Hilly Fields natural play area opens in Lewisham, London.
The Friends of Hilly Fields, in Lewisham, London have successfully opened their brand new natural play area. The group secured just under £50k from Community Spaces for this project.
The site includes rocks, boulders, sand and even a water pump for local children to really get back in touch with nature.
Some great photographs of the children enjoying the new play area can be found here: http://www.hilly.org.uk/2010/05/and-finally/
The group are planning an official opening of the play area this weekend and will be entertaining visitors with a story teller and will have craft workshops in the afternoon.
I attended the Hilly Fields launch event on Saturday 5th June and I was amazed at the transformation of the play area. It looks fantastic. In all years as a Community Development worker I’ve never seen a playground so busy and packed before and I’ve attended many launch events in my time. A parent summarised it brilliantly by saying it was like being in Ibiza! The playground used to be a traditional hard landscaped play area with worn out and dated equipment. The playground now incorporates natural play features such as a sand pit, water play feature and timber climbing structures. The group have achieved value for money by repairing existing fencing, repainting exisitng benches and keeping some popular play features such as the spider climbing frame but sprucing them up so that they are truly unrecognisable.The playground will hopefully be a focal point for the local community to get together particularly parents – something that was evident already at the launch. Rachel and the group have worked so hard the last two years and it certainly has paid off. The playground is now a real community asset and is a great example of what Community Spaces is about. Well done again!
Wow – that looks brilliant! I would have loved that as a child.