I recently visited Lollipop Lane in Selby with my toddler, my friend and her two young children. Lollipop Lane only opened this year and is a fun little place for preschool children to spend a couple of hours playing.

Lollipop Lane Sessions
Lollipop Lane has limited spaces, so you have to book for a 2-hour session. This stops the play centre from becoming too crowded and makes sure everyone is comfortable. You can book the following sessions.
Under 5s
The under-5 sessions are the most popular sessions and run two to three times a day at 9:30 a.m, 12 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.
Under 2s
On a Thursday, there is a dedicated under-2 session from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. to give younger children an opportunity to explore Lollipop Lane without the older toddlers being overbearing (no shade on the older toddlers – but they can be A LOT!)
Quiet Play
On Wednesday between 12 p.m. – 2 p.m., there’s a quiet session with fewer people. This is great for children who are easily overwhelmed and are happier in a quieter environment.
When you get there, you sign in at the front desk. Then you can put your coats and shoes in the cloak area as no shoes are allowed in the play area. This is for safety reasons due to babies crawling around on the floor. Then you can play!
There are two hours to play and you can get drinks and lunch (or breakfast) if you wish. About 10 minutes before the end, they start playing tidy-up songs to encourage little ones to start tidying and know it’s hometime. We helped tidy, too, but there was no pressure to help.
Pre-School Play Village
Lollipop Lane has a little play village with a variety of shops and little businesses for your child to practice their role-playing skills. Role-play is fantastic for toddlers as it helps them practice their speaking, expand their vocabulary, and work on their social skills, turn-taking and problem-solving.
There is:

Lollipop Lane Emergency Services
This is a little police and fire station. There’s a jail cell, as well as a steering wheel that acts as a fire truth. Your toddler can dress up in police and fireman uniforms.
Lollipop Lane Beauty Salon
This was really sweet! It had some chairs and wooden hairdresser tools so you could pretend to give a haircut, dry and straighten hair.

Lollipop Lane Vets
There were lots of animals in there and little vet tools to treat animals.

Lollipop Lane Bookstore
This served as a little reading area with some beanbags so you could sit and have a read through the books.


Lollipop Lane Farm Shop & Allotment
The shop is complete with food and shopping trollies so you can play shopkeeper. There’s a little allotment next to it for gardening roleplay.
Lollipop Lane Cafe
Have pretend coffee and cake in the cafe!

Lollipop Lane Sensory Park
There are lots of sensory toys in the sensory park which are great for both older and younger toddlers. My son loved the little sensory floor tiles and the water light with colour bubbles and fish!


Baby Play Space
The baby play space shares the floor with the sensory park. There are lots of wooden toys, a jungle gym, a bouncer, blocks, stacking toys and things for younger children to explore.

Grown Ups Cafe
There is a proper cafe for grownups that serves drinks and food. The menu isn’t massive, it’s things like paninis, jacket potatoes, sandwiches and you can get kids meals such as sandwiches or toasties with crisps and fruit. It would been nice to see a couple of plant-based options on there. There was only a jacket potato and beans which I didn’t fancy as I had it the previous night, so I had a cheese and onion panini instead (I eat plant-based about 90% of the time, though if someone could make a nice vegan cheese it would probably be 100% of the time). But I assume they don’t because there’s a risk of food being wasted as it’s a small cafe and menu anyway.
You order your food and drink from the front desk and they bring it to your table. The seating area is quite small and crowded due to the size of the building. There was a lot of bumping into other people who were seated while trying to walk past. Also, my son went running past one of the little shops and someone was running out and he went flying into the table as there wasn’t a lot of space between the tables and the play village. I’m not really sure what they could do differently as if you put a load of toddlers in a room together, they’re going to run around and there’s nowhere else to put the tables!

Our Fun Afternoon At Lollipop Lane
So apart from those two little grumbles, it was a great afternoon overall. After my son got over his bump with the table he was back and into it.
It’s also a fantastic way to get some ideas of what your toddler may like for Christmas! I’ve got a balance board and sensory tiles on my son’s list now!
You can check out Lollipop Lane and book your session here.
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Yesssss!!! Lollipop Lane sounds amazing. I wish there’s a Lollipop Lane is Malaysia too. I want to take my nieces and nephews there. Thank you for sharing.
My last job was pretty much working in a place like this – a role-play centre with a cafe for the parents! Role play really helps with children’s physical development, emotional development and also communication and imagination. Lollipop Lane looks like so much fun for the children! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
This looks so cool! I’d love to take Lukas to something like this but he’s so chaotic I worry he’d break something (like that bench haha)!
Such a fun place for little kids.
This is interesting, has things that kids could enjoy going there. Thank you for sharing!
Awh heck this looks super cute! Love how they’ve created a little town for them to explore with all the shops!
wow this place looks absolutely WICKED!! Jack loves roleplay and playing with adult stuff so he would go absolutely wild in here!
Rosie
Aw, this place looks lovely. I know my two would love this. I’d imagine even at nearly 5, A would get lots of enjoyment from going somewhere like this. We have something similar near to us, I’ve just not managed to get there yet.
Claire.X
We can’t wait to go next week, it looks fab!