The Good Ship Lollypop Soft Play, Morden: Review

It can be hard to find things to do on a rainy day with a toddler – when you want the grandparents to be involved too.

In the good old days pre-Covid when people could actually travel, my husband was away for a whole week in Chicago with work, so my parents came to stay and help for a few days.

The weather had been terrible and more rain was expected so I wanted to find something indoors for us to do. I’ve taken my parents to watch toddler classes before and I didn’t think they wanted to go back to the same ones again so the only other rainy day activity I could think of that was suitable for a 22 month old was soft play.

Thinking about the soft play I had been to locally, I wanted somewhere my parents could sit and have a coffee but ideally see the mini moo playing – and at Sutton Sports Village they could have done the former but not the latter and at the leisure centre the latter but not the former. Little Lambs Softplay in Coulsdon would have been ideal but getting there would have been an issue as I didn’t find parking there on a weekday very easy (Little Lambs has since closed down unfortunately).

Instead I canvassed for opinions on a local parenting Facebook group and decided to try out the Good Ship Lollypop soft play in Morden.

I should caveat that we went here pre-Covid, and I never got around to posting this review when we went into lockdown. The venue has now reopened but I haven’t been since the pandemic so don’t know how much has changed, but wanted to share what I thought when we visited.

I wasn’t sure I was in the right place despite following the sat nav as it’s inside a football stadium and the sign is quite small – we had to park and check we were in the right place and once inside guess that we needed to take the lift up to the first floor as there didn’t seem to be anything on the ground floor. 

But when the doors of the lift open you are immediately transported into a different world – the Good Ship Lollypop. There’s a seating area with sofas and a room in semi darkness that I think is where they host laser tag parties – and through a small gate, the soft play itself.

A lot of thought has gone into the decorations on the walls and the ceilings and even the food display counter with its little baskets of Jaffa cakes and handwritten prices is sweet. The seating area is quite large given the size of the soft play – the play area is probably a quarter of the size of the one at Sutton Village but the cafe is near enough the same size.

There’s a two storey climbing structure which was a really good size for my daughter who was just under 2 at the time; she was able to climb up and I did go down the slide with her as I thought it was a bit big for her, but it was considerably smaller than the one at Sutton sports village for instance, so much more mangeable for her (and I only just fit!).

There’s also a smaller baby and toddler area which is accessed via a couple of small foam steps styled as a little sailing ship. Inside there were plastic rockers, a giant treasure chest to climb in and lots more.

• 

• 

• 

I liked the fact that near the seating area was a small bookcase and my daughter did choose a couple of books and went to sit in the little sailing ship to read them at one point – nice to chill out after running around so much!

We don’t go to soft play very often and this one is a little further from me than others but it was an enjoyable experience and somewhere I would be happy to go back.