Play Space, North Kensington 1967-1969 - Adam Ritchie

Play Space, North Kensington 1967-1969 - Adam Ritchie / 36 pages, 5.5 x 8 inches, staple-bound, published by Cafe Royal Books *** The photographer says: In the summers of 1967-69, because the kids in overcrowded and badly housed North Kensington had 1/10th of the play space of the kids in rich South Kensington, a group of local people opened 12 temporary playgrounds in the north where the need was critical. It was sometimes so critical that people just cut the fence into private, unused Powis Square and claimed it for play space, until the Council finally bought it and it was opened properly. Six bays under the just built Westway motorway made a variety of play spaces, with donated scaffolding and paper and paints and the odd net. A very able, helpful nun was one of the stars there. We got 200 students to come and help run some of the playgrounds and they, along with local people, did a great job. We used temporarily empty land, made play streets and we used the bays under the Westway elevated motorway. We even got a couple of streets made into “play streets”, where traffic was prohibited. A long derelict Council site in Oxford Gardens was used, where the amazing dancing mayor opened the play space. In the end we got the 23 acres one mile long space under the elevated Westway motorway (now run by Westway Trust) dedicated to facilities for the local community, instead of a car park.