The first playgrounds: extreme, which modern children never dreamed of

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

To remove children "from the streets" - a striving that is understandable for modern times - prompted the creation of first playgrounds … But you wouldn't want to ride your child on a swing like this. O security in those years no one thought about it.

There were no playgrounds in the public space of the 19th century city. Attempts to equip them were unsuccessful. So, in the 1850s. Central Park in New York approved a plan to set aside a special area for children's leisure, but in practice this implementation has become limited. Only on certain days, and only boys, were allowed to play in the park, which, moreover, did not yet have any special equipment or a swing.

The idea of creating an equipped and delimited play area originated in Germany in 1885. The playgrounds were large sandboxes, where special staff looked after the children. From Germany, the idea migrated to Boston, thanks to the German woman M. Zakrzhevskaya. Over the years, Boston's Sandparks have become the city's most visited sites, offering a wider variety of activities than Germany's. In Russia, the first site was organized in 1884 in St. Petersburg. Within 10 years, there were more than 100 equipped recreation areas for children in the country.

The emergence and very rapid spread of playgrounds was dictated by the desire to protect children from street dangers and to develop in them physical health, good habits, and socialization skills. Finally, for the sake of simply having a pleasant and interesting time with your family. Organizations and committees were formed around the development of special children's territories, which raised pressing issues of children's rights, introduced the revision and improvement of working conditions for children in factories.

At the beginning of the 20th century, behavior on playgrounds was not free and provided for an organized, educational game, including theatrical performances, parades.

Very soon, commercial structures are entering this area, developing various models and concepts for amusement parks. Designed by Charles Winstead for one of Britain's parks, a favorite family vacation spot at the time, the unreliable design of the first swing did not stop those who want to ride. At the beginning of the twentieth century, most swings were made of wood, a fragile material that wears out quickly. The children were swinging on long ropes without a seating surface. There was also no floor covering to cushion the impact of a fall. The first standardized playgrounds that meet safety criteria appear only in the 1970s and 1980s. In the modern world, attitudes towards raising children are changing rapidly, as evidenced by provocative project "Honest Body".