Equipment by Henderson.
Surfaces: wood chips, sand.
Heading towards Queen Street on the 64 bus with my daughter recently, this charming little school playground caught my eye. We were on our way to a music class but on pace to be extremely early, so we jumped up and hopped off to check it out.
The front playground was the one I’d seen, and it was like something out of a postcard. A classic wooden Henderson structure, it’s made to resemble a barn on one side, with a peaked roofline and an entrance made to look like a silo. The theming doesn’t extend beyond that, which is too bad, but the setting was just perfect.
With the 100-year-old red-brick school watching over us as we played beneath the shade of one of the most magnificent trees I’ve seen in a long while, it really was quite beautiful. Once the leaves start changing colour it'll be even better. (Side note: my growing love for autumn colours has forced me to admit that in some ways I am becoming my parents.)
Hoping the small structure wasn’t the only playground on site, we peeked around back, and sure enough there was some more equipment there, too. Nothing too spectacular, but the orange tube slide, metal climbers, and small geodesic dome-type-thing were enough to keep us engaged before we had to get going.
The school yard includes a large field with a track around it – a neighbourhood kid was doing wobbly laps on it while a proud parent jogged behind – and a few basketball nets.
Not only is it close to the beach, but a bit farther down Williamson Road is an entrance to the beautiful Glen Stewart Ravine, which leads back up to Kingston Road. In fact, I can imagine making a full afternoon of it, starting at the top of the ravine, coming to the school for a play, and then down to Queen for an ice cream at the end of it all.
Nothing too fancy at this playground, but it such a cozy, quiet neighbourhood feel, and was just far enough from the bustle of Queen Street, that its charm was irresistible.