Claremont Park Playground: A history and nature-inspired playground set within a new urban parkland

Claremont Park Playground sits at the heart of the newly completed Claremont Park - the first of seven parks within the Brent Cross Town masterplan, jointly delivered by Related Argent and Barnet Council. Designed as a gateway experience in the early stages of the neighbourhood’s regeneration, the park introduces over 300 new trees, nature trails, water features, and a community-run kiosk alongside its imaginative play space. Our design for the playground is woven into this emerging green infrastructure, drawing from the woodland character of the site and responding to its broader role as a public destination. Dual-purpose play and social areas are carefully embedded in the landscape to encourage both energetic activity and quieter communal moments. A gnarly climbing structure, netted canopies, and leafy timber shingle forms are placed among mature oak trees, enabling children to experience shadow play and a closer connection to nature. The design supports physical, sensory, natural, and cooperative play - offering a layered and inclusive environment that grows with the needs of its users and reinforces the social vision behind the wider public realm.

The design concept for the playground draws directly from the natural and industrial history of the River Brent, which once meandered through forested banks before feeding reservoirs and the canal system. This layered history is reimagined through a series of sculptural play interventions - a water play area with rippling topography and natural boulders evokes a slipway, while a bouldering wall suggests the edge of a dam. The Flotsam Play Towers - a bespoke hardwood timber structure with irregular geometry and shimmering stainless steel shingles - rises from an imagined reservoir, offering immersive, exploratory play. This narrative-driven approach invites children to move between worlds - natural, industrial, and imaginary - through physically engaging and sensorially rich elements. Water channels and spillways tumble down colourful slopes, inviting children to scramble, splash, and invent games. These experiences reflect broader design principles for the park - inclusivity, sociability, connectivity, and activity - resulting in a play environment that feels both grounded in its local context and expressive in form. As a result, Claremont Park Playground contributes not only to the landscape’s ecological regeneration but also to the cultural and communal fabric of Brent Cross Town.