Circular Nursery

Southland Times, Issue 23228, 17 June 1937, Page 15

Circular Nursery

You might not think, at first glance, that it would be possible to find anything romantic about a gasometer, or for anyone to visualize anything coming out of it but gas. But the designers of one of the newest blocks of flats in London did. They disposed of the gasometer, which had stood on the site just behindy the flats and built, in the circular space it left, a • playground and a nursery school for the children who live in the flats (states an exchange). The playground is equipped with a football goal, at which the children can practise, and a net-ball goal and equipment, too. Three steps lead up from the play-r ground to a concrete balcony, which runs in front of a semi-circular nursery. This is bounded by a low brick wall, on the top of which bright flowers are grown. The whole of the side of the. nursery facing the ground, and, incidentally, the sun, is made of up-folding windows, which, on bright days, are flung wide open. From as early as 8 o’clock in the morning till 5 in the evening children, ranging from two to five years old, come toddling into the nursery school. They are met at the steps by a kindly nurse in a cheerful coloured or flowered overall—no stiffly starched' and rather frightening white here—and they they are given their own particular overalls, a different colour for each child.

The nursery has three playrooms, two painted cream and the other pale blue, with bright flowers and toys making a riot of colour against the plain walls. This is where they play and rest—after lunch they take out their red blankets and settle down for their daily nap. . Apart from these playrooms, there are two white-tiled cloak-rooms with low-slung basins so that the children can wash themselves.