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The Princess Diana Memorial Playground was a quarter of a century old, with over one million visitors per year when the Royal Parks decided to renovate. Price & Myers was asked to provide Civil Engineering services to update the playground and safeguard it for future generations. The Royal Parks wanted to keep the striking characteristics of the old Peter Pan-themed playground, whilst refreshing and modernising both the play area and facilities, with new accessibility and sustainability measures. The iconic pirate ship from the original site was replaced with a brand new 17-metre by 12-metre Galleon. Timber from the old boat was reused in a new seating area, and the new galleon was created with timber from sustainably managed European forests. |
Accessibility was key to the renovation. The new Galleon was made wheelchair accessible by installing a new timber ramp to the deck, and an accessible lower deck, ensuring the playground was fit for use by both children and their parents. Site levels and surfacing across the playground was reviewed and updated to ensure all visitors could enjoy the new facilities.
The previous playground had faced repeated flooding during heavy rainstorms. Price & Myers designed a new sustainable surface water drainage system, involving hundreds of metres of new pipework, gulleys and new soakaways, allowing significant volumes of rainwater to drain to ground instead of ponding in the playground.
Surfaces and levels were redesigned from the ground up to positively drain rainfall to this new drainage system, or to the abundant new soft landscaping areas across the playground.
The playground also includes a new centrepiece water feature, incorporating pumps, dams and channels, which allows children to interact with the water and see drainage in action!
