Welcome to the new Emslie Horniman Play Area in London.
This play area is reaped with history. The name of the play area comes from Emslie John Horniman, a British philanthropist.
He spent his youth travelling widely, visiting Egypt, Morocco, Central Africa, India, the Dutch East Indies, French Indochina, China, Japan, and the United States. In 1911 he laid out and donated a public park in north Kensington to the London County Council, known as Emslie Horniman’s Pleasance.
During his youth, he set sail across over half the world, from the Atlantic ocean of the African coast across the Indian Ocean to China and Japan. Navigating the seas with maps and astrological equipment, he explored many different terrains, from the hot, dense jungles of India to the cold, snowy mountains of Japan.
These environments he navigated using the stars inspired our playground design themes of Nautical Navigation, Jungle Adventure, Snowy Mountain Expedition and Starry Sky.
It was important to us that this play area represented elements of this historical importance. Let me take you through this fantastic play space….
This play space has been designed to encourage children to play together with friends and siblings whilst enjoying the new and exciting play elements and features that the new play space has to offer them. It is important to allow children of all abilities the opportunity to play as one and to ensure we make all play equipment accessible and incorporate play equipment that children of all abilities can use.
The existing play space showed severe wear and lacked play value for the children using it. Due to the site’s location and historical importance, the new play area needed to become a destination play space and one that the entire local community would be proud of. As inclusivity is at the forefront of our minds, we have strategically placed all the inclusive items towards the front of the play space. These include our Wheelchair Accessible Roundabout, Swing Combination with Inclusive Seats and Stand up Seesaw.
The new play space has been designed to encourage the local children to take a journey around the round, exploring all the play equipment the play area offers. Just like Emslie Horniman would have done. As you enter the play space, you sail across the seas onboard our play ship Nina. This fantastic play item offers a variety of play opportunities to discover, such as the lower deck and fireman’s pole, whilst also opportunities to improve role play, social and teamwork skills. As they set sail, the children will discover various play items, such as our Wheelchair Roundabout, Swing Combinations, dual Trampolines and Stand Up Seesaw. However, don’t get caught by the Gigantic Octopus, ready to drag the ship to the bottom of the ocean!
When the ship docks and the sailors set foot on land, they can have great fun challenging themselves, balancing across our fantastic Active Trail or climbing through the Tunnel on the mound. The mounds on both sides of the pathways existed, and eibe play decided to keep these to give the children the feeling of playing at height. However, we needed to increase these mounds’ play value. The addition of the balancing trail, rope pull bridge, numerous play panels and our Satellite Carousel. This will provide ample support for all children's abilities, including those that need back and neck support. In addition to this area, we have included our Play Unit Ranjo. This brilliant play item is aimed at children between 1 and 4. It provides them with their first experience of sliding and climbing whilst also offering opportunities to promote development skills such as eye-hand coordination and balancing. Whilst it’s fun, Tummy-Slide will provide the children with endless fun.
As they make their way through the jungle, they will discover the docked Space Station Unit. This bespoke play feature adds something different to the play space and will provide children aged between 5-13 years with a challenging yet fun play item to explore. Its various play features, such as challenging crossings, multiple accents and descents, numerous slides, and look-out portholes, to name just a few, make this the ideal play feature for kids to believe they are either up in space or just landed after a mission.
The renovations included removing all existing play equipment, except the mound slide, from the play area. The new, wetpour safer surfacing provides a fresh and vibrant feel and theme to the new play space. Not only will it feel unique and original, but it will also draw more users to the park as the facilities now offer more play opportunities. The addition of the new seating along the wall around the trampolines and Inclusive Roundabout will also enhance the experience of the play space by the local community.
During the installation period, it felt like the eibe play installation team had to deal with all types of weather conditions, and towards the end of the installation even had to deal with 2 feet of snow. The existing play area also dealt with some complex installation methods, such as a large number of mounds and various existing surfaces. However, the team pressed on and completed it on time and with great success.
The play area was opened just before Christmas, on a lovely winter’s afternoon, with the local children eagerly anticipating its opening. eibe play will return with Goodie bags for the play area’s grand opening in the spring. The local community continued to use the play equipment until dusk, and the play area has been packed ever since.
eibe play looks forward to supporting the community for years to come and has been overjoyed with the positive feedback it has received.