From the Archive: Creating fun, safe, and healthy places for children and young people

What does the world look like through the eyes of a child? From home to the playground, from school to the high street, what are the needs of children and young people in the places they inhabit, and how can we best cater for them?  

The TPCA has a long history of incorporating children into our approach to place-making. Children were first mentioned in the October 1904 edition of our journal by the Association’s Women’s League. The Women’s League outlined the health benefits of children growing up in a Garden City. The Association’s work with children and young people was further expanded in the 1970s through our Education Unit, spearheaded by the anarchist writer Colin Ward. Children and young people remain a key consideration in the TCPA’s work, as demonstrated by our recent Developing Well Conference hosted in partnership with Sports England.  

The role of the child in town planning was the central focus of the October-November 1968 edition of Town and Country Planning.  Sir Frederic Osborn, the editor of the journal at the time, argued that ‘if our cities and towns can be made satisfactory for them, it is certain that they will also be vastly better for the older generations’. The topics of the special issue ranged from Children at Home and Children at Play to children’s cultural facilities and their role in planning and conservation.  

From the Archive: Children and Town Planning  

• The Women’s League from the October 1904 edition of the journal. 

• The TCPA and Environmental Education from the March 1971 edition of the journal.  
• Children and Planning, the October-November 1968 special edition of the journal. 

Desmond Fanning’s article, The Healthy Child, explores how housing standards and the home environment affect children's health, a topic that the TCPA continues to explore through our Healthy Homes Campaign. Meanwhile, W.D. Abernethy’s article, The Importance of Play, details the necessity of play for children’s development and the need for recreational spaces to meet these needs. The collection of essays in Children’s Help in Planning and Conservation highlights the various efforts to give children and young people a voice in planning and conservation, from the Wilshire School’s M4 project to the schoolboy's survey of London’s Royal Park. This is just a sample of the myriads of articles included in this ground-breaking edition of the journal exploring the role of children in placemaking.  

So much of the world around us is planned by and for adults, yet we create better places for people of all ages when we choose to see the world and the places we are making through the eyes of a child.