AT HOME
CALVERLEY ADVENTURE GROUNDS
Kensington Gardens, which I designed and
oversaw. That led to a lot of involvement
in high-profile design projects, such as the
adventure playground called Tumbling
Bay in the Olympic Park in Stratford, East
London.
How big was the team working on the
project?
For the fundraising and sketching part it
was just me as a volunteer, but then when
we were doing the contract drawings
we went up to three people for a while,
and then it went back down to just me
to oversee it. We also had a wider design
team in, including cost consultants, such
as Huntley Cartwright . Ian Jup, who we
work with regularly, also happens to live
in Tunbridge Wells, and he produced an
initial sketch scheme and cost plan for free.
Ian and I both then worked together
on paid fees. Our wider client was the
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, which
allowed us to build on its land. We had a
committee process and met monthly to
update them in terms of our progress.
What was your favourite aspect of
the project?
It was bringing the community together.
So many people have been involved in so
many different ways. Everyone thought we
were completely crazy - literally a group
of five mums were going to raise £225,000
to build this scheme - but we did it, and
I think it just shows that if you really
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Landscape Insight | April 2018
pull together you really can make things
happen.
I have never really worked on a project
which has really brought the town
together, and it was such a good news story
rather than the opposite, which is ‘council
says no to playground’. It’s such a delight
to walk past the old bowling green and
hear the squeals of delight, you can’t see it
straight away when you enter the park but
you can hear the kids having fun. So I feel
that the project has does its job, since the
park was crying out for a proper play area.
In terms of the actual design where
did you draw your inspiration from?
We were really keen for the playground to
speak of the local area - that was absolutely
fundamental. It is a historic park so we
knew we had to be very sensitive to its
setting and its location, so the first thing I
did was visit the local archive centre in the
town and look at some of the historic plans
for the park and the local area.
Running through the park used to be
a stream that led to a formal lake, and
that has all since been cultivated and lost.
There has always been a strong voice
from the community that water should
be brought back to the town, as it was
originally a spa town. The central element
of the project is this serpentine stream - it’s
not a real stream, it’s a sand pit that snakes
its way through the centre. We added water
play features within the sandpit, and there
are a series of water tables that adds to the
theme of water. That sandpit is backed by
sensory herbaceous planting, which is all
in blues and purples and grasses which
give off the feeling of being near water.
The area above that is designed for
younger children, and it was about the
early beginnings of the town that grew
up around the spa. On top of that there
are agricultural themes as well, since
we are based in the garden of Kent and
are surrounded by ancient orchards in
Tunbridge Wells. There is a grid of eating
apples within the playground, plus a
tractor and trailer to give it some more
context. We also have some beautifully
carved oak sheet made for us by a sculptor
I work with regularly.
Within the area below the sandpit are
outcrops of sandstone. We went to a local
sandstone quarry, which is our local rock,
to create scuttled mounds to give that
feeling of the geology of the area. We have
some interpretation boards on how the
design relates to the history, and some
illustrations and historic plans so that
people understand what inspired us to
come up the scheme.
I wanted it to be a unique site, since
I don’t design ubiquitous playgrounds.
The worst playgrounds are a collection of
catalogue items stuck in a square, that is
not a play area in my mind. The landscape
is far more important than the playground
equipment, and if you can afford to add
equipment, that’s the luxury. What you
first need to develop is a really exciting