Introduction: “Letting off steam”

Children are naturally energetic, noisy, playful, boisterous and therefore exhausting to adults. If they cannot explore and expand their horizons, their progress into the wider world will be constrained by insufficient ‘free play’, making it more difficult for them to weigh up risks and cope with unknown dangers. Schools in deprived urban neighbourhoods cannot provide the space or resources or time that children need. Therefore, children and young people in confined urban areas need public open spaces where they can play, discover and develop their informal social skills. This chapter examines the families’ experience of the outdoors, parks, play and sport facilities. It explains the problems of too little space and too costly facilities. The issue of the 2012 Olympics that are sited within the East London neighbourhoods raises many relevant issues for parents in these areas.

‘Letting off steam’ was a phrase commonly used among the families to reflect the pressure that builds up inside children to release pent-up energy. The home is obviously the starting point, but most families we visited live in small, sometimes crowded homes and nearly half have no direct access to a garden or open space. Therefore, parks, play areas, clubs, community centres, leisure and sports facilities and swimming pools all become extremely important.

Families had little money to spare; most did not have a car and very few went away on holidays. So they were more dependent on their local area and cheap or free local provision than the average family. They needed open but supervised outdoor space, safe streets and indoor facilities. Yet the local environment militated against parents letting their children out to play or to the local park without an adult – it seemed too risky or too far away. Parents therefore struggled to give their children the freedom they wanted, or to pay for the activities they dreamt of, or to join things that might help.