ABSTRACT
The notion of setting aside outdoor spaces for children to use for play and to furnish it with devices to support the play is a relatively new idea in the development of our civilisation. While people have been making swings, seesaws and may poles for centuries - it was only in the 19th century that western society undertook to set up public play yards for children. Provision of public play facilities was part of The Reform Movement- an attempt to improve the living conditions of workers in the rapidly growing and very polluted industrial cities of the 1800s. General health and living conditions were so poor that the average body size of the 19th century urban dweller was less than that of persons living in the Middle ages. Play provision for children was one of a set of new measures supported by public funds and charities following the passage of legislation against children's labour and the requirement for mandatory basic education for all children.
