Children playing at the ‘Shanty Town’ adventure playground; 1965

Children playing at the ‘Shanty Town’ adventure playground.
Many buildings sites and bombsites in London had been taken over by children looking for interesting spaces in which to play. Often called ‘junk’ playground they were very different to children’s playgrounds of today, containing old building materials, branches, ropes, old car tires, cardboard boxes all for children to use creatively. By the 1950s adventure playgrounds had become supervised play spaces for children and this one has been well designed with efforts made to create a friendly atmosphere with painted walls and bunting.