Londoners, please help! Great nurseries. Funny (not 'haha!') criteria!

[Mummyteachmummy]

We're moving to London in October, and need childcare ideally from then, but could wait til January... So first criteria is:

• no long waiting list, as need a place quite soon.
  
  Other criteria are:
  
  
• flexible approach to part time attendance. Ideally I'd be leaving DD (2yo) for a maximum of two days pw, and really don't want to be pushed into more.
  
  
• we're yet to decide where we'll be living and can allow this to be dictated by location of nursery (if only I can find one quick enough!).
  
  I'll be working in Westminster, so would consider anywhere commutable, preferably south of Westminster as that's where friends are. So far we've thought about Westminster, Pimlico, Clapham, Herne Hill... But there are just so many nurseries in each area - I have no idea where to start! Hoping a scattering of personal recommendations of mumsnetters might help give me some inspiration... ?!
  
  HELP!!!

[Azquilith]

The Baby Room in Clapham (Lavender Hill) was the nicest I looked at (think it's a chain). Though tbh I did go with a childminder in the end.

[Mummyteachmummy]

Thank you both. I've had a look at the Baby Room chain, and it doesn't look quite what I'm looking for. Hoping for something more I suppose Montessori-ish. Not necessarily Montessori, but I want somewhere warm and cosy, unstructured, nice outdoors to run around and dig at will etc.

I went on a visit to one nursery the other day (one I was dying to like because of location v near to work), but the size of the rooms put me off - can't imagine a 2 year old being happy in a room the size of your average sitting room all day? Is this normal? I was imagining more of a nice big hall to run around? No idea what's normal though, as this is very much my first time at all of this...

Next web search Seymour Place...

[Mummyteachmummy]

Lovely, thanks so much Madrigals - have made an enquiry to see if they have vacancies...