Playground Closed

It's been going on forever; someone buys a piece of ground on which to build a house – or something else – and brings the materials and tools for the building.  At the end of day one he leaves for home, and then returns for day two.  The process continues until the structure is finished.  From time to time people pass by, show an interest or stop to chat, and then move on.  Occasionally a piece of wood or metal which has been discarded as waste will lie nearby, and an informal permission will be obtained for its removal to be used elsewhere.

Before WW1 part of a field in Fleetville was stacked with bricks brought for use in nearby house-building.  A number of children who were swiftly populating the district used the space around those brick piles for informal games of football; maybe even borrowing a few bricks for temporary goal markers.

In the 1930s, married couples in search of a new home wandered the building estates on Sunday afternoons, entered the partly completed homes through spaces which would later become front doorways, and assess the possible suitability for them and their growing family.

Families who had come from London at the end of the Second World War, and whose children had become used to playing on bomb sites, saw the partly finished Fleetville homes as just another playground site; and so we all discovered the joy of exploring, climbing, jumping and leaping, making inventive use of the levels, spaces and materials at hand.  No-one was given permission, but on the other hand, no-one told us not to, or if they had we had  discovered the art of selective hearing!

Open building site at Jersey Farm
COURTESY CHRIS NEGUS

Naturally there were occasions when an accident occurred and a child returned home with a cut knee or even a fractured arm; and there were Monday mornings when the builder called the local police station to report a door missing, or a couple of planks of wood that had been present the previous Friday.  No doubt the police would have advised the builder to lock items away, and almost certainly the retort would have included the phrase, "it's a building site, not an occupied house."  

It probably did not happen quickly, but there began a time when building sites were found with chain link fences around them, and wide gates with padlocks.  Possibly under pressure from insurance companies.  Then signs warning of hard hat regulations.  More recently one or more people  on site did no building at all; this was the security department; no-one passed in or out except via security and their signature forms and walkie-talkies.  All very efficient, but children's adventure was denied.

Marketing panels in Sutton Road.

But have you noticed?  Many building sites have become artistic marketing devices for what is being constructed, whether for apartments, offices or shopping opportunities.  The old-fashioned chain link fences are now replaced by solid – and often higher – panels with colourful designs, pictures or sales advertisements.

Night watchman.
COURTESY TOTTENHAM-SUMMERHILLROAD.COM

Everyone is shut out; safe and healthy has become health and safety.  Even the old-fashioned night watchman and his hut and brazier has disappeared.  Youngsters out in the early summer evenings, or walking back from friends or events might have stopped to talk to him.  But there are now far fewer of us who remember such transitory individuals occupying our neighbourhood.  Every building site is now most definitely a no-go zone.