Equipment by Henderson.
Surface: rubber.
We visited Roywood Park on the kind of beautiful, clear fall day that could make any playground seem better than it is. The temperature was perfect, and the radiant autumn colours gave the whole scene a sparkling frame.
Roywood Park appears at first to be a pretty big space, but sandwiched as it is between three different schools, a lot of fencing actually subdivides the space, and the “public” section isn’t quite as big as it first appears.
Still, it offers plenty of amenities, including a soccer field, basketball nets, and four tennis courts which sit just beside the playground (and from which more than a couple of errant tennis balls came raining down while we were there).
The playground was re-done in 2021, and offers most of the basics you’d hope for in climbing equipment. The senior structure has a variety of climbing challenges, while the junior one features a “pet store” similar to the one we saw a few weeks ago at Sweeney Park not too far away. A few stand-alone pieces – a rocking dog, four-seat see-saw, a bowl spinner, swings – round out the equipment. It’s not phenomenally exciting, but it’s new and will satisfy most kids. The two-toned rubber flooring also made for a good few rounds of “the floor is lava.”
No sand equipment or water play is too bad, but there are some nice spots to sit beneath some pine trees. We sat there, enjoying our Tim Hortons picnic and the wonderful weather. I watched people filing into one of the schools which had been turned into an election site, and casually wondered whether this area’s local councillor had done a lot to get this park re-done.
Then a kid ran by and stepped on our potato wedges and didn’t offer an apology. I briefly contemplated throwing him into the lava, but it was such a nice day I couldn’t bring myself to do it.