ABSTRACT
Somerville Adventure Playground has always been a place where both black and white youngsters play. The Somerville Adventure Playground is used by large numbers of young people; the youngest being of pre-school age; the oldest a couple of twenty-year-olds; but the vast majority of users are of school age. The playground has always attracted and been used by both black and white children. The ratio of black to white young people has fluctuated greatly over the years, and does not appear to bear any relationship to the colour of the workers. The ability and the desire of most black children to use another language, patois or creole on occasion, in preference to the ‘standard cockney’ otherwise in use, is another factor making for separation. An interesting spin-off of the use of patois by the black children, however, is the increasing use on the part of white children of several of the language’s phrases, words and expressions.
