{"id":20301,"date":"2025-07-24T12:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/20301\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T12:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T12:48:10","slug":"parkbox-comes-to-croydon-full-of-childrens-toys-and-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/20301\/","title":{"rendered":"ParkBox comes to Croydon full of children\u2019s toys and books"},"content":{"rendered":"

ParkBox is coming to Croydon.<\/p>\n

\"\"They are boxes, in parks (see what they did there?), bringing books, toys and sports equipment, funded by The Shackleton Foundation and operated by community interest company Croydon ParkBox.<\/p>\n

The free-to-use mini-libraries have been installed in six parks across South Croydon, containing books, toys and sports equipment.<\/p>\n

The scheme is due to be officially opened on Monday, July 28, just in time for the beginning of the school summer holidays.<\/p>\n

The ParkBoxes, made and maintained locally in Croydon, are intended to address alarming statistics showing that almost 1million children in Britain don\u2019t have a single book at home<\/a>, while only 25% of children play outside regularly. In previous generations, 75% of children would get out to play.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cParkBox was born out of the simple idea that children shouldn\u2019t have to bring their own entertainment to the park,\u201d said Robert Dickinson, founder of Croydon ParkBox.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re putting educational resources directly where families go to play, making parks into spaces where children can learn, explore and connect with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six Croydon parks each getting their very own ParkBox from next week are:<\/p>\n

Purley Beeches
\nCoombe Wood Lodge
\nSouth Croydon Recreation Ground
\nHaling Grove
\nRotary Field
\nCroham Wood<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

ParkBox: it\u2019s a box. In a park (in this case, Haling Grove)<\/p>\n

Each weatherproof box contains carefully selected books, toys and sports equipment suitable for different age groups. The initiative has been supported by The Shackleton Foundation, which provides seed funding to early-stage social ventures with a primary focus on benefiting young people.<\/a><\/p>\n

More parks will get their ParkBoxes once volunteers and funding is in place, with the hope to extend the scheme across the borough, and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cScrolling is stealing childhood \u2013 getting outside with families and friends is the only way to fix this,\u201d Dickinson said.<\/p>\n

The project aims to increase parent-child play, create community focal points, and provide accessible learning opportunities for all families.<\/p>\n

The grand opening is to be attended by Croydon\u2019s \u00a382,000 per year Mayor, Jason Perry, fresh from closing four of the borough\u2019s public libraries\u2026<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in supporting the initiative can donate through the project\u2019s GoFundMe page<\/a>, while those wanting to volunteer as ParkBox Rangers can find more information at parkbox.org.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Inside Croydon \u2013 If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details<\/a><\/p>\n

If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents\u2019 association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"As featured on Google News Showcase<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAbout insidecroydon
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNews, views and analysis about the people of Croydon, their lives and political times in the diverse and most-populated borough in London.
\nBased in Croydon and edited by Steven Downes. To contact us, please email inside.croydon@btinternet.com\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ParkBox is coming to Croydon. They are boxes, in parks (see what they did there?), bringing books, toys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[457,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-20301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}