Equipment by Henderson, Berliner Seilfabrik
Surface: rubber.
I was a little let down by this one, but that might be my own fault.
It’s possible that my expectations were artificially raised by the high level of wistfulness that the park’s name implies. I’m not sure if I expected there to be an actual wishing well, but I thought we might find a fountain where we could toss our spare change while making secret wishes to the playground gods.
Alas, no such luck. The wistfulness level was average-to-low. Unless you find the ambient noise of a 401 off-ramp to be wistful.
Actually I’m being a bit harsh. Considering that it is right next to the 401, it’s not a bad park at all. There are some lovely big trees around the perimeter, several baseball diamonds, ample parking, and a nice amount of open space.
The playground itself is nicely shaded, and the equipment isn’t bad either. Two small climbers, a net climber that manufacturing company Berliner Seilfabrik calls a “UFO,” and a fun teeter totter that appears to be part abacus – with three rubber spheres that can be moved back and forth to change the weight of either side ever so slightly. Some permanent picnic tables with built-in shades also feature on the edge of the play area.
The park’s main focus seems to be baseball; one of the diamonds had pretty ample seating, and I imagine a lot of organized ball gets played here in the summer. The tennis courts aren’t public unfortunately, but nearby Roywood Park has you covered if you’re looking to break out the racquets.
It turns out, by the way, that the park’s name has nothing to do with the park itself but with the surrounding neighbourhood, which is known as Wishing Well Acres. It was named after the farm that used to stand here; farmer Christopher Thomson tried unsuccessfully to find a suitable place for a well on the land for years. When he finally struck water he named the farm “Wishing Well Farm.”
Given that backstory, I’d think a water feature would be cool at this playground, but no such luck. We’ll just have to keep wishing.