Children at play / Department of the Environment.

  • Great Britain. Department of the Environment.
Date:
1973
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Children at play / Department of the Environment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Appendix Il Description of observation areas A Low-rise estates Gloucester Street, Sheffield 1. This small scheme of 39 houses is an infill site in a slum clear- ance area about a mile west of Sheffield city centre. Although most of the dwellings are adjacent to roads, tenants have access to a central open grassed space from their garden without going near a road. There are linked paved areas connecting dwellings and roads at the back of the houses all of which have private gardens. 2. There are no play areas. The nearest open space is a public park about a quarter of a mile away which can be reached only by crossing some busy roads; in this park ball games are prohibited on every day except Whit Monday. Woodhouse Estate, Sheffield 3. Woodhouse Estate, an estate of family houses, forms part of a larger housing development about four miles south-east of Sheffield city centre. At the time of the observations the sloping site, bounded to the north by a brook, was surrounded by a considerable amount of open countryside. The site is trisected by a distributor road, which carries a bus service, and an access road. Only a few of the houses lead directly on to roads, with the majority in terraces at right angles to the road. There is a separate network of pedestrian paths and all the dwellings have private gardens. 4. No play areas are provided. Woodway Lane, Coventry 5. This estate has two-storey houses (all with private gardens) and a few old people’s bungalows. It is three-and-a-half miles north-east of Coventry city centre, bounded on one side by a brook and some rough open space. It has no through roads, and pedestrian paths are sited at the front of the houses away from the roads. All the dwellings back on to roads or culs-de-sac which are directly accessible from the gardens. 6. Six small play areas are provided, all with brick structures or logs. A factor which influenced the form of play areas was the local authority’s intention of developing the rough ground to the west of the site as an open space and neighbourhood play area. Fleury Road, Sheffield 7. The dwellings at Fleury Road are part of the Gleadless Valley Estate on the outskirts of Sheffield. The estate is on a steeply sloping, south-facing hillside overlooking a large wooded open space in the bottom of the valley. By grouping the terraces of dwellings close together, large open spaces have been created which have been mainly grassed and this, together with the open surroundings, gives the estate a semi-rural setting. The estate con- sists entirely of houses half of which have garages beneath at the front. All the houses have small paved yards at the rear, and about half have private front gardens; most of the others have private balconies. There is one through road and several access roads. Some of the houses open on to roads at the rear and all front on to pedestrian paths. 8. There is one small, unequipped play area. B Medium-rise estates St Mary’s, Oldham 9. This estate was the first redeveloped site in a slum clearance area. Surrounded by derelict houses and industrial premises, old occupied houses and cleared areas, it is situated close to Oldham’s town centre. About a third of the dwellings are houses with private gardens and the rest are deck-access flats. The estate is mainly traffic-segregated with four, short, access culs-de-sac. The houses, where the majority of children live, are at right angles to the road and open both ways on to extensive pedestrian paths and paved areas. There is a high proportion of grassed, common open space. 10. There are seven play areas on the site. Four of these consist of concrete structures; one has swings: another a slide, paddling pool, swings, a fort and play house: the other is a ball-games area. The nearest open space at the northern end of the site is a wild area known as Oldham Edge. The nearest park is more than half a mile away on the other side of three main roads and the town centre. The Bonamy, London SE1 11. Situated in Southwark in an area characterised by small industrial development, a railway goods yard, a canal, and a few 19th-century terraced houses, The Bonamy Estate is divided into two by the Rotherhithe New Road. Observations were made only on the northern part, which is connected to the remainder of the estate by a footbridge, giving access to a shopping centre, com- munity buildings, and a public house. Apart from a service road at one end, the estate is strictly traffic-segregated, the dwellings running across the site to form a series of paved pedestrian ways and small courtyards. There are grassed and planted areas raised above the level of the walkways and level grassed areas on the periphery of the site. Most of the ground-floor dwellings have private patios and those at the upper levels, large roof terraces. 12. On the half of the estate where observations were made there is one play area consisting of a climbing frame, slide, swings and sand-pit. At the time of the observations the swings were without seats and the sand-pit empty. There are no parks in the area. Curnock Street, London NW1 13. This estate in the London Borough of Camden, consisting largely of maisonettes in four-storey blocks but with one six- storey block of flats and nine two-storey houses, is in an area of mixed residential and small light-industrial development adjacent to the main shopping centre in Camden High Road. It is entirely traffic-free, but the outer blocks face busy roads on two sides of the estate. The blocks are arranged to form four courtyards, each with extensive paved and planted areas. None of the dwellings have private gardens or balconies but the ground-level dwellings all have a side-screened section of paving which is contiguous with the access-way paving. Seven shops (unlet at the time of the observations) and a public house are incorporated in the scheme. 14. Each courtyard has a play area with swings, conventional static equipment and architectural features. Across a busy road is a large kickabout area and a main road would have to be crossed to reach the nearest park to the estate.