Play in the Park

Being in nature from a young age, exploring, playing and connecting with wildlife and the outdoors can have huge benefits for children and their families.*  

The Play in the Park project offers a free play programme of fun, creative activities and events inspired by the Royal Parks’ wildlife and open spaces. The project is currently focused on Kensington Gardens, The Regent’s Park and Greenwich Park.

We are excited to announce that we have been awarded funding from London Marathon Foundation for Phase ll of the Play in the Park Project running from August 2024 – September 2026.

This time we will be focusing on building relationships with communities from the North Kensington area delivering nature play sessions in Kensington Gardens. For this project we are keen to co-create and devise play sessions in collaboration with community groups to best serve their needs and wants with an understanding that play in nature looks different for everyone. 

Examples of play can be:

• Nature scavenger hunt
• Meadow exploring
• Dress and role play inspired by nature
• Mud kitchen
• Mask making

We will be working with our play partner London Play to continue the legacy of our first Play in the Park project  that focused on the delivery of play sessions in The Regent’s Park and Greenwich Park. 

Get involved

Our Play Officer, Hadeel Elshak, is keen to hear from community groups in the North Kensington area. To find out more and reach out to Hadeel, please email: helshak@royalparks.org.uk.

Revisit this page in the coming months to find out more about the upcoming play events.

Or more widely, if you’d like to visit the Royal Parks with your community group or charity, would like to participate in our programmes, or have an idea for a community project, please contact our Access and Engagement team. 

Explore what we got up to in our first implementation of the Play in the Park project and the impact we made in our Impact Report.  

As set in the Royal Parks’ Play Strategy, we’re constantly improving opportunities for play across the parks. Right now, we’re working on an updated Play Strategy. Watch this space for more information.

Click here to view Our Approach to Play document.