Children’s designs for Shoreditch Park play centre given thumbs-up by planners

Children helped design new play areas as part of a £350,000 redesign at Shoreditch Park which aims to get them closer to nature.

Their suggestions included a slide and a rooftop space to relax at the new play centre in the park.

The popular open space was created in the 1980s after temporary homes put up after wartime bomb damage were cleared.

Five hundred children aged six to 15 registered to use the playground and up to 150 play there each day.

Hayley Birch from Young Hackney told the borough’s planning committee that some design ideas came from talking to the children.

The play area also has a covered inside area and is accessible for children with disabilities.

Birch said: “The new design means we can still operate under Covid – the children can use toilets without having to use the play hut space.”

There will be landscaped areas with the aim of “getting back to nature”. Play space in Dorothy Thurtle Gardens will be planted with native hedgerows.

Children can also learn more about wildlife as log piles will cater for insects and there will be a rain garden alongside Bridport Place to drain the area and give opportunities to play.

The plan also includes a volleyball and multi-sport pitch and the Javelin Man statue will be moved from its current home near the Britannia Leisure Centre.

The adventure playground building will include climbing walls and there’s also going to be a mural designed with the children.

Hackney’s planning committee approved the scheme unanimously this week (28 July).