modern facilities.

There are three huge flagship cinemas located on the square; Odeon, Vue, and the Cineworld Leicester Square (formerly the Empire). Located in the heart of London’s West End, the cinemas have been hosting glitzy red carpet premieres and movie first runs for decades and if you’re lucky, you might even stumble across one taking place.

If you’re not in the square while a star-studded premiere is in progress, you can still walk in the footsteps – and sit in the same seats – as some of your favourite celebrities, by taking the family to see a new release on one of the big screens. 

As you’d expect from a central London cinema, tickets and food can be a little on the steep side, so don’t be surprised to find it’s pricier than your local multiplex though.

The square is also home to the smaller Prince Charles cinema, which often shows classic (and cult classic) movies if you’re visiting London with teens, as well as other family-friendly movies.

Grab discount theatre tickets from the TKTS Booth

A trip to the theatre is one of the best family evening activities in London’s West End. And the good news is that it doesn’t have to cost you your life savings to get good tickets.

The TKTS Booth has been situated in the south of Leicester Square since the 1980s and is known for being the go-to place for discounted theatre tickets. The booth is the only official discount ticket seller in the area as it’s run by the Society of London Theatres (SOLT), so you know you’re not going to get scammed.

At the booth, you can buy last-minute tickets for many of London’s top shows for up to 50% off. Most tickets are for the same day or the coming few days, and if you do get same-day tickets, most West End theatres are just a short walk from Leicester Square.

For more tips on saving money on London with kids, including other ideas for theatre discounts (and the TKTS app), check out my top picks

Check what’s on in Leicester Square

You’ll find pop-up events taking place throughout the year in Leicester Square, including a Christmas market in December and Christmas lights twinkling from November, as well as occasional art installations.

Check out the complete list of what’s on in Leicester Square here.

TOP TIP: Struggling with the unusual pronunciation? It’s said ‘Lester’ Square

The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience

One of the newest family-friendly attractions around Leicester Square is the exhilarating Crystal Maze LIVE Experience.

While parents reminisce about the famous 90s TV show, kids over the age of 9 will enjoy running around the different themed zones with an amusing host, solving mysteries and facing a series of mental and physical challenges to win the coveted crystals.

Once all of the challenges are complete, your family will head inside the iconic Crystal Dome itself to grab tokens that are being whooshed around your head by strong fans. It really is a fun family-bonding experience.

Jump on a bus tour of London

Although you can jump on London’s hop-on hop-off buses at stops around the capital, the starting point for the Tootbus Yellow route is on Coventry Street, just at the end of Swiss Court leading from Leicester Square.

Quite a few of the company’s other special tours leave from this point, including the Christmas lights tour and the Night Tour, while the Tootbus Kids tour also departs from Charles II Street, a few minutes away.

For more tips on the best London bus tours with kids, check out this post

Take a stroll around Chinatown

London’s Chinatown can be found just to the north of Leicester Square and is a cool area to explore with children of all ages. 

Pass by M&M World and take a right turn onto Wardour Street. Here you’ll find the iconic Chinatown gate leading to a series of small streets, packed with exciting sights, smells, and sounds.

Kids will love wandering through the lively streets of Chinatown, marvelling at the rows of hanging red lanterns and peering into windows at the delicious Asian delights.

Treat the littles ones to an indulgent Bubble Waffle from Bubblewrap, a brightly-colored mermaid-tail matcha ice cream from Taiyakiya, or a sweet Bubble Tea from Woo Tea. The area’s many buffet-style Chinese restaurants are also an affordable lunch option for hungry families.

Walk to Trafalgar Square

The official centre of London, Trafalgar Square is just a five-minute stroll away, with a whole series of attractions of its own which are easy to combine with the other things to do around Leicester Square with kids.

Home to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, you’ll also find public art on the Fourth Plinth, which changes on a regular basis – there’s always something eye-catching and thought-provoking to discover there.

You can also spot Nelson’s Column and the Trafalgar Square lions at its base, along with the statue of Charles I on his horse, the point where all distances are measured from in the city.

Visit Covent Garden

Leicester Square is also less than 10 minutes’ walk from Covent Garden – in fact, at busy times in Covent Garden Underground station, you’ll be asked to get off at Leicester Square tube and finish your journey on foot, it’s so close.

As well as the London Transport Museum and Covent Garden market, there are often extra pop-up events taking place throughout the year, from fake snow at Christmas and pumpkins at Halloween, to temporary events themed around anything from Frozen to Lego plus big screens in the piazza.

Get 6% off tickets to the London Transport Museum using my code MUMMYTRAVELS6 if you book through this link

With some more of London’s best family-friendly theatre in the area, including Matilda and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, it’s an easy one to combine with the string of things to do near Leicester Square with kids.

See Piccadilly Circus

In the opposite direction, it’s also just five minutes to Piccadilly Circus, famously home to the statue of Eros – which is actually a statue of Anteros, and officially named the Statue of Christian Charity, although you won’t find anyone calling it that!

It’s also famous for the string of illuminated signs which flash and flicker day and night, including an advert for Coca-Cola, which has been displayed in Piccadilly Circus since 1955. Originally the Piccadilly Circus lights weighed 5,000 pounds and contained nearly a mile of neon – today there’s an ultra-high definition 4K resolution screen with 11,858,400 pixels and 281 trillion colours.

There’s no actual circus, of course: the name comes from the Latin for ring or circle, although this particular one has turned into something of a traffic-snarled square over the years, one of the city’s busiest junctions.

As some bonus trivia for Harry Potter fans, the scene filmed here included 300 extras and had to be shot early in the morning because of the difficulties of shutting Piccadilly Circus down.

For more Harry Potter locations in London, check out this post

Where to eat around Leicester Square with kids

The heart of tourist London also has more than its fair share of tourist traps, but you can still find some great places to eat near Leicester Square for families.

There are a string of chain restaurants as well, such as Byron Burgers, TGI Fridays and Bella Italia among others.

Chinatown

Chinatown has countless places for families to eat, with choices including dim sum and all-you-can-eat buffets as well as Dumplings Legend – check out the section above for more ideas of Chinatown treats as well, but you won’t be short of options.

Japan Centre

The courtyard at the Japan Centre has everything from katsu curry to sushi and sashimi to fuel you up for your day out in London, not to mention plenty of other fun odds and ends to buy, from Japanese sweets to ceramics.

Hard Rock Cafe

Along with the world’s largest Rock Shop, Hard Rock Cafe Piccadilly Circus is another family favourite if you’re looking for places to eat around Leicester Square with kids – find pasta, salad and chicken on the menu as well as burgers.

Happy

The flagship Happy Bar & Grill sits right between Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, and it’s a great place for families, with favourites including burgers, chicken strips and fish & chips on the kids’ menu.

The Theatre Cafe

This theatre-themed cafe on St Martin’s Lane has live performances by West End stars, and show tunes in between, along with theatrical memorabilia on the walls. There are snacks and cakes on The Theatre Cafe menu as well as pizza – you can even perform yourself at one of the open mic slots.

Pizza Pilgrims

One of a string of branches around the capital, Pizza Pilgrims Covent Garden is only a couple of minutes from Leicester Square and has vegan options alongside classic margheritas and more inventive options for mini gourmets.

Sadly the branch of Mod Pizza on Leicester Square, with its build-your-own pizza options, has now closed.

Greggs flagship store

I know what you’re probably thinking but the Greggs flagship store on Leicester Square is one of the biggest in the country, with more steak bakes than you can shake a vegan sausage roll at in this ‘MegaGreggs’.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links – any purchases you make are unaffected but I may receive a small commission

Girl by fountain copyright MummyTravels, all other images courtesy of Depositphotos/AdobeStock

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