The front of Polka Theatre, with banners for the cafe and play space.
Polka is one of a handful of London theatres just for children, and the UK’s first (it opened in 1979). Others include the Unicorn near London Bridge station, Half Moon in Limehouse and Little Angel Theatre in Islington. Its a 15 minute walk / five minute bus ride from Wimbledon station (District line and mainline) and a bit closer to South Wimbledon tube (Northern line). So you might want combine it with other SW London type experiences - Wimbledon Park (squirty paddling pool! swings!), Deen City Farm (pony rides!) or Wimbledon Common (tons and tons of space for kids who just need to let off steam).
Polka has three really interesting bits:
- nice little cafe
- small but excellent outdoor playground
- theatre. Well, two actually. There’s a little one on the ground floor (the Adventure Theatre), and a bigger one upstairs (the Y C Chan Theatre), where shows last an hour to an hour and a half.
There’s also a free indoor play room on the ground floor, the Y C Chan Play Den, with dressing-up costumes, a book corner and colouring benches, which is a good alternative to the playground if it’s raining. The foyer, playground and cafe are all excellent places to sit and breastfeed a baby while keeping a toddler happy and (crucially) contained.
For older kids, there are holiday workshops and summer schools in the UK school holidays, mostly drama, puppetry or musical theatre, plus a few family craft and singing sessions. In term time there are weekly drama clubs for ages 4 to 12.
It’s well designed for buggies (strollers, pushchairs) - you don’t have to fold it, and there’s a place to park it - though you can get a bit of a buggy-jam for the baby and toddler productions, when everyone is trying to get their buggy (stroller) out at once. Babies are welcome at any show (under-1s need a £1 babe-in-arms ticket), you can leave and come back during most shows, and the big theatre has a breakout area in the upstairs foyer with a live feed of the show. There are also relaxed performances in both theatres, where squawking / moving around / leaving and coming back are expected, and the little theatre is incredibly relaxed anyway (think padded benches and floor cushions, no raised stage and random interventions from small children). For nappy changes, the end cubicle in both the men’s and the women’s toilets is a bit bigger, and you can also change a baby in the accessible toilet on the ground floor.
The productions in the main theatre are reliably excellent, the baby / toddler shows are usually good but the guest ones (ie shows by visiting companies, not Polka’s own) can be a bit hit and miss. I endured an hour of shouted words in multiple European languages while a lady in a long skirt did lots of swirling a few years ago. Our then 18 month old loved it, I was considering pretending she needed a nappy change in order to escape.
Shows get booked up pretty fast (especially in UK term time) so book ahead. And do leave plenty of time for cake in the cafe before or after!
The red seats of the main theatre, seen from the stage.
