A History of Playspaces

Children's play has existed across every human culture and time period. 1 However, the history of play spaces specially designed for children is relatively short. The idea that children need separate places for their games is a modern notion, virtually unknown before the nineteenth century. Archaeologists struggle to recreate a detailed sense of children's lives in the pre-written past. 2 , 3 Where traces of ancient children's history have been uncovered – such as objects presumed to be toys – there has been no corresponding evidence that children's play was restricted to certain areas. 4 Visual evidence from the medieval period in Europe reinforces this sense that children played anywhere and everywhere. 5 Anthropological studies from non-urbanised communities and pre-twentieth-century societies record the omnipresence of children's play. These children appropriated their own play spaces that were informal, fluid and seasonal, like the nineteenth-century New Zealand youth studied by Brian Sutton-Smith. 6