Play Area – South Cliff Gardens

Introduction:

Studio Hardie were pleased to have the opportunity to put forward a proposal for the exciting, yet challenging South Cliff Gardens site, and through play, they aspired to bring to life the garden’s history. Their bespoke craft-based approach, lead to the design and construction of a play area that is unique, relevant, sensitive, and respectful of its surroundings. Most importantly their aim was to create a play area that is fun and accessible for all to experience and enjoy. The site design has limitations in terms of accessibility due to its steep cliffside location, but we here in the South Cliff Team believe the scheme is relevant, challenging and has elements that are accessible to all abilities, ages, and levels of mobility.

The Brief:

To create an inspiring play space that will please, excite, challenge, and stimulate our children’s imaginations, both for their own self-development as well as connecting to the surrounding historic environment and their peers. The design should embed the ideas produced by our South Cliff Gardens Youth Steering Group and have a high level of accessibility and be an inclusive design. The play area should be an environment in which children can play freely and test their boundaries in a rich imaginative way, focusing on flexibility around change, choice, and evolution as they develop their confidence and skill level. Create a design that does not expose users to unacceptable levels of risk of serious injury but allows for children to develop their own risk assessment skills and include age-appropriate areas, but not age segregated to allow for intergenerational play. Natural landscape elements should be included: boulders, tree trunks etc. for creative, imaginative play, climbing, hiding, balance, jump to cover a wide range of play experiences. Where possible use natural, sustainable materials and natural surfacing, limiting tarmac / plastic/ rubberised safety surfaces, to only be used where necessary.

Sketch by Landscape Architect Scott Matthews (Southern Green)

Studio Hardie’s response and design development

Inspiration: PA X T O N’ S O B S E R V AT I O N T O W E R

Demolished by 1928 Studio Hardie were inspired by the idea of an accessible observation tower in the play area and paying homage to this lost monument. Given the challenges of creating a tall tower on such a steep site they explored designs for a stepped tower, where from certain angles it appears as a tall tower. All the details were inspired by the original Paxton Observatory tower. Apart from the towers at Crystal Place, the Observation Tower seems to have been a unique design by Paxton. Paxton provided visitors with the opportunity to view the coastline and seascape and perhaps even feel as though they were at sea. The Observation Tower is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map and photographs and is of evidential, historic and aesthetic interest. Should the tower and the bandstand have survived, the relationship between them and the Italian Steps and the Spa would have been maintained and Paxton’s overall vision for this area apparent today. The structure was square with a first floor and balustraded terrace above. Demolished in 1920.

Victorian Architectural Inspiration

SHELTER 2 The Tugwell

The low angled roofs of shelter 2 are emblematic of the Victorians interest in the “East” and the curved eaves were perfect to represent the decorative approach used throughout South Cliff Gardens. This shelter was designed for the Cliff Bridge Co. Ltd. by F A & S Tugwell and approved for construction by the Surveyor’s Office on 14th April 1897. The location allowed views along the coast. Shelter 02 is of considerable evidential, historic and aesthetic interest as it marks the period of Frank Tugwell’s (1862-1940) employment and his design approach. An elegant double fronted shelter with a low, tiled, oriental shaped roof. The deep, ornate, eaves are supported by wooden poles.

Shelter 3

Studio Hardie were inspired by the decorative eaves that when simplified are a great visual component to link our play structure with the existing shelters. they also borrowed detail from the tops of the columns. The shelter was first marked on the 1893 Ordnance Survey. The design is attributed to Joseph Paxton but is more likely to have been designed by G. H. Stokes who is recorded as having designed the Spa Chalet. This building was used as an electricity sub-station between 1969 and 2012. The location of the shelter allowed views over the Italian Steps and terrace, Paxton’s bandstand and along the coast. Shelter 3 has considerable historic, aesthetic and evidential interest. It is of intricate design and a rare survival of the earliest shelters in South Cliff Gardens.

The Spa Chalet

The balustrade details and balcony brackets of the Spa Chalet were simplified and used as part of the Victorian Towers play structure, as they are a great example of the period’s ornamental joinery. The Spa Chalet was designed by G.H Stokes who was Joseph Paxton’s son in law and assistant. Swiss Cottages were a popular feature for designed landscapes during the early 19th-century. The building was designed to house the park keeper. The house was designed as part of the original development by the Cliff Bridge Company by an architect of national repute. There is a clear aesthetic link between the Swiss Cottage at Chatsworth, designed as an eye-catcher by Sir Joseph Paxton for the Duke of Devonshire and the chalet at South Cliff Gardens. The Spa Chalet is of considerable evidential, historic, and aesthetic interest and is listed at grade II. List Entry Number: 1242899 The chalet was built on the site of a Camera Obscura and is shown on the 1893 Ordnance Survey. The lower storey is in polychromatic brick. The upper story is clad with weatherboard and has a very ornate pierced woodwork balcony supported by carved brackets. The roof is decorated with a pierced wooden border which has a strong similarity to the roof of the Swiss Cottage at Chatsworth.

Studio took the above inspiration from the South Cliff Gardens, brief and consultation feedback and evolved and rigorously refined the concept. They tested each element to make the design work, shaping and defining the design until it has integrity, are fit for purpose and are non-gratuitous, cutting away the unnecessary and ensuring all elements of the brief are realised in the design. We think the results speak for themselves and we now have a much loved and well used play area that welcomes children into this unique and historic landscape.