New play area opens as part of the Broad Marsh regeneration plans

The play space, which is on Collin Street, features specially designed swings, a play trail with timber stepping blocks, balancing walkways, a seesaw and green planting.

This new play space is part of a Playable Cities Initiative to create child-friendly spaces in the city centre. Which all supports the city’s journey to become a UNICEF Child Friendly City. Local school children were consulted on the design, creating the swings and seating so the space can be somewhere families can gather and spend time together.

Wider Broad Marsh regeneration

Pick Everard has collaborated on the project, delivering project management, quantity surveying, principal design and NEC supervisor services. The project was commissioned via Perfect Circle and procured through SCAPE - one of the UK’s leading public sector procurement authorities.

Collin Street is the latest piece of the wider Broad Marsh public realm redevelopment, all of which has been designed and developed by Townshend Landscape Architects.

As well as the new play space, Collin Street is now fully open for people to walk through, with a traffic-free route connecting the Green Heart, where construction work has started, and Lister Gate, with the new green public space on Sussex Street next to Nottingham College, which features a mini amphitheatre, a skateable space and a multi-use games area.

The Broad Marsh regeneration has already seen the development of a new Central Library, Car Park and Bus Station, assisted by Pick Everard, as well as a new Nottingham College city hub, which has transformed streets and public spaces in the area by increasing footfall, particularly supporting businesses on Lister Gate.

Recently, it was revealed that a new state-of-the-art Community Diagnostic Centre will be located on the Broad Marsh regeneration site and will be run and staffed by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. The CDC will be a one-stop shop which support GPs by providing direct access to diagnostics services such as MRI, CT, x-ray, ultrasound, echocardiography, ECG, and lung function testing.

Cllr David Mellen, Leader of Nottingham City Council, said:

“I am pleased we have finished work on the play area outside of the new Central Library, creating a child-friendly destination that families will want to come and spend time in.

“Collin Street used to be four lanes of busy traffic and now it’s completely shut to cars, giving people a safe way to walk from Middle Hill to what will be the new Broad Marsh Green Heart.

“The idea is that families can come and enjoy themselves in our fantastic new Central Library, a centre that puts children and young people at the heart of its design. It is a destination venue for families, who will now be able to head outside the front doors to a safe Collin Street, where children can play and enjoy themselves.”