Under 1 Roof || A Kids Urban Oasis

Under1Roof officially opened yesterday 27th Feb 2016!

Under1Roof is based at Berkeley Homes' Royal Arsenal Riverside in Woolwich.

What's there?

 Children's theatre,

 Large play café,

Sensory Room,

Pre school soft play studio,

Messy play room,

Children's only hair salon,

London themed  retail village,

Children's well-being and therapy room,

Music room,

Conference room,

Co-working space and networking room and,

84 place Nursery!!

It's a concept yet to be found elsewhere in the UK for 0-11 year olds!

The plans and possibilities for the centre are endless. Under 1 Roof is a one stop shop - providing services for all the family and minimising the shuttling between classes and events that many parents give their time to. A full schedule of activities is programmed seven days a week with themed events and children's shows every weekend.

An extensive education programme is in place for schools to come and use the facilities and Under 1 Roof will be proud to host its own Kids Council once a month to make sure the really important people are involved in key decisions.

The nursery children will have access to all the bespoke provision on site ensuring no two days at nursery will be the same! 

Under 1 Roof was founded by three close friends, all of whom already run their own established children's businesses.

Anne-Marie Martin the owner of Diddi Dance, preschool dance specialists, now owns 41 franchises across the UK. She is a mum to Bobby and Lily and sits on the board of many advisory panels into franchises and children's activity standards.

Laura Sydonie runs Theatre Tots, early years drama specialists, with branches in the UK, USA and China. Laura has three boys, Jack, Tobias and Sidney and also works as an educational consultant and writer - she is currently working on a commission for Shakespeare 400 for The National Archives of Great Britain.

Matt Milchard is the director of Pyramid and has a martial arts gym onsite at Under 1 Roof, which will run classes for parents and children. He is a dad to Oliver and India and also runs Just Kids Parties, whose clients includes Bank of America, Mattel and Variety Club Children's charity.

"Under 1 Roof will be a unique centre for families and children based in South East London. Time is precious and parents can often have to spend time going from one place to the next to cater for the needs of their child. We understand those needs and have created an environment ideal for children, which will take the strain away from parents."

Anne-Marie Martin

We were very kindly invited along to the press launch. I took the wildlings, Ru and Jon along. We drove from Sheerness and it only took an hour - no time at all when it takes longer to fuss around with the trains.

We were greeted at the reception by very friendly staff, who were more than happy to show us straight through to where we needed to be.
They all interacted with the boys beautifully which I know people assume kids environment staff should, but I can tell you I've been to many soft play places that are run by non child friendly people.
They made the effort to make the boys feel right at home.

Anne-Marie, Laura and Matt then showed us round the building and the nursery!

Even with the builders still adding the finishing touches you could tell that the place was going to amazing and very popular!

We checked out the Children's hairdressers first and all the boys loved the car seats, Ru didn't want to leave and kicked up a right fuss.

On to the beautifully set out messy play room, which had all different messy play activities set out on different tables, so something to suit every child's mood.

When I think of soft plays I automatically think of a big dirty caged area where snotty children are bound to push your precious angel over, Under 1 Roof oozes class and somewhere you'd happily skip along to with the kids!

Sticking with the London theme, the soft play studio was bright and cheerful, the boys absolutely loved it!
They loved it so much they stayed in their with Jon whilst I finished off the tour.

Just looking around you can tell how much effort has gone into this place to make it what it is!

Anne-Marie and Laura were beaming with joy as they showed us around, and if I was them I would be too.
Its absolutely an amazing place!

We were shown around the Day Nursery and the Theatre.

Both of which were just as spectacular as everything else!

The Theatre ::

Specialising in children's theatre, we have flexible seating and stage area, running a full timetable of shows.  With state of the art audio and lighting, our theatre houses weekly sessions, drama workshops and shows allowing children to feed their imaginations and perform to their full potential.

We will be holding Autism Friendly Movie Days, with special attention to volume and light, which will be clearly marked on the timetable.

The little details really stuck out to me, such as the low sounding hand dryers in the toilets just show they didn't just chuck any old fitting in, they really gave it their all to make sure it was the very, very best!

I know that's probably a strange thing to really like but the twins hate with a passion hand dryers and Will do anything not to go near them. So from experience I know those will be a big hit!

Well done guys :) 

Once we had seen all of the downstairs we were then taken up to the music room and the Sensory room.

The sensory room just blew me away, 

Words fail me at how wonderful this room was. 

I've been searching for sensory rooms around where we live as I think Ru would really benefit from spending time in one.

Seeing him in this sensory room as given me the kick up the bum to get that hunt on! 

Ru loved it! 

"Our sensory room is an inclusive and accessible centre for all, primarily for children with special educational needs.  With high quality equipment and fully trained staff, the sensory room will benefit many families in the surrounding area.  Whether you are a user of our facilities or an SEN provider, the U1R sensory room will have what you need.

Designed from scratch following advice from a specialist O.T, the sensory equipment is exactly what children, with a range of needs, will enjoy." 

I highly recommend going along and seeing how great Under 1 Roof is for yourself. 

I shall be going to go back with the boys to get the full experience and maybe even a haircut for the crazy trio!

Opening times: Weekdays 9am-6pm / Weekends 9am-5pm

Unit 9, The IO Centre,

Skeffington Street,
Royal Arsenal Riverside,

London,

SE18 6SR