Equipment by Little Tikes.
Surface: rubber.
As our total number of Toronto playgrounds visited crept higher this summer, I wondered if we should visit someplace extra special for number 150.
I mean, 150 still represents a pretty small portion of the total number of playgrounds to be found in the city – probably no more than 20% – but it felt like a milestone worth marking, especially with the summer winding down, and the stresses of back to school (whatever that’s going to look like) looming around the corner.
Fundy Bay Park seemed like the perfect candidate. For starters, it’s in Scarborough. This had been our Summer of Scarborough; our first summer since buying a car suddenly meant that the city’s eastern reaches felt closer than ever. Plus, the equipment was new in 2019, as was the small-but-smooth skate park, which I knew my kids would love. I’d seen some pictures, and it looked promising.
The skate park is indeed a good one, featuring gentle slopes and beginner-friendly elements very similar to the skate park at Stanley Greene. My son had a nasty spill at one point, but the surface was so smooth that his elbow didn’t even bleed; it was more like a mild rug burn.
The central structure in the playground is pretty impressive. Tall, with two good long slides, and no fewer than seven ladders to choose from when getting to the top. And if ladders aren’t your kid’s thing, there’s a spiral staircase inside the climber – something I’ve never seen before – with a few hands-on play panels at various points on the way up. There’s even a hidden set of monkey bars under one of the slides.
The rest of the equipment is less interesting. A small junior climber, a couple of ride-on things, swings with chains too short to be interesting. We soon found a bit more excitement climbing the nearby trees.
But after a while, I found myself noticing a lot of things that were absent: a sandbox, washrooms, any kind of water play…even a place to fill a water bottle. (Although if you were really craving water, a trip to nearby Kidstown would do it.)
One or two more elements would push Fundy Park into hidden gem status, but as it is, this is a perfectly decent, top-of-the-bell-curve playground. In fact, its score of 80 puts it, I think almost exactly in the middle of the pack on our list.
And in the end, that kind of did make it the perfect candidate for our 150th Toronto playground. Nothing super special, but with things that make it special anyway. The skate park. The hidden monkey bars. The trees.
Here’s looking forward to the next 150.