Swings and roundabouts: a social and environmental history of the children's playground in Britain, 1840 to 1980

Children's playgrounds are a ubiquitous feature of British towns and cities. And yet the politics and values that have informed their creation, purpose and form have rarely been historicised by scholars, professionals or the wider public. To address this, Swings and Roundabouts answers two broad questions. Firstly, why do children's playgrounds exist and, secondly, why do they look the way they do? Focusing on dedicated public spaces for play, the study examines the individuals and organisations that promoted and created such places, explores the changing social, political and environmental assumptions that informed such work, and reveals how play spaces and the wider urban environment changed as a result. Grounded in the fields of environmental history and critical geography, the thesis uncovers the changing eco-cultural values that helped to establish the principle of the playground and in turn shaped its material form. To do so, it draws on the archival materials of social reformers and parks superintendents, equipment manufacturers and architects, from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It finds that the ideal playground has long represented a site where changing conceptions of nature, health, childhood, commerce and technology have all been played out, with a corresponding impact on the built form of towns and cities across Britain. As such, Swings and Roundabouts plots the erratic evolution of the playground in public parks, housing estates and other spaces in the urban environment, charting its journey from marginal obscurity to popular ubiquity and the subsequent challenges to its status as a site of health, nature and safety. In doing so, this study sheds light on a previously unacknowledged influence on the urban environment and points to the enduring power of historical values in shaping the public places where we live and play. As a result, it provides vital contextual information for scholars and policymakers seeking to imagine and create more equitable opportunities for the child in the city.