Revisiting the playground: Charles Wicksteed, play equipment and public spaces for children in early twentieth-century Britain

Abstract

This article offers the first detailed history of the children's playground in Britain in the early twentieth century. Despite being a common feature of towns and cities, the playground has rarely been examined by historians. In response, the article charts how changing conceptions of childhood, alternative visions of the city, technological innovation and shifting ideas about health and exercise shaped both the imagined function and material form of the playground ideal. Making visible the historical assumptions hidden in playground swings and slides helps to contextualize both existing scholarship on the mid-twentieth-century adventure playground and present-day efforts to create more equitable urban environments.

Space for Play: A History of Hong Kong Playgrounds

“…At this time, the recognition of children as a distinctive constituency requiring time and space for nurture and leisure had taken hold in Britain (Winder, 2021). Yet in its colony of Hong Kong, a 1921 commission into child labor revealed damning evidence of children as young as seven working long hours in construction and manufacturing (Farmer, 2014).…”

“…Playground advocates of the era saw their work beyond crime deterrence by keeping adolescents off the streets but as a greater project of social unity and nation building (Winder, 2021). The playground would serve a central role in shaping the physical and moral character of the populous.…”

“…The playground would serve a central role in shaping the physical and moral character of the populous. As such, these early playgrounds largely featured structures and apparatus promoting high strength exercise and gymnastic fitness (Winder, 2021). The types of child-centered playgrounds championed by later progressives that would offer freedom, pleasure, and delight to nurture the inherent playfulness of children would not arrive for some time.…”

La comunidad toma el mando: terreno baldío, calle y ciudad

“…Para su diseño, el pensamiento autoritario clásico habilita una superficie asfaltada con toboganes metálicos y columpios que proporcionan un tipo de diversión limitada y predeterminada. Un tipo de parque infantil que sólo puede utilizarse de una manera y no ofrece casi ninguna oportunidad para la fantasía, la creatividad o el desarrollo de habilidades de los niños (Winder, 2023). El pensador anarquista nos indica, "no es de extrañar que los niños se aburran pronto de las opciones de juego limitadas y encuentren actividades más interesantes en la calle, en un edificio abandonado y en un terreno baldío" (Ward, 1961, p. 194).…”