19 August 2008

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Playgrounds and Adventure Parks in London

Some of the best childhood memories many of us will have are about climbing to the top of a rope ladder or swinging so high we imagine we can loop the loop over the top bar or playing obstacle courses where you can't touch the ground. As parents we may watch our children with our hearts in our mouths waiting for a crash and fall but this rarely happens. Playgrounds and adventure parks are a necessity for childhood fun, a physical workout, firing the imagination, social interaction and learning to cope with the odd grazed knee. Londoners are actually pretty well catered for with good, safe playgrounds and adventure parks with lots of exciting and interesting play equipment which is suitable for children of all ages and many cater for children with some physical disability.

London Play is a good resource for finding playgrounds and adventure parks near to your home; it lists the address and facilities of each playground in each borough. You will also find information about the 80 adventure playgrounds across the 17 boroughs of London.

This playground map finder is a useful way of pinpointing a particular area that you may not know so well while The National Playing Fields Association helps you find the sports fields and pitches near to you.

Did you know that there is a National Play Day The slogan is "Play Naturally" which seems like a good one...feed children's imagination and let them get on with their own wonderful games. The date for 2006 is the 2nd August and the aim is to highlight that playing freely is a natural and necessary part of childhood and that children need natural environments to play in.

There have been some spectacular new additions to London's playgrounds and adventure playgrounds in recent years such as the Diana, Princess of Wales' Memorial Playground in Kensington. The £1.7 million playground has some conventional play equipment - swings, slides and climbing frames but it also has more subtle features designed to stimulate children's imaginations. On the pirate ship, a fully rigged, three-tiered, hand-crafted wooden galleon, there is a hidden passage between decks, and children can attempt to refloat the beached vessel by shifting sand out of the hull on a trolley system. An earlier playground on the site was funded by J M Barrie, whose Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was published in 1906. Barrie lived in the area and walked daily in the gardens and his legacy has inspired Teepees, pirate ships, crocodiles lazing on the beach and totem poles carved by Native American Indians.

Somerford Grove Adventure Playground in Haringey is one of London's newest adventure playgrounds, having been opened in spring 2005: it is the only adventure playground in the borough and was designed and built in consultation with local children. Playground features such as swings and climbing platforms, as well as new materials, shapes, and ideas that have been used to enhance the play environment. There are natural features such as a pond and a stream, rare and interesting trees have been planted and den-building opportunities abound. The building was designed to incorporate innovative environmentally-friendly features, including efficient under floor heating, a partly-turfed roof for insulation, and solar panels that both heat water and generate electricity - when the sun shines!

Slade Gardens in Brixton is an award winning adventure playground as is Somerville Adventure Playground in Lewisham and Barnard Park Playground in Islington.

Get involved in your community play facilities or join a local play association for help and advice as to how to revamp your local run down playground or indeed have one built in your area.

Remember that an afternoon in the park is free...apart from the occasional ice cream you will inevitably buy! I never did like those little roundabouts though...they made you feel SO dizzy.