The new adventure play area at Sandringham is part of a masterplan to bring together the existing play and unify the entire space, maintaining the current play trail, whilst making sure all of the new elements tie into the existing play, allowing the site to feel harmonious throughout.

The Water Tower

Inspired by Appleton Water Tower, it delivers ‘the money shot’, the key feature of the new play area. Standing at around 8m tall the multilevel play tower sits proudly at the back of the play site, visible from outside the space, enticing visitors to explore!

The two connecting towers house a range of play elements, from a winding spiral staircase leading to the giant 14m tube slide that wraps around the building to deliver you from the very top, back down to earth. There's also accessible water play tables at each level that allow users of almost any ability to control the flow of water between levels and access the talking tubes to communicate with friends on upper and lower floors. It has all been designed to encourage interactive, collaborative play.

The first link into the new expanded play area takes you across four linked treetop decks, taking visitors up high and over the fence into the adjoining copse.

Accessed from the new path, a spiral staircase winds up around the first deck. From here a bridge goes up and over the existing play trail before reaching another raised lookout deck. A wobbly rope bridge and further fixed walkway ends at the final deck where a slide then shoots you back down to the forest floor.

There's also a ground play trail at this point, looping through the trees with a ladder up to the deck height to give access back into the main play area. you can see some of the details that we love here.

The Toddler Play

Designed specifically for younger children, the toddler play is set slightly away from the main adventure play area, whilst still feeling a part of the overall experience. It's been designed to follow the same style as the bigger kids play and be aesthetically connected to the rest of the key structures, following architectural influences from the wider estate. It's made up of two playhouses with connecting bridges. The toddler play space will create an exciting setting for the youngest of children to explore.

Developing the play

The new design expands the play outside of the current fence boundary, which both increases the available area of play space but also offers an adventurous journey for children, going ‘up and over’ the current fence line. It now incorporates three new play elements.

Bringing the play to life

As you will often see with our work, the CGI’s add a genuine sense of realism to the designs, to allow guests to visualise the planned future play. They are often used on signage around the site during the build to allow guests to see what’s coming and build excitement for the future play.

Always accessible

A vital part of the brief was the accessibility of the play structures and this is something our whole design and build team are both trained for and used to delivering in almost everything we build. For us, play is more fun if it’s available to all and doesn’t specifically exclude some who may have mobility issues.

It’s our opinion that children rarely see disabilities in other young children, they just see someone who may want to play. It’s our role to create a place where they can play equally and together.

The Sandringham Estate

Sandringham itself attracts visitors from far and wide. With around 500,000 visitors to the estate annually. Its winding woodland trails, transport museum and visitor centre along with fairs and events, keep visitors returning throughout the year.

The play area is a vital part of the offering at Sandringham, creating a desirable location for families with young children. Our brief was to build on the success of the existing offering to increase the adventurous nature of the play elements and also creating themed elements, distinct and unique to Sandringham.

It's open every day and you do not need tickets to visit the Children's Play area as it is located in the Royal Parkland, however car parking charges do apply.

The main part of the children’s play area, including the water tower and sand play, is suitable for children ages 5-12yrs and you can see it here.