Visiting the Cutty Sark with Children

Sometime ago we took a trip to London as we were invited to the Sky Studios at the O2 and whilst that was a press event we wanted to incorporate other things into our day out in London.  Knowing the O2 is situated south of the Thames and not too far from Greenwich we were able to secure gifted tickets for Cutty Sark.

The Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship built-in Scotland in 1869 and was one of the last tea clippers to be built and was one of the fastest.  Due to the opening of the Suez Canal a shorter route for steamships to China meant that the Cutty Sark was only used for a few years in the tea trade before trading wool from Australia.  However with steamships fast becoming the best form of transport for traders Cutty Sark was soon replaced.  After sometime it was sold and used as a training ship and then an auxiliary cadet training ship, eventually in 1954 it was no longer useful as a cadet ship and found itself in the permanent dry dock at Greenwich for public display. it’s not had an easy ride even when not in use as it’s been damaged by two fires whilst at Greenwich with the most recent being 2014.

The Cutty Sark stands proud on the River Thames for all to see and in an area which is so nice and fairly quiet compared to the bust streets of Central London, you only wish you could see the sails in their full glory too but that’s left to the imagination. The Cutty Sark is perfect for children as the throughout the ship there are many interactive elements which the children can get involved in.

You can take your time and explore every nook and cranny (if their children allow!), one area I was able to contain them long enough was one area where there was simulation where you can drive the Cutty Sark around the globe, avoiding the high winds to reach your destination without crashing!

There’s plenty to see within ship and more to see on the decks, where of course you are rewarded with views of the city.  And underneath yet still part of the museum you’re able to see the Cutty Sark from the bottom and the world’s biggest collection of figureheads – the carved wooden figures that adorn ships’ prows.

Overall visiting the Cutty Sark with children (of all ages) is definitely worth the time if you’re in the area and actually won’t set you back too much price wise (as you could send a good few hours here) currently (as of Sept 2019) prices are £15 adults and £7.50 children ( under 4’s are free) however if you’re planning on visiting in the morning and have time you could purchase a day explorer ticket and visit the local museums and the Royal Observatory too and explore Greenwich Park.

*I was kindly gifted tickets to the Cutty Sark museum, all thoughts are my own)