Southwark Council wants to open up the historic children’s playground to allow dogs and unaccompanied adults to share the space. They plan to change the by-laws that govern the space (from playground to public park) and to fence off a small corner for the children’s play equipment. 

The playground was given to the children of Southwark in 1902. This was such an important and exciting event that it was even reported by the New York Times. 

Since this time children have played joyously across the whole site. They have run freely from play equipment to ball games on the grass and back again. There is no other playground with grass in the local area. There is no space that offers play free from the fear of dogs, their excrement or the trappings of the adult world (lunch rubbish and pizza wrappings, drunks on benches, or worse needles and human faeces). 

Our younger kids have been told to stop running on the flower beds in Red Cross Gardens, have been told to leave the football pitch or stop playing by the wall by teenagers and adult tennis players in the Marlborough sports garden, and have been chased by dogs and trodden in human excrement in Mint street.

The majority of children using the playground live in small flats with no outdoors space. Shockingly  42% children leave Southwark primary  schools overweight or obese. With statistics like this it seems unbelievable that the council wants to reduce the space for children to play. 

 
As parents of children at local schools we want to keep Little Dorrit as a space for children to play freely. We urge the council to rethink their plans and use what monies there are to make this space a truly magical playground.