Luxton Fairgrounds Playground- Metchosin

At some point, the playground at Luxton Fairgrounds must have been funky, modern and exciting but after visiting it today the question lingering in my mind was 'at what point exactly was that'?

1980? I doubt it.
1970? Perhaps. I need to buff up on my 'playgrounds through the ages' before I can date this accurately but needless to say, it's not just old, it's a bit of a wreck. We approached the fairgrounds from behind, parking right beside the playground fence on Penwood Road.

I almost feel like I should take a strong drink before attempting this review... I don't even know where to begin. Should I start with the weird tree-house-things with missing planks, the swing/seesaw-combo-thingy or the bendy ladder with tunnels halfway up? I know, I'll start with 'A', who insisted on going in there for a play. His dad actually tried to put him off by telling him that really big beetles lived in the playground but for some reason his need for a play trumped his strange fear of the beetles and off we went.



Okay...deep breath...here goes. The playground features three high, (danger danger- decrepit..honestly) tree house style constructions- sort of wooden boxes on poles, two of which have no obvious way of getting up (or what exactly they are for if you did get up). The third of these (see top photo)has a ladder up and a high wobbly metal slide down. It's a high slide and the metal looks about as beaten as a steel drum band's reject.



The second piece is a climbing ladder that rises in two upward bends before leading to a shorter metal slide down. The ladder has two metal tunnels for it's climbers to crawl through, each tunnel balanced on thin stilt-like legs.



The third piece is a rather odd swing, seesaw combo. For the record- and to try to remain fair in listing equipment- it has three big kid swings and three thin metal seesaws. The strange thing about this is that the seesaws are placed between the swings. At first glance the whole playground appears to be on grass but on closer examination I think it was once on gravel and that grass has just grown through over the decades. There is a missing swing and a few graffiti tags but honestly, that's the least of this playgrounds worries. Our little 'A' approached each item excitedly and then, after getting close he backed away and looked for something else to play with.

If you read this blog you will know that I am of the opinion that any playground is better than no playground but in this case I am not sure. If you read this blog you will know that on occasion (like often) I like to jump on the apparatus and give it a whirl but frankly, I didn't want to touch anything at this playground because it looks like it might collapse at any given moment and anyway, I think I am due a tetanus booster. Anyway....it could be worse.

The astounding thing about this all was that the first time we visited this playground we couldn't get any photos because there were a bunch of children playing. So perhaps it's just me- maybe I have simply crossed onto the other side of the fence in the whole 'we survived that kind of playground in out youth' argument, who knows- so I will wind this up where I started, with little 'A'.

'A' didn't get his play because he wouldn't touch one single plaything, which I guess is a measuring stick of sorts, though as we drove off my husband told me that that could have been because he saw an ant.