Wark Common Playground- Quadra Village, Victoria

Wark Commons is a tiny little piece of land at Kings Ave and Wark St, that has obviously been built and maintained with love. With a wrought iron sign and gardens around the edges, half of the common is taken up with a playground, the rest made up of grass and trees.

For a small playground, the climbing structure is surprisingly big. It is in two main parts linked by a climbing bridge and features wooden ramps, a tunnel, a couple of towers, a variety of things to climb up and a plastic curly slide. Separate from the climbing frame there is a single swing combo- one toddler, one big kid and the whole lot is on a sand base. This is obviously a playground with local regulars and on a sunny afternoon you'll find a few sunbathers lounging on the grass.

There are not any other facilities here but because the playground is smack dab in the middle of Quadra Village it's easy to park, find washrooms and if you need a pick me up you can go next door to Cafe Fantastico where you'll find debatably the finest coffee in town.

Central Park Playground

Central park is located on Vancouver Street tucked behind the Crystal Pool. We are lucky enough to have this playground really near to our house and so we know it well.

With a woodchip base, there are two sides to cater to the little and big kids. Speaking of big, I think that this playground might get the prize for the highest metal slide in the city. A four year old friend that recently visited the park for the first time with us almost swooned when he saw how high it was. It usually takes kids a while to work out which way they will get up to the high slide as there are not steps up but a choice of climbing wall, a sort of curved ladder or parallel bars.

On the little kids side there are fun steps, lots of things to climb on including a climbing rope wall and a toddler version of the climbing wall. There are three little kid plastic slides, one with a curve and two small straight ones next to each other. There are two baby/toddler swings and two big kid swings.

There are also a few extra 'things'- no idea what they are called, such as the circle shown in the photo. It spins around like a roundabout but I have never really seen anyone figure out how to really enjoy it because frankly, it's not easy to use. I know that the one time I really got it going I ended up covered in woodchips on the ground. Good job I like woodchips.

Central Park is pretty well kept and there is always a lot going on there between the sports field and courts. There are a few of the extra rides that have disappeared recently- not sure where or why. The playground loses points because there are no public washrooms nearby and the Crystal Pool people don't like you to use theirs.