Come Out and Play

On Sunday in our street a group of us organised 'Come Out & Play!', an afternoon when we put bunting across the road and neighbours brought out games, toys, food and drink and.. spent some time together.
It was a real pleasure, and great to run something so simple to set up. We didn't officially close the road, just put up signs encouraging people to take another route, and leafleted the cars in advance asking for people to part a few streets away for the afternoon to give us more space. Hattie brought out a few pieces of snug, a local boy arrived with his secret recipe for giant bubble making mixture, others brought a playhouse, pizza, tea, cake, chalk, softballs and musical instruments. A burst of rain ten minutes before the advertised end led to a hurried clearing up followed by a warm glow of satisfaction about an enjoyable event for locals of all ages. Thanks to http://playingout.net/ for inspiration and tips

Towards a Theory of Classification of Loose Parts

Taken from EXTREME TIDYING UP

Leaping into the Linhope Spout!

Can there be anything more fun than jumping 20' down into a bottomless pool of freezing water? These brave kids in the Cheviot Hills (where I've just spent a blustery week) obviously don't think so...

Snug in luxury Japanese hotel!

Our friend Chi-Chi spotted this poster in the reception of the Korakuen hotel in Atami, advertising their latest attraction - unfortunately she didn't have time to see it in action... if anybody else around the world has photos of Snug, we'd love to see them!

Childs Play in the Sunday Telegraph

New approaches to playgrounds bring imagination (and danger) back to playtime

"...Where does playground design go from here? The future might just lie in the one thing designers have spent the past ten years vilifying: brightly coloured plastic. Not even a concetre lover could claim Gillett Square in Hackney is a lovely place, but every afternoon, something extraordinary happens. From out of two giant dustbins, children take a big loop, a cone, a wave, a curved section of wall, a mound and some long pieces of plastic like noodles. This is a Snug play set, designed by siblings Tim and Hattie Coppard, and its premise is that anywhere can be a playground.

Snugplay's essence is flexibility. Children can do whatever they want with the shapes, but they're designed to be awkward - nothing slots easily into anything else. They have to use their imagination and, because some of the pieces are pretty heavy, work together. Since its launch in 2008, the kits - costing £11,700 each - have been sold all over the world."

- John Preston, Sunday Telegraph STKids magazine, 14th September 2011.