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Previous: American Airlines map legend | Main | Next: Copenhagen hotel sign
October 31, 2004 02:04 AM
Broken: (Rerun) Playground design
Mark Foley writes from London:
These photographs were taken on a walk in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe in London.This is one of those things were you figure at least, say, five people must have been involved in the decision, and no-one at any point seemed to think it was a bad idea.
Perhaps it's deliberate - so that parents can say, "If you don't place nice, now, you know what's going to happen..."
[From our October 2003 archives, one of our most popular posts ever.. I thought it would be fun to post it again on Halloween. -mh]
Actually a good idea. When the kids kill themselves you can dispose of 'em quick before the lawyers find out and take you to court...
Yeah this is ingenious. I love this concept...don't slide down the slide too fast or u'll disturb the dead and smack ur face in a granite grave stone
Really I don't see anything wrong with with putting a playground next to an old graveyard. Admittedly some of the new graves are a bit close and might get bumped into.
I recall Orwell has somewhere in his diaries of children playing in the crypt of St Martin's-in-the-Fields (in Trafalgar Square) during the blitz-- though he did not approve either, the squeamish old toff.
You want to talk creepy? There's a cafeteria style restaurant/coffee house in London in the basement of an old church where your tables are on top of markers in teh floor for the buried dead.
Cappucino and a corpse?
I live near a really lovely cemetery, which was designed by Frederick Olmsted (of Central Park and Golden Gate Park fame) A couple doors down from its entrance is a nursery school. The kids get to go into the cemetery and walk around. Creepy? Yes, I thought so at first. But 1) it really is a lovely space and 2) maybe the creepiness is in our heads, not in the cemetery or tombstones. We're pretty bad at dealing with death as a culture, I think...
A playground near a grave, now thats something. If you noticed the the pics I don't think kids play there, the playground looks fairly new still.
Todd
Gravestones on a playground are weird, admittedly, but even weirder to me is the fact that the slide is on asphalt...can anyone say roadburn? Ouch!
Yes I see the mat, doesn't look big enough to me! Those brits are different, and that's all I'm gonna say....
Perhaps it's deliberate - so that parents can say, "If you don't place nice, now, you know what's going to happen..."
Place nice? Am I that dis-sober or do you mean Play? :)
While I understand Mr. Foley being confused and creeped out. I think the slide is there to keep children occupied while someone is visiting a lost loved one. Of course, the children may wind up one of the lost loved ones if not careful!
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Previous: American Airlines map legend | Main | Next: Copenhagen hotel sign
I dig it!
Posted by: Grimaldi D'Reaper at November 1, 2004 01:33 AM