Children help design new play areas at Shoreditch Park

Julia Gregory, Local Democracy Reporter
Adventure playground Shoreditch Park. - Credit: Sean Pollock Photographer/Hackney Council
Children helped design new play areas as part of a £350,000 redesign at Shoreditch Park which aims to get them closer to nature.
The popular open space where up to 150 children, aged six to 15, play each day was created in the 1980s when temporary homes put up after wartime bomb damage were cleared.
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.
Ms 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”. Children can also learn more about wildlife as log piles will cater for insects.
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.
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Hackney’s planning committee approved the scheme unanimously this week (28 July).