Case study | Playing at London Museum Docklands

At London Museum Docklands, we believe that museums as ideal places for creating opportunities for intergenerational play. Our collections and displays can inspire all imaginations – they are sensory spaces with a range of interactives that appeal to all learners.

Tots at the Docks

Play is front and centre of our early years programme, which caters for families with children under the age of five. This programme, Tots at the Docks (or Tots), consists of monthly free-play sessions designed to enable families to have fun in a safe and welcoming space, and incorporate role play, exploratory play and crafts, with changing monthly themes.

We also work with freelancers to run specialised sessions bi-monthly, including storytelling, music workshops and performances, and Duplo sessions. For our youngest visitors, our Tots sessions encourage the development of skills including creativity, decision making and motor skills and help strengthen family bonds by creating shared memories. They also attract new visitors, many from the global majority, and encourage repeat visits.

Access to high-quality provision is more important than ever since the museum introduced an admission charge to the popular Mudlarks family gallery to offset high maintenance costs.

Tots was created in 2022 with the aim of creating a monthly offer delivered by different members of staff, which could be replicated and adapted using resources onsite. The drop-in open format allowed us to accommodate large numbers while exploring the benefits of unstructured, child-initiated play. Supplementing Tots with other special events enabled us to work with specialist practitioners to appeal to new audiences and enrich our offer.

Immersive play spaces

As an extension of Tots, the museum ran a frost fair-themed immersive play space for under eights in December 2023. As with Tots, these sessions featured role play, craft, and exploratory play, though on a larger scale, while also including soundscapes, smells and light projections.

For the first time, the space featured soft play with separate areas for babies and toddlers, as well as children over three years old. This was intended as an unintimidating introduction to the museum for non-visiting families, as soft play might be something they were confident using, even if they were not familiar with museums.

These sessions were popular, reaching an average of 450 people each day. Many visitors stayed for multiple hours or made several trips to the space throughout the day. There were also repeat visits, with some families bringing others with them upon their return.

The open-ended nature of these immersive spaces meant siblings of different ages could take part together. All areas were visible to each other, enabling parents to simultaneously supervise children across the space.

The baby-specific areas were a big success. Provision for babies elsewhere is often charged for, creating a demand for free, high-quality sessions.

There are some challenges with this programming. Staff delivering sessions sometimes need extra support in engaging families in free-play and in managing health and safety while allowing for the elements of risk that are inherent in children’s play, especially with more physical play.

We offer training to provide strategies around this and to build their confidence.

It can also be tricky tidying the space during sessions –  things tend to get moved around – without discouraging participants from playing. It can also be difficult when the space becomes full and visitors have to wait, which can cause disappointment or frustration.

We will continue to explore different opportunities for facilitating play in the museum. Over the next year, we will pilot new pre-booked, structured sessions, focussing on messy and sensory play for early years audiences.  

Cassandra Tavares Alen is learning manager and Zoe Westbury is early years programme coordinator at Museum London Docklands