A STONE’S throw from the banks of the Thames and within winking distance of the London Eye – Blackfriars is an ideal spot to stay if you want to pack as many sights as possible into a weekend.

It has become a tradition with my daughter to visit London for a weekend every year to try out a new experience – see something spectacular, historic or grand.

We usually manage to do it on a budget – both East Coast and Grand Central rail companies run regular offers offering tickets between York and Kings Cross from as little as £13.

With train times between the two just over two hours, it makes a very attractive weekend break for families.

It also has a bonus for Potter fans, who now have their own Platform 9¾ discreetly tucked away in a corner of the station. There you can borrow a Hogwarts scarf and take a selfie standing behind a Hogwarts luggage trolley seemingly half pushed through the wall.

Said picture taken, we headed to our hotel, the Novotel London Blackfriars. A short hop from Blackfriars and Southwark tube stations, it’s just off Blackfriars Bridge, between the Tate Modern and the London Eye. A few steps in any direction lead to a nationally-important tourist attraction.

Another bonus for us was the fact it has plenty to offer families. The hotel’s stylish and comfortable family rooms are designed to accommodate two adults and two children.

Accommodation and breakfast are free for up to two under-16s staying in their parents’ rooms.

There are dining tables with iPads, a “Microsoft Surface” table and a swimming pool to keep everyone occupied, which resolves the quandary of what to do during the evening if you don’t relish the idea of wandering the streets of London at night with a child.

Once we had checked in, we returned to the busy streets of London and walked the short distance along the Thames to the Tate Modern.

The dramatic industrial interior is worth a visit in itself, while the contemporary art inside had plenty to grip the attention of children; much of it is bold, dramatic, emotional, intriguing and perplexing – and of mammoth proportions.

What’s not to like about it if you’re eight and your mum doesn’t mind people saying she’s pretentious?

We sat in a room filled with giant, haunting photographs of empty Syrian streets, taken in 2008. Entitled Executive Squares, each image showed an empty modern shopping street or town square where public executions took place. They were taken by Hrair Sarkissian, who as a child passed one of these squares on his journey to school and saw three bodies hanging in the street.

The sight left a lasting impression.

We had a sympathetic look at Picasso’s poor Weeping Woman, wondered at Salvador Dali’s Narcissus staring lovesick at his own reflection, queued to look through an art installation involving some wooden tubes with coloured lights, had a look at the marvellous view of London from the upstairs windows and then pressed on.

We decided to take in some sights on foot. The ultimate destination was Hamleys toy store, in Regent Street, for the sheer, surreal joy of visiting a noisy, insane five-storey toy store at night-time.

We managed to find ourselves in Trafalgar Square just as the sun was setting, with hundreds of other giddy tourists delighted to find themselves in such recognisably iconic surroundings.

Then it was on to Hamleys.

In the 1700s William Hamley dreamed of opening the best toy shop in the world and in 1760 he achieved it; cramming every conceivable kind of toy he could into his fantastical store.

It is still bustling with life and all kinds of weird and wonderful sights. The only spot on earth where you can look in glass cases at replica wands belonging to all the characters in the Harry Potter films or buy a kit that would allow you to recreate the United Nations modernist headquarters out of Lego, although I imagine the last one to be a niche interest.

On Sunday, we had a swim in the hotel’s pool before packing up our bags and heading for the Tower of London. The Novotel offers a late 5pm check-out on a Sunday, which is great if you don’t want to cart heavy bags around all day before catching the train home.

Thames River Services offers boat trips to the Tower of London and beyond, which take in some of London’s most historic sights on the way.

Even though the Tower of London isn’t the capital’s cheapest attraction (£22 admission for adults, £11 for children, although there is a reduction for tickets booked online) you can spend the best part of a day exploring it.

We learnt about the Princes in the Tower, took part in a children’s quiz trail and discovered how lions, a polar bear and an elephant were resident in the castle as part of the royal menagerie in the 1200s.

We then joined the throngs of tourists to catch a glimpse of the crown jewels in all their glory before making a weary way back to the station.

We sat admiring our new Henry VIII fridge magnet over a burger at Kings Cross while we waited for the train back.

I doubt even Platform 9¾ could transport you through so much history in 48 hours.

Travel facts

  • Rates at the Novotel London Blackfriars are available from £185, including breakfast. For more information, visit novotel.com