Best Sutton Halls for Children’s Birthday Celebrations

Good Shepherd, Carshalton Beeches

Queen Mary’s Ave, Carshalton SM5 4NP

Brilliant venue for a children’s birthday party. Modern facilities. Clean and warm. Nice kitchen and big car park. Lovely staff at The Church of The Good Shepard. Thank you Chris and the team.

The Centre Wallington

Milton Rd, Wallington SM6 9RP

Car park right outside. Perfect size. Not echoey. Tables and chairs although not small children’s tables.

Carshalton beeches Baptist free church 

Banstead Rd, Sutton, Carshalton SM5 3NL

Highfield Hall

320 Carshalton Rd, Carshalton SM5 3QB

The Garden Hall

The Lodge, Garden Hall, at, Honeywood Walk, Carshalton SM5 3NX

Elmcroft Community Centre  (smaller room)

570 London Road, North Cheam, SM3 9AB

Cheam Methodist Church

107-109 Church Hill Rd, Cheam, Sutton SM3 8LJ

Sutton Tennis & Squash Club

19 Devonshire Rd, Sutton SM2 5HH

St Barnabas Church, Sutton

St Barnabas Rd, Sutton SM1 4NP

For Prices & Availability:

Contact Ritchie Now! 

Best Kingston Halls for Children’s Birthday Celebrations

Greenwood Community Centre

The Greenwood Centre, 1A School Rd, Hampton Hill, Hampton TW12 1QL

St Nicholas Church 

Summer Rd, Thames Ditton KT7 0QQ

1st Kingston Hill Scout Group

293 Park Rd, Kingston upon Thames KT2 5LY

Emmanuel Church, Tolworth

1 Grand Ave, Tolworth, Surbiton KT5 9HU

Surbiton Town Sports Club

River Hill Estate, Worcester Park Road, Worcester Park KT4 7QB

New Malden Baptist Church http://www.nmbc.org.uk/

1A Westbury Rd, New Malden KT3 5BE

St John the Divine, New Malden

Kingston Rd, New Malden KT3 3RX

Hampton Wick Baptist Church AKA Jolly Jumps 

Hampton Wick Baptist Church, 11A Upper Teddington Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 4DL

For Prices & Availability:

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Best Reigate/Redhill/Banstead/Dorking Halls for Children’s Birthday Celebrations

Lloyd Hall

Brickfield Rd, Outwood, Redhill RH1 5QX

Nutfield Centre – Conference & Banqueting Suite

Nutfield Lodge, Nutfield Rd, Redhill RH1 4ED

Colman Redland Community Centre 

Colman Redland Centre, Croydon Rd, Reigate RH2 0NA

St Luke’s Church

5 Church Rd, Reigate RH2 8HY – 

Banstead United Reformed Church

Woodmansterne Ln, Banstead SM7 3EX

The Westcott Village Hall

1 Institute Rd, Westcott, Dorking RH4 3NP

For Prices & Availability:

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Best Epsom Halls for Children’s Birthday Celebrations

I have some tips on booking a hall for your children’s birthday party here: Best tip is; avoid echoey halls as it creates a ball of noise 

Stonleigh Methodist church – small room only

1 Stoneleigh Cres, Epsom KT19 0RT

The 2nd Ewell Rainsters Scout Group

106a West St, Ewell, Epsom KT17 1XR

Ruxley Church Epsom

Ruxley Ln, Ewell, Epsom KT19 0AF

Christ Church Hall

Christ Church Rd, Epsom KT19 8NE

Banstead Community Centre

Bolters lane, the horseshoe, Banstead SM7 2BQ

Metropolis – Epsom

The Ebbisham Centre, Epsom KT19 8AG

For Prices & Availability:

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Best Leatherhead & Ashtead Halls for Children’s Birthday Celebrations

1st Ashtead Scout Group

Woodfield, Ashtead KT21 2RL

Little Bookham Village Hall

Little Bookham St, Great Bookham, Leatherhead KT23 3AF

I’ve entertained at several parties here. Nice small car park right outside, and on-street free parking too. Clean, big kitchen. Easy ground-floor access for buggies and wheelchairs.

St Giles’ Dell Centre

Park Ln, Ashtead KT21 1EJ

West Horsley Village Hall

99 The St, West Horsley, Leatherhead KT24 6DD

Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall

Woodfield Ln, Ashtead KT21 2BE

For Prices & Availability:

Contact Ritchie Now! 

Best Wimbledon Halls for Children’s Birthday Celebrations

Holy Trinity, South Wimbledon

Holy Trinity Church, 234 The Broadway, London SW19 1SB

St Mark’s Church Hall

Compton Road, Wimbledon, SW19 7QA

Wimbledon Park Hall

170 Arthur Rd, London SW19 8AQ

South Wimbledon Community Centre

78 Victory Rd, London SW19 1HN

For Prices & Availability:

Contact Ritchie Now! 

Why Balloon Modelling Is No Good For Children’s Birthday Parties

Bored and annoyed kids

I got into working at children’s birthday parties because of balloon modelling. I bought a  balloon modelling DVD but couldn’t keep them from untwisting and popping. That week a friend introduced me to the man who changed my life, the very funny magic man, Michael Wo.

Michael Wo, Brendan Rodrigues and Ritchie Rosson circa 2015
Ritchie with Michael Wo and magician Brendan Rodrigues

Michael would carry a suitcase full of magic tricks and balloons wherever he went and I ended up doing the same for 3 years. He taught me to make balloon animals and we had great fun making them in the pubs for people and it earnt us free drinks, got us a few gigs and I got a wife from it (another story).

Balloon modelling is awesome. It has the wow factor. It has the aw factor.  You can produce a teddy bear, a hat, an alien out of a few pieces of rubber in your hand. That for me is magical!  Just check out the incredible things that David Crofts makes.

In around 2010, I wanted to become a clown much to the objections of my clown-fearing mother.  I bought a unicycle, boxes full of joke props, giant shoes and loads more nonsense including balloon modelling balloons and a pump. This is when I met Michael Wo. I made a few balloon animals and put a few pics up online. My Facebook friends loved them! Their enthusiasm and likes pushed me to make more and more and ended up getting gigs by billing myself as, “The Happy Balloon Man!” It was brilliant because, with half a dozen gigs in the diary, I could finally quit the painful job I had at the time of being a contortionist. See this blog to read about that

I worked at all sorts of events making balloons and it was great fun at times. At others, it was frankly horrid with queues of angry parents furiously demanding the most complicated balloons I could make, “Right mate, I need 3 aliens for these monsters and 4 teddy bears for my other kids that are in the car!

I ended up making balloons at a few children’s birthday parties. I was usually a  side act, while a magician/entertainer was doing a show and games for the children, which is where I first thought of doing that myself. The kids were having a brilliant time. They were totally engaged and were laughing their socks off.  I had never seen such an entertainer when I was a child. The shows and games I realised were much more fun than the balloon modelling that I was doing.

When I started doing children’s parties as an entertainer, I put a magic show together and then thought “I’ll make everyone balloons in the second half.”  30 happy laughing children in the first half became less and less so as they waited and started to get frustrated. Even with lots of jokes along the way, after 5 minutes, children get bored watching an entertainer making balloons and start to get frustrated that they haven’t got their balloon, then they may complain about the colour, the one they got, then comes the popping and crying.

Children hate the sound of balloons popping. Some are actually terrified of the sound. I often have requests from parents for ” no balloons!” Because they have had that wow pop cry* experience and it is something very sad for them that lingers.

What I have done for the last two years is stopped making everyone a balloon and tada, my parties are better than ever and my reviews are stronger. With plenty of music, magic shows, dancing, fun games, and a bubble machine, none of these issues arise and everybody is happy. What I still do is make a nice balloon for the birthday child in the calm of the food break. The other children understand that it is a present for the special child.

Balloon modelling I conclude is rubbish for birthday parties. If you are an entertainer reading this, consider dropping it from your party packages. Put fun games in that time instead or do more amazing magic routines.

For bigger events, DO book balloon modellers. But don’t just pick people who make amazing balloon models because I have seen “entertainers” grumpily making balloon in silence. But then I have worked with the fantastic Graham Lee, the awesome David Crofts and the dashing and glorious beast of a balloon superstar Russell Wells. If you are organising a large corporate event, fun day, festival do book a group of balloon modellers. Book 2 or 3 as demand will be high and they will quickly get swamped.

Pick and Mix Circus
The brilliant Russell Wells from South Wales.

* “Wow, pop, cry” is a phrase that brilliant South Wales based children’s entertainer Simon Sparkles came up with.

Check out Ritchie’s Youtube channel here

Ritchie Rosson is a children’s entertainer & magician based in Sutton, London UK.

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