Creative Consultation for the New Parkland Play Trail

We are pleased to announce that the Parkland Walk Playful Project supported by Haringey Council is getting underway so we’d like to invite local people and interested groups to join us for a creative consultation to help us improve this natural asset. The consultation will build upon previous findings and focus on ideas to make this area more accessible and more inspiring for everyday users. We’ll provide design proposals and activities as well as an online alternative for those not able to attend on the day. Come join us!

Come join us on Saturday 19th June @ 15:30-16:30, Parkland Walk Play Trail (Milton Park Entrance, Highgate)

A little more about our proposal

The Parkland Walk Playtrail will be a new natural play space situated in an underused pocket along the Parkland walk – a former railway line now a green route which runs from Finsbury Park to Highgate. The brief was developed with creative input from a local engagement event we hosted back in 2019 as part of the Highgate Festival. More than 50 written responses and sketches welcomed a playful natural intervention along the parkland walk.

The location was first identified by the local residents’ forum, the Highgate Neighbourhood Forum (HNF), as a potential space to install play equipment and generate long-term improvement for the area. The HNF have been driving this initiative along with the local council due to the lack of designated play areas for children and young people in the Highgate area. The proposed site is in immediate vicinity to the walking path, and due to the terrain is left under-utilised and overgrown.

We are proposing a light-touch intervention which will see the installation of playful natural and living structures, meandering paths and quiet resting places. The installation will be part of a strong environmentally responsible initiative. We will be constructing bird and bat boxes, bug hotels and hedgehog homes to promote local wildlife habitats. There will be wildlife information points to learn a little more about the local wildlife and biodiversity.

Social value and the importance of play spaces

Children in London lack opportunities for free and unguided play. By incorporating a play space along the Parkland Walk, we would create a community space that local children could reach by foot without crossing roads with heavy traffic. We aim to provide the local residents with a natural adventure space that is attractive for young children accompanied by parents and grandparents, as well as creating a place for independent and adventurous play for local children.

The proposal is designed to help promote the Highgate Neighbourhood Plan by increasing greater accessibility to outdoor open space. This promotes improved physical and mental wellbeing and will actively work towards the boroughs aim of reducing social deprivation and exclusion. The pandemic has only further highlighted existing social inequalities and the lack of accessibility to high quality, local and safe outdoor spaces. Many local families and individuals rely on these outdoor areas and it is important that they are within proximity to their homes.

Overall, we are committed to delivering a project which will help enrich and liven the public realm, preserve and enhance local woodland and wildlife and make it a better and more inclusive place to live (and play).