Playgrounds

After World War II, a new kind of playground emerged in Northern Europe and North America. Rather than slides, swings, and roundabouts, these new playgrounds encouraged children to build shacks and invent their own entertainment.

Playgrounds tells the story of how waste grounds and bombsites were transformed into hives of activity by children and progressive educators. It shows how a belief in the imaginative capacity of children shaped a new kind of playground and how designers reimagined what playgrounds could be.

Ben Highmore tells a compelling story about pioneers, designers, and charities — and above all — about the value of play.

'In the decades following the Second World War, playgrounds developed into radical sites for childhood experimentation. Ben Highmore has wonderfully recaptured that history in this richly detailed, highly readable, and beautifully illustrated account. In our era of worrying about housebound children, the book could not be more timely.' – Mathew Thomson, author of Lost Freedom: The Landscape of the Child and the British Post-War Settlement

'Playgrounds are essential for developing a sense of the world while shaping a meaningful social experience of equality, mutuality, and self-organizational practices amongst younger people. Ben Highmore shares an exquisitely written, hopeful narrative on the innovative qualities and progressive principals found in the post-war urban experimental playground movement. Relevant and incredibly pertinent, Playgrounds is a lesson for today’s risk-averse society where indoor screentime often replaces outdoor playtime. Rather than bemoan a lost past, Highmore’s book dares to imagine the future of public play spaces designed to ensure that young people thrive.' – Raiford Guins, Indiana University