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| 1922 |
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| 1922 |
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| 1922 |
The
Daily Mail and
BBC have published these fascinating vintage photos (copyright Geoff Robinson) of a slide installed in Wicksteed Park, Kettering, Northamptonshire in 1922. They are wonderful historical images, but are NOT the world's first children's slides.
The journalists and their play historian might want to take a look at the
rooftop playground slide in New York in 1900, or the young T
sarevich's slide at Tsarskoe Seloe (1910), or the forty-five foot long waxed wooden slide at the
Smith Memorial Playground in Philadelphia which was installed in 1904 (renovated and reopened in 2005), or the c.
1905 Coney Island Slide. They might even perhaps have consulted
Playground Technique and Playcraft (original copyright 1909, googlebooks has fulltext of the second, 1913 edition), which gives full instructions for constructing your own, metal (not planks of wood, like at Wicksteed...ooh the splinters!) playground slide.
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| 1900 |
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| 1910 |
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| 1909, 1913 |
The notion that
Wicksteed made the first playground slide is just one of many inaccuracies in the wikipedia articles related to play and playgrounds. I've been hoping for some time to have a chance to address these, but can't seem to get to it...if you'd like to help save the world from more bad playground history by providing some wiki editing get in touch!
(Thanks to reader Michael for the alert on this!)
Hello! I've admired your blog for a long time and so have been meaning to get in touch - this seems like a good time. Yes, I completely agree that the media's treatment of my Wicksteed research has been rather gung ho today! My feeling is that Charles Wicksteed was instrumental in pushing slides from ad hoc, bespoke items to off-the-peg catalogue items, but that slides of course existed before then. Thanks very much for sharing your lovely examples. Do take a look at my site - www.outdoorchildren.co.uk. Perhaps we could collaborate some time, perhaps when I'm covering something that you disapprove of less?!
ReplyDeletebest wishes
Linden Groves
I can't speak particularly to Wicksteed's influence in the UK but in the US the Fun-ful company was showing far more elaborate examples of slides in their 1925 catalog, which you can find at the Smithsonian (excerpts are on the blog). Certainly the media overhypes these things, but pre-1922 slide examples are readily available from even a cursory google search.
ReplyDeleteLike outdoorchildren comment, I have been a fan of this blog too and love the interesting facts and playgrounds you post. I am a landscape architect with a particular interest in playgrounds, particularly teenage play spaces so if you find anything on them, Id love to see them. Once again keep up the good work, Deirdre Prince
ReplyDeleteIt is just your luck Deirdre, that I was even now preparing a teen-related post! Thanks for your interest in that aspect of play design, as I hope to post more in that arena in the future. Do let me know of anything you find that might be of interest.
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