Thoth distribution@thoth.pub 20260401T131625

urn:uuid:480fd680-6470-4f8a-8f2c-d79770425d0e 03 01 01 urn:uuid:480fd680-6470-4f8a-8f2c-d79770425d0e 15 9781914477508 06 10.14296/mgyc2910 00 EB E107 10 Creative Commons License 02 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode 01 01 Designed for Play: Children’s Playgrounds and the Politics of Urban Space, 1840–2010 1 A01 21 0000-0003-4868-5208 Jon Winder First edition. 01 eng 12 HBTB 10 HIS052000 B2 History 93 NHTB 12 RPC 93 RPC 10 SOC047000 93 RGCS 10 SOC026030 10 1.1.0.0.0.0.0 93 1DDU 93 3MN 93 3MP 01 06 03 00 <p><p>Children’s playgrounds are commonly understood as the obvious place for children to play: safe, natural and out of the way. But these expectations hide a convoluted and overlooked history of children’s place in public space – one shaped by implicit social, political and environmental values, and by government intervention in spaces and lives across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book is the first empirically grounded historical account of the modern playground, drawing on the archival materials of social reformers, park superintendents, equipment manufacturers and architects in Britain and beyond to chart the playground’s journey from marginal obscurity to popular ubiquity. In exploring the evolution of play space design, the book shows that the ideal playground has long represented a space where changing conceptions of nature, health, childhood, commerce and technology have all been played out. It covers the development of garden gymnasiums in the 1890s, the influence of Charles Wicksteed, increasing standardisation in the interwar period, the impact of progressive education, pioneering female designers and the adventure playground movement in the twentieth century, and more recent challenges to the playground’s status as a site of health, nature and safety.</p><p><em>Designed for Play</italic> is an original and accessible contribution to modern British history, urban and environmental history, and histories and geographies of childhood.</p></p> 04 00 <ul> <li>Introduction</li> <li>1 Finding space for play: ‘playgrounds for poor children in populous places’</li> <li>2 Competing playground visions: ‘a distinctly civilizing influence that gives much health and happiness’</li> <li>3 Playgrounds for the People: ‘a magnetic force to draw children away from the dangers and excitements of the streets’</li> <li>4 Orthodoxy and Adventure: ‘playgrounds are often as bleak as barrack squares and just as boring’</li> <li>5 Playground Scuffles: ‘It’s ours whatever they say’</li> <li>Conclusion</li> </ul> 20 00 Open Access University of London Press 01 University of London Press London, GB 04 01 20240711 2024 06 15 9781914477492 06 15 9781914477485 06 15 9781914477508 09 University of London Press 02 Publisher's website: web shop https://uolpress.co.uk/book/designed-for-play-childrens-playgrounds-and-the-politics-of-urban-space-1840-2010/ 99 01 09 University of London Press 29 Publisher's website: download the title https://books.uolpress.co.uk/10.14296/mgyc2910.pdf 99 01