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Adventure playgrounds may have closed their gates, but they have not closed the door on their ‘playing customers’, London’s children.

London’s adventure playgrounds are rising to the significant challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and continuing to support some of the capital’s most vulnerable children and families through the crisis. As the Easter holidays begin, adventure playground workers have turned their considerable skills and creativity to developing new online and remote channels of playfulness to keep children playing at home. Others have become hubs for community food distribution, even as they grapple with the uncertainty that lies ahead.

Some 90 per cent of respondents to London Play’s recent adventure playground survey said they intended to maintain communications with their users; and more than half planned to deliver some services remotely. Numerous examples of their ability to adapt and respond to the needs of the communities that they serve have come to light in recent days:

* Loughborough Community Centre at Max Roach is delivering free lunch and exchangeable play resources to children’s doors, three days a week during the Easter holidays.

* Haringey’s Somerford Grove Adventure Playground is working with the Felix Project to collect surplus food donations each Thursday for distributing to the local community.

* Hackney Play Association is inviting children to share their ideas for play during lockdown; as well as drawings or paintings of the view from their window to include in an online gallery called ‘My View’. Send photos to ideas@hackneyplay.org or complete the survey here.

* Lambeth’s Triangle Adventure Playground has launched an online PlayZone and YouTube channel to run a programme of activities for its children. Staff said: “Jon and Gabriel and Eldith and Jake and Laura and Darragh and Rob miss all of you so we want to see the Triangle kids having fun wherever you are.”

Financial concerns

Financial worries are unsurprisingly a key concern for adventure playground organisations which already operate under severe budget constraints. Many are unsure about whether some funding will continue in light of their inability to deliver against agreed targets. And although the jobs of most permanent staff appear to be relatively safe at this stage, around half of adventure playgrounds responding to the survey also said that they may have to consider laying off sessional workers. Unsurprisingly they are also ready to act to mitigate the financial impact, with around 80 per cent of survey respondents hoping to use the closure time to write funding bids.

Despite these very real concerns, the resilience and creativity of the staff at London’s unique adventure playgrounds is what stands out. London Play is committed to doing what we can to help and will be looking at how best to do this, along with publishing tips and guidance, in the coming days and weeks. If you work at an adventure playground, please do get in touch with any suggestions or questions or anything you want to share.

LONDON: Around £400,000 has been awarded to 29 London primary schools to fund new green barriers to protect children from toxic air in school playgrounds.

In addition to the green barriers for schools, the Mayor’s £1.27m green fund will also fund a project to rejuvenate the garden of the popular Slade Gardens Adventure Playground in Brixton; as well as new green spaces for housing estates, community gardens to help improve mental health and wildlife habitats in parks.

Greening playgrounds with climbing plants across entire walls, hedges, and wider green infrastructure can be beneficial to boosting air quality and reducing exposure to harmful emissions from busy roads. A recent report by the Air Quality Expert Group found a ‘green barrier’ between cars and pedestrians can halve the levels of pollution behind the barrier.

At Slade Gardens in Brixton, nearly £20k will support a project working with young people who have behavioural and emotional difficulties, and will create a community garden hub where local people will be able to grow food and flowers through structured volunteering and education.

As well as the grants, the Mayor has published two new maps that detail London’s green spaces and waterways and can be used to help identify where greater investment in greening would bring significant benefits.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It is unacceptable that our filthy air is affecting the lung growth and respiratory health of our young children, especially those who go to school by busy, polluted roads. My funding will help create much needed new spaces for communities to enjoy and help reduce toxic pollution with green barriers in and around schools to protect our children from polluted air. This will complement our drive to reduce vehicle emissions across the capital, including the introduction of the 24-hour Central London Ultra Low Emission Zone in April, and cleaning up our bus and taxi fleet. The new water ways, wildlife habitats and community gardens we are creating will help London maintain its status as one of the greenest world cities as we work towards becoming a National Park City this summer.”

More on this story here