TRIANGLE ringing for success

Triangle Adventure Playground in London will next year celebrate its 70th anniversary. The historic site, which uses the power of inclusive adventure play to grow self confidence, plays a unique role in the heart of the community it serves

ounded in 1957 by Marjorie Porter, The Triangle is considered London’s oldest adventure playground still located on its original site. Based in Oval, South London, it has provided 69 years of play to generations of London children. Since its very beginning, the playground has been in the heart of the community – some of the children who have attended in 2026 have parents and grandparents who also played at Triangle. The site is owned by Lambeth Council and is operated by a registered charity, The Triangle Adventure Playground Association.

An open access adventure playground catering mainly for children aged between six and 17, The Triangle follows a child-led ethos of play. This is guided by “Three Frees” – the belief that all children are free to attend, free to come and go and free to choose their play.

Last year, 831 individual children made a total of 16,265 visits to The Triangle. Of those, more than 80% declare free school meals and/or family declare income support – and 84% are of a “global majority background” (people from ethnic minority backgrounds). In addition, 15% declare SEND.

Space for play

The site offers an extensive range of activities to cover all sixteen recognised play types and differing interests for different ages. There is a large platform, tango and tyre swings, a zipline and aerial walkway, as well as basketball, badminton and football at a neighbouring MUGA – enabled by a short-term licence from Duchy of Cornwall, who owns the adjoining site. There are also construction projects, cycling & bike maintenance, skateboarding and rollerskating on a half pipe, group chase games, cooking in a kitchen and on fire, bushcraft, tree climbing, extensive arts and crafts, sensory play and role play imagination games. In addition, the Triangle Nature Club offers environmental play, music and dance, pool and table tennis.

Sporting, creative and cultural trips and specialist arts workshops are offered throughout the year, enhancing new opportunities. Free hot lunches are provided during holidays, snacks and fruit in after school sessions. The Triangle also supports young adults/ex Triangle attendees into employment via a volunteer to playworker graduate scheme.

PlayNation spoke to Alan Sutton, Chair of Triangle Adventure Playground Association about the success of the site.

What makes Triangle a special place? What is its USP? The Triangle has a unique place in the history of London (and the UK play movement, dating back to the 1950s). It is special for many reasons. These include our dedication to free high quality adventure play, a consistent and holistic approach to supporting young people (often for up to 10 years of their lives) and our experienced and skilled playworker team that is relatable – not least because it includes five former “Triangle kids”. Another USP is our amazing range of structures, activities and opportunities.

There are other aspects too, which make us unique, such as our ability to bring together the incredibly diverse Oval community and our green and nature filled playground, which is home to wild fruit trees and a thriving biodiverse ecosystem of insects and urban animals. Also, the lack of indoor central heating means a different approach – children have to either stay active or build a fire!

Since its very beginning, the playground has been in the heart of the community

The modern day Triangle’s success is led by Jonathan Choo and Gabriel Green. The foundation for this success comes from the incredible work of Jim Clancy, who was Chair of Triangle for 30 years.

How do you work with the local community? What programmes do you run? The Triangle is at the heart of the Oval, Vauxhall and Kennington community. Providing 190 after school sessions, 55 holiday sessions, 38 lunchtime visiting school sessions and 16 youth club sessions. In total, we provide 859 hours of exciting and engaging adventure play each year. Each session is led by one senior playworker supported by four seasonal playworkers.

People

Our after school sessions (Monday to Friday, 3.30-6.30pm) average 50+ children per session.

Our holiday sessions (Monday to Friday 12pm to 6pm) offer hot free lunches – we provide around 2,200 meals per year – as well as special holiday play and trips like Camping Week and Seaside community day out.

Our lunchtime school sessions (weekly 1.30pm - 2.30pm term-time) provide 1 hour of play for primary schools as part of their PSHE curriculum. Our Youth Club sessions (16 x Friday evenings in Spring/Summer 6.30pm - 8.30pm) were founded in response to the requests of young people aged 11+ who wanted Triangle time without younger children. A great chance to develop life skills and bond over a shared cooked meal.

We are an active promoter of adventure play through our partnerships and connections with local schools, even advising one school on how to improve their playground through loose parts and traditional adventure play activities. We retain close ties with London Play and the Adventure Playground Network as well as a member of the North Lambeth Youth Consortium.

What are your future plans for the playground? Post-COVID-19 we have made great progress in refreshing our site through a series of capital works, new structures, landscaping projects and a new kitchen in our on-site hut. We hope that when the Duchy of Cornwall finalises its plans for the adjacent residential development we get some extra space to play ball games, as our site is small for an adventure playground.

Regarding our service, we aim to continue delivering our full range of play sessions and potentially expand to Saturdays too. We hope to celebrate our 70th anniversary in 2027 with a heritage project event, which engages and connects our current Triangle generation with those from the 1950s to 2000s through a shared oral history project and exhibition at Lambeth Archives.

THE TRIANGLE Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/triangle_adventure_playground/](https://www.instagram.com/triangle_adventure_playground/) Donate page: [https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/10232#!/DonationDetails](https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/10232) Website: [https://www.triangleadventureplayground.com/](https://www.triangleadventureplayground.com/)

How do you fund all your operations? It costs us 225,000 each year to run our service. Our Deputy Senior Playworker combines their role with fundraising duties three to four days a week. Our income comes primarily from grants obtained via applications to trusts and foundations, private and statutory bodies. We receive no statutory funding but have successfully applied to Lambeth/Dfe HAF programme to support our provision of meals over recent years.

Supplementing the grants are donations from our local community, including a core regular 80-100 donors who donate c. 20,000 per year. Community events, such as our recent Polling Day Cake Sale, also contribute. We encourage and have had fruitful corporate partnership in the past and actively seek ways to diversify our income.

How much do you think play has increased its profile in the “corridors of power” – ie. government level, in the past couple of years? From 2007 to 2010 we saw National Lottery funding and government money being invested in play improvements, spearheaded by ministers Chris Smith and Ed Balls. Play England was created, every English District Council produced a play policy and 25 new Adventure Playgrounds were created. All was lost after the 2010 general election. This could easily be recreated.

We hope to celebrate our 70th anniversary in 2027 with a heritage project event

While the recent play commission report (2025) was a step in the right direction, it was disappointing to see not much acknowledgment and reference in the report to the impact and power of adventure playgrounds.

How important do you think the APPG, the forthcoming National Play Conference and the drive to make play statutory in England’s Key Stage 1 Curriculum are in delivering the positive message that play is crucial and needs investment? These are all important, as is proper enforcement of planning regulations to ensure adequate play facilities in all new developments. On National Government level, a strong play champion is crucial.

On a local level, councillors must differentiate between play and antisocial behaviour as too often they are wrongly conflated.