Play streets

Formula Fun (2021)

Play Street Carousel (2021)

Taking Nature to the Streets (2011-13)

Car Free Day

Play Streets Past and Present (2014)

Play Quarter pilot (2017)

 

Play streets happen when neighbours agree to regularly open their street (for play and community) and close it (to through traffic). Simple… but magic; just watch this film:

Would you like your street to come alive with play?

The good news is that now in most London boroughs, starting a play street is fairly easy. Councils have a simple application process; and their growing popularity means your neighbours are likely to be supportive.

And we can help! London Play has been putting play back on the capital’s streets since 2008.  We have worked in nearly every borough in London and are happy to help you make it happen on your street. We even have a separate, dedicated London Play Streets website with all the inspiration, information and resources you need. So what are you waiting for? Jump through the wormhole, below.

GO TO OUR DEDICATED LONDON PLAY STREETS SITE
Past work
2021: The Play Street Carousel was a unique project that harnesses the power of play to strengthen bonds between neighbours, even as the pandemic kept us all apart.
London Play Press Releases
From Monday 14 September, it will be illegal in England, unless at school or work, for someone to meet more than five other people at a time. What does this mean for play streets?

LONDON PLAY STREETS

Visit our dedicated site for inspiration, information and all the resources you need to start your own play street - or just to find out more.
VISIT LONDON PLAY STREETS
 

PROJECT: Formula Fun

FUNDER: Mayor of London/Greater London Authority

DATES: August-September 2021


London Play’s Formula Fun fortnight ran between 21 August and 5 September 2021, bringing colour, action and joy to central London neighbourhoods where residents had just begun to emerge following months of restrictions imposed to manage the coronavirus pandemic. It was part of the Mayor’s Let’s Do London  campaign,  designed to attract visitors back to London to aid the recovery of the hospitality, culture and retail sectors.

With the support and encouragement of London Play’s mobile kart crew, hundreds of children, some of whom had never before even held a screwdriver, turned piles of wood and wheels into exquisitely engineered and lavishly decorated go karts. They were works of both speed and beauty. The spectacle of children proudly and noisily parading their creations through the streets and past some of London’s most iconic landmarks, brought people out to celebrate not only their achievements but also the hope of a return to life-as-we-knew-it, pre-covid, in our great capital.

My favourite thing? Drilling and building the go kart. And sanding, I really like it. Also driving the go kart and pushing it. It’s all been really fun in fact!

Project participant

I am really proud of them and of our neighbourhood.

Local councillor

Adventure play
Summer 2020: Following the first lockdown, adventure playgrounds were forced to open only to limited numbers of children. Open access adventure play became a thing of the past. Neighbourhood Play Havens supported adventure playgrounds to open to vulnerable and other excluded children and families.
London Play Press Releases
A fortnight of ‘Formula Fun’ go kart building excitement will kick off in The Regent’s Park this weekend, where the charity London Play is staging the first in a series of pop-up events for children across central London this summer.

FIND A PLACE TO PLAY

Click here to go to our play map and find adventure playgrounds, play streets and all our other favourite places to play in London.
VISIT OUR PLAY MAP
 

PROJECT: Play Street Carousel

FUNDER: The National Lottery Community Fund

DATES: January-October 2021 (interim lockdown project)


The Play Street Carousel was a unique project that harnessed the power of play to strengthen bonds between neighbours, even as the pandemic kept them apart.

A suitcase full of art materials and audio-visual equipment was passed between households on a street, on the ‘Play Street Carousel’. Covid-safe protocols were in place.

Each household used the materials to document a street game of their choosing. A cornucopia of games was collected from across generations, cultures and household types. Contributions have been collated into a ‘recipe book of street play’ and a film of the project has been made. These will provide a wonderful legacy of a strange time in history; and the book of games will become a valuable idea trove for future play streets.

Following the lifting of restrictions in late July, each participating street was invited to run an event to celebrate. Residents had the chance to play their games together and watch the film featuring their contributions. With two participating streets in each of four boroughs: Croydon, Haringey, Kingston and Redbridge; the Play Street Carousel street parties will go down in play street history!

In October 2021 we resumed work on the mainstream Playful Communities project, and hope that 2022 will see an explosion of play on the street following months of limited lives.

For more information on this project contact catherine@londonplay.org.uk

 

CLICK ON THE SUITCASE TO VISIT OUR DEDICATED LONDON PLAY STREETS WEBSITE TO SEE THE FILM AND DOWNLOAD THE BOOKLET OF GAMES

NB You will need to create a free log in  – once you have done so, the door will open to these and a veritable cornucopia of play street resources – guidance, tips, inspiration and more for play street organisers and aficionados!

Current work
Would you like your street to come alive with play? The good news is that in many parts of London, starting a play street is fairly easy.
London Play Press Releases
From Monday 14 September, it will be illegal in England, unless at school or work, for someone to meet more than five other people at a time. What does this mean for play streets?
London Play Press Releases
London Play is calling on local authorities to restart play streets from July 4th.

FIND A PLACE TO PLAY

Click here to go to our play map and find adventure playgrounds, play streets and all our other favourite places to play in London.
VISIT OUR PLAY MAP
 

PROJECT: Taking Nature to the Streets

FUNDER: Social Action Fund

DATES: Two year project 2011-2013


In Deptford, children were begging their parents to go to school – on a Saturday! But who could blame them, when the school in question is abandoned and features a hidden, wild nature garden? Where they can help build a treehouse, cook over an open fire or wade in a pond? This was just one of many magical opportunities opened up for children through this project, where we helped volunteers across London reactivate their communities through play in all its forms.

Taking nature to the streets
July 2012: Another partnership during the same period was established with the Friends of Fortune Street Park in Islington where we supported the delivering of outdoor play opportunities in their local open space. The aim was utilise the natural elements of the open space, and through the use of low cost, simple everyday objects we

ABOUT US

Taking nature to the streets
Summer 2012: we started to work together with Mudchute City Farm based in Tower Hamlets to support both volunteering and play on their vast outdoor site. During their large inter-generational community event themed around traditional street play and the 1940’s we delivered a variety of activities using loose objects from our Play in a Box

ABOUT US

Taking nature to the streets
Spring 2012: London Play and Haringey Play Association launched the first ‘Mudpies etc.' pop up play shop on Tottenham High Road on Monday 20 August, offering local children and families a welcoming space to drop in, relax, play and let their imaginations loose in a creative environment. The sessions are free and offer all types

ABOUT US

Taking nature to the streets
Winter 2012: Once again the nature garden on the site of the old Tidemill primary school is full of the sounds of children playing, excitedly rediscovering secret paths and hidden dens. In partnership with local community group Assembly SE8 the latest Mud Pies etc. initiative in Lewisham has really gained momentum, becoming an inspirational environment

ABOUT US

FIND A PLACE TO PLAY

Click here to go to our play map and find adventure playgrounds, play streets and all our other favourite places to play in London.
VISIT OUR PLAY MAP
 

World Car Free Day in September 2023 will be the perfect opportunity to swap your car for a spacehopper and try out a play street on your road.

London Play is offering advice, support (and free spacehoppers!) to London residents applying to try out a play street on Car Free Day. In most boroughs this will mean agreeing with your neighbours and applying to your local council using a street party application process. A play street is much more chilled than a street party – simple offers children and adults the space and permission to occupy it and see what happens.

On Car Free Day 2019 over 380 streets across London were open for play – and closed to traffic –  creating more than 400,000 sqm of instant play space!

The first 100 to apply through us get free spacehoppers (or other equipment to get the fun started) and we have free resources to help people plan, consult and promote their events. One lucky street will also win an on-street go kart building workshop on the day.

The process varies from borough to borough but will involve consulting your neighbours and applying to the council well in advance of the day (at least six weeks in most cases). So get started now – click here to get in touch and find out more. Or scroll down to click through to our dedicated London Play Streets website for all the inspiration, information and downloadable tools and resources you need.

Let’s turn the streets into playgrounds this Car Free Day!

Past work
2021: The Play Street Carousel was a unique project that harnesses the power of play to strengthen bonds between neighbours, even as the pandemic kept us all apart.
London Play Press Releases
From Monday 14 September, it will be illegal in England, unless at school or work, for someone to meet more than five other people at a time. What does this mean for play streets?

LONDON PLAY STREETS

Visit our dedicated site for inspiration, information and all the resources you need to trial your own play street on Car Free Day - or any day.
VISIT LONDON PLAY STREETS
 

Funder: Heritage Lottery

Play Streets Past and Present got modern youngsters looking at the strips of concrete and tarmac outside their homes with new eyes.

The screams of delight of children playing on London’s streets of the past are ringing in the ears of kids living in those same streets today. Thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, London Play spent most of 2014 working with an oral historian and the Museum of London on this fascinating investigation into play on the street in London’s past.

 

Six streets across London were selected to take part in the project – which aimed to capture the memories older residents had of playing out as children, and to  revive that tradition by passing their stories onto younger generations through creative art and play sessions.

And revived it was!  Inspired by recollections of the fascination with outer space, children in Haringey found themselves taking off for distant galaxies in their self-built cardboard space rocket; Islington kids had a splash turning their street into a temporary river; and the teddy bears came out to play in Waltham Forest.

Take a look at the case studies and resources available for download below.

For more information about the project, please email project worker Catherine Togut or call 0203 384 8510.

Museum of London

Canning Road case study
Brooke Road
Remembering and reminiscence
Winton Avenue case study
Oral history guide
Evacuee play trove
10 June: I have just come back from a full on day of filming the evacuees, I learnt so much. There so many people to coordinate in the crew. I’m looking forward to filming at St John’s Primary on Friday. Teresa the teacher said the children can’t wait to be on TV. Well we will
Evacuee play trove
17 July: It's been confirmed that the end of project event will be on Friday 18 October at the Churchill War Rooms! What a fitting venue - Churchill’s wartime bunker is a fascinating piece of living history; an underground maze of rooms that once buzzed with round-the-clock planning and plotting, strategies and secrets.

FIND A PLACE TO PLAY

Click here to go to our play map and find adventure playgrounds, play streets and all our other favourite places to play in London.
VISIT OUR PLAY MAP
 

Funder: National Lottery

Children’s freedom to roam – to independently go to the shops, the park or walk to school has been steadily shrinking over the last three generations. This pilot project aimed to reverse this.

This six month pilot project focused on the Palmers Green neighbourhood in the London Borough of Enfield. The aim is that it will become a place where children are welcomed by the community and can independently enjoy everything the area has to offer.

We worked with play street organisers, shop keepers, local schools, cafe owners, bus drivers, street scene workers, community policing teams, postal workers and others in the community, to raise awareness and understanding of the importance of independence in child development and how they could support it. They were encouraged to make small changes to the way they work, like taking time out to talk to the children they see during their daily routines – and handing out stickers to children that they see playing well and independently.

The project included running play sessions with volunteers, walking buses to parks and play events. A series of ‘Safe Points’ were established around the neighbourhood including at the community café in the park, the corner shop or the train station – allowing children to play freely in the knowledge that they can find a trustworthy adult if they encounter a problem. A ‘peer buddies’ system established networks of children who could play together.

We hope that Palmers Green will be the first of many Play Quarters to be established across London and ultimately beyond it.

You can also like the Play Quarters Facebook page for regular updates on activity!

Play Quarter evaluation
Access to nature
February 2012: Following on from last summer's community engagement day at Beam Washlands where London Play introduced plans for a natural playscape to the local community, the first equipment has now been installed and is now well established as part of the landscape.
Access to nature
September 2012: Play features provided by London Play as part of its Access to Nature project were given a thorough testing during the public event launching the £5m transformation of Haringey's Lordship Recreation Ground. Around 8,000 residents attended a community festival held on Saturday 22 September to mark the park's rebirth - and the refurbished

FIND A PLACE TO PLAY

Click here to go to our play map and find adventure playgrounds, play streets and all our other favourite places to play in London.
VISIT OUR PLAY MAP