Designed for Play: Children’s Playgrounds and the Politics of Urban Space, 1840–2010

Jon Winder
University of London Press
2024-07-11

<p>Children’s playgrounds are commonly understood as the obvious place for children to play: safe, natural and out of the way. But these expectations hide a convoluted and overlooked history of children’s place in public space – one shaped by implicit social, political and environmental values, and by government intervention in spaces and lives across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book is the first empirically grounded historical account of the modern playground, drawing on the archival materials of social reformers, park superintendents, equipment manufacturers and architects in Britain and beyond to chart the playground’s journey from marginal obscurity to popular ubiquity. In exploring the evolution of play space design, the book shows that the ideal playground has long represented a space where changing conceptions of nature, health, childhood, commerce and technology have all been played out. It covers the development of garden gymnasiums in the 1890s, the influence of Charles Wicksteed, increasing standardisation in the interwar period, the impact of progressive education, pioneering female designers and the adventure playground movement in the twentieth century, and more recent challenges to the playground’s status as a site of health, nature and safety.</p><p><em>Designed for Play</em> is an original and accessible contribution to modern British history, urban and environmental history, and histories and geographies of childhood.</p>

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Keywords

  • Social & cultural history
  • Urban & municipal planning
  • 1.1.0.0.0.0.0
  • Historical geography
  • Urban communities
  • Age groups: children
  • United Kingdom, Great Britain
  • 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899
  • 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
  • Social and cultural history
  • Social geography
  • Urban and municipal planning and policy
  • History
  • childhood
  • design
  • education
  • geography
  • history
  • planning
  • playground
  • social
  • space
  • urban

Designed for Play: Children’s Playgrounds and the Politics of Urban Space, 1840–2010

Jon Winder

University of London Press

2024-07-11

CC BY-NC-ND

<p>Children’s playgrounds are commonly understood as the obvious place for children to play: safe, natural and out of the way. But these expectations hide a convoluted and overlooked history of children’s place in public space – one shaped by implicit social, political and environmental values, and by government intervention in spaces and lives across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book is the first empirically grounded historical account of the modern playground, drawing on the archival materials of social reformers, park superintendents, equipment manufacturers and architects in Britain and beyond to chart the playground’s journey from marginal obscurity to popular ubiquity. In exploring the evolution of play space design, the book shows that the ideal playground has long represented a space where changing conceptions of nature, health, childhood, commerce and technology have all been played out. It covers the development of garden gymnasiums in the 1890s, the influence of Charles Wicksteed, increasing standardisation in the interwar period, the impact of progressive education, pioneering female designers and the adventure playground movement in the twentieth century, and more recent challenges to the playground’s status as a site of health, nature and safety.</p><p><em>Designed for Play</em> is an original and accessible contribution to modern British history, urban and environmental history, and histories and geographies of childhood.</p>