When playtime wasn't ruled by 'elf and safety: Photographs show how children had fun before the inspectors took over


No helmets, no safety rails, no child-friendly synthetic surfaces — little sign of an adult (with or without a fluorescent bib and a first aid kit). Yet, none of these scenes ended in disaster.

They were just part of growing up in the days when a stubbed toe or a cracked tooth was a fact of life, not an excuse to call the nearest no-win/no-fee ambulance-chasing lawyer.

These delightful images were all captured in the days before the health and safety industry took root, in an age when childhood disease or war represented more pressing threats to a child’s prospects than a game of conkers.

Yesterday’s Mail included an extraordinary photograph of one of Britain’s earliest playgrounds — in Northamptonshire — complete with two precarious, open-sided slides built in 1922.



Whizz kids: Grazed knees are no problem as these East London lads get their skates on for a kick-about

Ups and downs: Even the dog gets a go on this see-saw

The swing's the thing: Fifteen children enjoy a ride in London's Bloomsbury

All aboard: The magic appeal of a 'witch's hat' roundabout in London's Regent's Park

Keep your guard up: There was no kid-glove treatment for London's working class boys

But as we see from these pictures of British life, mostly taken in the Thirties, such scenes were not unusual. The idea of a playground was for children to ‘play’. Take, for example, the pre-war picture of the children clinging to the swinging horse at a newly-opened playground in Bloomsbury, London, in 1936.

One girl has been lifted off the ground by the momentum of the thing. Did they all end up in A&E? Or were they just having a ball and showing off for the camera?

We see tiny little things perched on climbing frames or dangling from bars. A crowd has gathered on the playground to watch two boys getting stuck into a boxing match.

But aside from the odd sticking plaster or bandage, there is no sign of injury in these shots.

And just a few years after most of these images were taken, many British children had an entirely new sort of playground to mess around in. It was called a bomb site.

Monkey bar business: This girl from Finchley, North London, shows no fear of being dropped by her two friends as they play in 1954

Ring of confidence: Gyrowheel gymnastics for three North London schoolgirls

In for a spin: Toddlers from the early Fifties giving the roundabout a hefty push to make it go faster

Hanging around: Children in Swansea make the most of this climbing frame in April 1939



