Sunday, August 30, 2015

Staycation: A trip to Battersea Park

First day trip of the staycation, Teddy and Dan set out via tube and mainline train to Battersea Park, a 200 acre green space in the London Borough of Wandsworth, situated on the south bank of the Thames; which opened in 1858. 

Getting off the train to make our way to the park we noticed the progress being made on taking down the Battersea Power Station, but no flying pigs were spotted... 


...after that we made our way into the park, and walked around the lake a little, spotting a Barbara Hepworth sculpture on our way...



...after a little walk we made it to the kids playground... which has a whole bunch of stuff to do, Teddy enjoyed it all, especially the stuff designed for older kids like this giant swan!...



..there was a fair ground in town, so we took a look around, there was a massive blow up slide, which I'm sure Ted would love, but there's no way we could get him to the top of it...


...we continued our tour of the Park, to stop off at the Peace Pagoda...




...and took a Buddha, Baby, Selfie...


...we continued onwards to the "pleasure gardens", which were created in 1951, as part of the Festival of Britain, Teddy was intrigued and a little freaked out at the giant water fountain, but enjoyed playing by the edge with other kids where the water fountains were high enough to splash you...



...and then back across the park, to the playground again...


... then time to leave, to get back home to see some tall ships sailing by the end of our road on their way to start the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.... Teddy enjoyed waving at the crews as their stood on deck waving to the crowds...




Sunday, August 23, 2015

Sand Castles

We've been trying out sand play in London, there are a few nice sand pits on the Southbank, near the Horniman museum, and a local one in New Cross. 

Teddy likes sand, especially knocking down sandcastles and getting sand between his toes. 
I'm the King of the [sand] Castle!  
The last few weekends of summer are open us, and we have a staycation planned for the end to get a chance to see some of the local things we never seem to have time to check out.

We will keep ya'll posted of our adventures.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Urban Babies Enjoy Brutal Architecture

Taking a leaf out of one of his books, Teddy paid a visit to the Royal Institute of British Architects; and their temporary exhibit: The Brutalist Playground.

Part sculpture, part architectural installation, all play. 


The Brutalist Playground is a new commision by Turner Prize nominees Assemble and artist Simon Terrill, exploring post-war design for play. It takes the now lost playgrounds as a starting point, recreating in 1:1 scale elements of several playgrounds, but instead of concrete and steel they're built out of reconstituted foam, allowing the spaces to be fairly safe place to explore the ideas and materiality of the Brutalists.

So that what was once...



Is now recreated as... 

 

...and we had a lot of fun...