PROJECT: Our Space to Play
FUNDER: Trust for London
DATES: 2026-2028
Our Space to Play is a two-year project funded by Trust for London, supporting residents on housing estates to improve poor-quality or neglected play spaces and to challenge housing providers to treat play as a core part of good-quality housing.
Our Space to Play builds on our Communities Unite to Play initiative which mostly involved residents speaking up for playgrounds in parks. This time the focus is on housing estates in Barking and Dagenham, Newham and Tower Hamlets – three eastern boroughs which all have young and growing populations, with a significant proportion living in flats.
Too often, estate play spaces are hidden, under-invested and poorly maintained, despite being the only outdoor space for many children living in flats without gardens. Responsibilities are often unclear, standards vary between landlords and councils, and residents can find it difficult to raise concerns or challenge decisions.
London Play will work with residents to build confidence, skills and collective power to gather evidence, engage housing providers and campaign for change. This will be combined with research into housing providers’ play policies and intensive work on selected estates, using creative, child-led approaches such as playing-out sessions.
Each estate will co-produce a practical guide to influencing housing providers to improve the access, quality and attitudes to doorstep play. Learning will be shared through a final event, published resources and engagement with London-wide and national policy processes, including the London Plan review and the APPG on Play.
The project aims to improve the quality and status of estate play spaces, strengthen resident voice, and help shift housing providers’ understanding of their responsibility for children’s right to play.
If you are a resident on a housing estate in Barking and Dagenham, Newham or Tower Hamlets and would like to see doorstep play supported, encouraged and celebrated where you live, please get in touch: info@londonplay.org.uk
