Best sensory classes for babies + toddlers in London
There's a reason babies and toddlers love to investigate the world by touch. Research links hands-on play at this age with problem-solving, creativity and other types of thinking. (1)
Below you'll find fun sensory classes to give them more to explore.
Will my baby or toddler enjoy sensory classes?
You've perhaps noticed that, on seeing an unfamiliar object, your baby's first instinct is to grab it and investigate.
Sensory classes are often designed to nurture that curiosity and support early development.
But touch is only one of the senses, of course. So sensory classes will typically involve music, gentle light shows and games, too.
As a group-based activity, they can also have social benefits for you and your baby or toddler. Little ones can watch, copy and play alongside other children. Meanwhile, grown-ups get to make friends with other new parents.
Looking for a London area? Filter your search here to find sensory classes near you. You can also look up other kinds of baby classes. Or for older preschoolers, see our guide to things to do with toddlers in London.
Design Baby Drop - In
Pop along to our Design Baby drop-in! A sensory play session for children aged 0-3 and their adults throughout the October half term. Play with experimental, open-ended materials and mix them up with your little ones! Share your experience with other families and create new connections. What does Architecture mean for babies and toddlers? Come along to this session to explore Architecture with your little ones through shape, space and texture. Explore textures and play with materials to make new structures and more. This session will be child-led and non-structured to allow your child to explore the space and materials freely, at their own pace. This event has been devised in collaboration with Play Build Play. Space is limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Parents and carers are kindly asked to stay with their children at all times. This event with take place in the John Lyon’s Community Gallery, Level 0 of the V&A Learning Centre.
Mon 26 Oct - Fri 30 Oct
11:00 - 16:00
Sensory Play • 0m-3 years • Free
SW7, Victoria and Albert Museum
Frameless
FRAMELESS is an award-winning immersive art experience in the heart of London. Within four vast galleries, audiences wander through surreal realms in Beyond Reality, get swept up in swirling pigments in Colour In Motion, absorb atmospheric landscapes in The World Around Us, and experience vibrant abstraction in The Art Of Abstraction. Each space is a fully immersive environment, featuring carefully crafted audio designed to match the visuals. Iconic works by artists including Monet, Dalí, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Canaletto, Rembrandt and Klimt are brought to life at monumental scale. Located at Marble Arch (just 1 min from the station), the venue is easy to reach and easy to spend hours in — plus you can relax afterward in the Café Bar or browse the gift shop. FRAMELESS goes beyond passive viewing — it’s a joyful, emotional journey that breaks art free from its frame and invites you to step inside. Book ahead, stay as long as you like, and take home memories that will shift how you see art — forever. What is Frameless about? At FRAMELESS, art leaps off the canvas and surrounds you — blending cutting‑edge projection with surround audiovisual effects and motion sensors that allows visitors to interact with the artworks.
Wed 23 Sept - Sat 31 Oct
10:00 - 12:00
Art • all ages • £27.50
W1H, Frameless Immersive Art Experience
Happy House
Join Dexter Cat and Adrian Mouse in the Hartbeeps Happy House, a fun-filled, highly interactive, musical sensory class for our toddling Hartbeepers. Beautiful, funky, fabulous and totally original sound tracks help transport participants into a world of awe and wonder, a perfect platform for our puppet friends, dress up fun, sensory props and beautiful quiet time light show. It’s fun, fun, fun all the way as each week we offer a different imaginative, interactive, and immersive, sensory learning experience. With a different theme every week, our classes are the perfect chance to step away from the busy world, and spend some special bonding time with your baby, making magical memories together!
Fri 25 Sept - Fri 18 Dec
09:00 - 10:45
Toddler Group • 1-4 years • £16.50
Sw5, Kensington United Reformed Church
Baby Beeps
A BIG fun, super bouncy and highly interactive sensory class for sitting babies. All classes feature our own original remixed nursery rhymes, tunes and rhythm rhymes, supporting babies blossoming speech and language development. Plus larger than life puppet friends, baby signing, hundreds of sensory props, dress up fun, and a beautiful quiet time lightshow. Approved by babies and loved by grown-ups!
Fri 25 Sept - Fri 18 Dec
10:00 - 11:45
Sensory Play • 1-2 years • £16.50
Sw5, Kensington United Reformed Church
Baby Bells
A gentle magical musical class to delight babies senses. In the world of ‘busy’, join us in the sunshine garden in Baby Land to enjoy time to just ‘be’ with your baby, taking tranquil sound journeys and connecting with your baby through baby massage, baby yoga and sensory play. We explore beautiful and original treasures selected to not over-stimulate our young Hartbeepers, but offer a tiny taster to nourish baby’s exquisitely developing senses. All this while working to support the key areas of their development through tummy time, tracking, reaching and many more!
Fri 25 Sept - Fri 18 Dec
11:00 - 12:45
Sensory Play • 0-6 months • £16.50
Sw5, Kensington United Reformed Church
Happy House
Join Dexter Cat and Adrian Mouse in the Hartbeeps Happy House, a fun-filled, highly interactive, musical sensory class for our toddling Hartbeepers. Beautiful, funky, fabulous and totally original sound tracks help transport participants into a world of awe and wonder, a perfect platform for our puppet friends, dress up fun, sensory props and beautiful quiet time light show. It’s fun, fun, fun all the way as each week we offer a different imaginative, interactive, and immersive, sensory learning experience. With a different theme every week, our classes are the perfect chance to step away from the busy world, and spend some special bonding time with your baby, making magical memories together!
Wed 23 Sept - Wed 16 Dec
09:15 - 11:00
Toddler Group • 1-4 years • £16.50
W2, St Matthews Bayswater
Baby Beeps
A BIG fun, super bouncy and highly interactive sensory class for sitting babies. All classes feature our own original remixed nursery rhymes, tunes and rhythm rhymes, supporting babies blossoming speech and language development. Plus larger than life puppet friends, baby signing, hundreds of sensory props, dress up fun, and a beautiful quiet time lightshow. Approved by babies and loved by grown-ups!
Wed 23 Sept - Thu 17 Dec
10:15 - 12:00
Sensory Play • 1-2 years • £16.50
W2, St Matthews Bayswater
Happy House
Join Dexter Cat and Adrian Mouse in the Hartbeeps Happy House, a fun-filled, highly interactive, musical sensory class for our toddling Hartbeepers. Beautiful, funky, fabulous and totally original sound tracks help transport participants into a world of awe and wonder, a perfect platform for our puppet friends, dress up fun, sensory props and beautiful quiet time light show. It’s fun, fun, fun all the way as each week we offer a different imaginative, interactive, and immersive, sensory learning experience. With a different theme every week, our classes are the perfect chance to step away from the busy world, and spend some special bonding time with your baby, making magical memories together!
Mon 28 Sept - Mon 14 Dec
09:00 - 10:45
Toddler Group • 1-4 years • £16.50
W14, St Mary Church Hall
Baby Beeps
A BIG fun, super bouncy and highly interactive sensory class for sitting babies. All classes feature our own original remixed nursery rhymes, tunes and rhythm rhymes, supporting babies blossoming speech and language development. Plus larger than life puppet friends, baby signing, hundreds of sensory props, dress up fun, and a beautiful quiet time lightshow. Approved by babies and loved by grown-ups!
Mon 28 Sept - Mon 14 Dec
10:00 - 11:45
Sensory Play • 1-2 years • £16.50
W14, St Mary Church Hall
Baby Bells
A gentle magical musical class to delight babies senses. In the world of ‘busy’, join us in the sunshine garden in Baby Land to enjoy time to just ‘be’ with your baby, taking tranquil sound journeys and connecting with your baby through baby massage, baby yoga and sensory play. We explore beautiful and original treasures selected to not over-stimulate our young Hartbeepers, but offer a tiny taster to nourish baby’s exquisitely developing senses. All this while working to support the key areas of their development through tummy time, tracking, reaching and many more!
Mon 28 Sept - Mon 14 Dec
11:00 - 12:45
Sensory Play • 0-6 months • £16.50
W14, St Mary Church Hall
Mini Marvels
Explore the Estorick Collection with our interactive and sensory play space designed for families with young children. The families’ area, located in the temporary exhibition galleries, includes a wealth of sensory and creative resources that will captivate and delight children under 5. About Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art opened in London in 1998. A Grade II listed Georgian town house, it was originally restored with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Further recent renovations have opened up the space of the ground-floor entranceway, bookshop and café, while its six galleries and art library have also been fully upgraded. The Collection is known internationally for its core of Futurist works, as well as figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s. The exhibition programme continues to address artists, movements, and questions in ways that change our understanding of Italian art and culture.
Wed 23 Sept - Wed 24 Nov
09:00 - 11:00
Sensory Play • 0m-4 years • £9.50
N1, Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art
Happy House
Join Dexter Cat and Adrian Mouse in the Hartbeeps Happy House, a fun-filled, highly interactive, musical sensory class for our toddling Hartbeepers. Beautiful, funky, fabulous and totally original sound tracks help transport participants into a world of awe and wonder, a perfect platform for our puppet friends, dress up fun, sensory props and beautiful quiet time light show. It’s fun, fun, fun all the way as each week we offer a different imaginative, interactive, and immersive, sensory learning experience. With a different theme every week, our classes are the perfect chance to step away from the busy world, and spend some special bonding time with your baby, making magical memories together!
Thu 24 Sept - Thu 17 Dec
09:00 - 10:45
Toddler Group • 1-4 years • £15.50
W12, St Stephens Parish Hall
Baby Beeps
A BIG fun, super bouncy and highly interactive sensory class for sitting babies. All classes feature our own original remixed nursery rhymes, tunes and rhythm rhymes, supporting babies blossoming speech and language development. Plus larger than life puppet friends, baby signing, hundreds of sensory props, dress up fun, and a beautiful quiet time lightshow. Approved by babies and loved by grown-ups!
Thu 24 Sept - Thu 17 Dec
10:00 - 11:45
Sensory Play • 1-2 years • £15.00
W12, St Stephens Parish Hall
Baby Bells
A gentle magical musical class to delight babies senses. In the world of ‘busy’, join us in the sunshine garden in Baby Land to enjoy time to just ‘be’ with your baby, taking tranquil sound journeys and connecting with your baby through baby massage, baby yoga and sensory play. We explore beautiful and original treasures selected to not over-stimulate our young Hartbeepers, but offer a tiny taster to nourish baby’s exquisitely developing senses. All this while working to support the key areas of their development through tummy time, tracking, reaching and many more!
Thu 24 Sept - Thu 17 Dec
11:00 - 12:45
Sensory Play • 0-6 months • £15.00
W12, St Stephens Parish Hall
Make-Do Play - Abbey Gardens
Free child-led play for all ages. In these unstructured sessions in a gorgeous community garden children are free to explore the space and play however they like. Play opportunities include loose parts, mud kitchen, dressing-up, woodwork with real tools, sensory play, open-ended crafts, painting and den making. About Make Do Play CIC Make-Do Play CIC exists to provide children and their families with unstructured free play, for free. Today’s children face many barriers to play including lack of safe green spaces, an increasingly risk averse society and an over-emphasis on formal extra-curricular activities. We follow a playwork approach, creating spaces where children are given the agency to play however they wish. Where there is no right or wrong way to play, where no play is too loud or too boisterous or too messy. Play is not a tool to achieve adult determined learning goals, it belongs to children, who play in their own ways for their own reasons. We deliver regular family play sessions and after school clubs in community gardens across London, as well as providing free play at community festivals and events.
Tue 29 Sept - Tue 27 Oct
09:30 - 13:30
Creative Activities • 1-10 years • Free
E15, Abbey Gardens
Finding the right sensory classes for your baby or toddler
You can use the Loopla search tool to filter by age and location. The next thing to consider is what the actual classes involve. If you're worried about overstimulating your little one, look for sensory classes that describe calm or gentle activities.
Some of the sensory classes we list involve baby massage, puppets, props and stories.
Music will often play a big part in sensory classes. You may even come away with a playlist that helps soothe your little one the next time they get upset (certain parents on the Loopla team can vouch for this).
Consider where you might like to spend a morning or afternoon yourself, too. One of the best things about sensory classes in London is that they often take place at interesting venues. For example, South Kensington's V&A sometimes runs free Design Baby drop-ins for under-3s during school holidays.
References:
- The Relationship Between Children’s Indoor Loose Parts Play and Cognitive Development: A Systematic Review - Journal of Intelligence
- What Is Sensory Play? The Benefits for Your Child and Sensory Play Ideas - Cleveland Clinic
- Touch to learn: Multisensory input supports word learning and processing - Developmental Science
Sensory classes FAQ: How to find London's best options near you
What is sensory play for babies?
Sensory play for babies aims to promote healthy development by stimulating different senses such as vision, hearing, touch and smell.
Baby sensory classes can be structured or free-flowing. But you'll generally find lots of materials and props like rattles, scarves or bubble blowers.
Sensory classes can do wonders for babies' development. Experts suggest that they can help lay the foundation for more advanced cognitive and motor skills later in life.
It's thought to promote key social skills, too. Infants often find themselves interacting with others for the first time and adapting to their new friends. (2)
What age can babies start sensory classes?
Some parents prefer to wait until after getting their baby's vaccines and the first GP check-up. These typically happen after 6-8 weeks.
You should be able to find a sensory class for whenever you're ready, though, as many of them welcome babies from birth. Sessions for the youngest age group tend to be gentle, using songs, touch, movement and simple activities for babies to watch or reach towards.
As they grow, classes can introduce more active sensory play. This might include puppets, props, messy materials and games.
What are the benefits of sensory play for babies and toddlers?
Sensory play gives little ones opportunities to explore, experiment and work things out for themselves. Research links hands-on, open-ended play with problem-solving, creativity and other types of thinking in young children. (1)
Using several senses may help with language learning, too. One study found richer visual and touch experiences supported word learning in two-year-olds. (3)
Can sensory classes overstimulate babies?
Babies can become overwhelmed when there is too much happening at once. Signs they need a break can include yawning, turning away or closing their eyes.
If this happens, the NHS recommends slowing down, stopping the activity or moving somewhere quieter. It does not mean sensory play is necessarily unsuitable. Following your baby's cues and giving them breaks can make the experience more comfortable.
Are there free sensory classes for babies in London?
Yes. There are free baby sensory classes in London, particularly at family hubs, museums and community organisations.
Some are regular weekly groups, while others are one-off events or drop-ins. Coin Street near the South Bank, for example, runs a free weekly stay-and-play for babies that includes sensory activities.
