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

Series: New Historical Perspectives

Published in association with: Institute of Historical Research, Royal Historical Society

Open Access publication funded by Jisc Open Access Community Framework

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.

Designed for Play is an original and accessible contribution to modern British history, urban and environmental history, and histories and geographies of childhood.

Jon Winder’s Designed for Play shows us how our playgrounds are the product of the vying interests of educationalists, manufacturers, local governments, philanthropists, even, very occasionally, children. It is a beautifully told and compelling tale that treats the playground as a major element of urban life. This is an important book that deserves a very wide audience.

—Ben Highmore, Professor of Cultural Studies, University of Sussex, UK

Winder’s analysis is grounded in an impressively wide range of sources, … engaging and accessible: academically oriented readers gain insights into the structural and ideological foundations of children’s play environments, while general audiences may find nostalgic pleasure in the anecdotes and illustrations that animate the narrative. … The book offers a comprehensive account of the development of playgrounds in Britain. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the everyday history of childhood, the urban environment, and the themes of play and imagination.

—Essi Jouhki, Academy Research Fellow, Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

History of Education

Whose city is an underpinning theme in this book, … (revealing) how different groups with less access to power have established spaces in modern cities. These spaces have at times been contentious, with competing discourses attempting to shape them and direct their use. Over the past century, playgrounds … have been challenged for their cost, or criticized for their inability to turn a profit. Yet, as the book describes, they have survived – and been defended – by their users and by a wider community, aware that a successful city will accommodate much more than a single group of residents.

—Krista Cowman, University of Leicester, UK

Urban History