Equipment by Little Tikes Commercial.
Surface: wood chips.
If you’re looking for a place to play in the Trinity-Bellwoods area that’s quieter and less crowded than Trinity-Bellwoods Park itself, the schoolyard of Charles G Fraser might be a good option.
It’s small, but a recent landscaping re-fresh makes it a nice place to hang out. And while the equipment isn’t exactly plentiful, it’s newer than the equipment at Trinity-Bellwoods, and less likely to be surrounded by slack-rope walkers and members of the West Queen West Fire Juggling and Capoeira Club.*
On our visit, we spent a good while sending pine cones down the curly slide, or throwing them from the top of the rope climber onto a giant target painted on the blacktop. This kept us occupied for a bit before gravitating towards two low basketball nets. Not the freestanding, regulation height basketball nets with backboards, but the ones bolted directly into the side of the school itself.
It was there that we spend – no joke – nearly an hour trying to kick a soccer ball into the tantalizingly low basketball nets, taking rebounds off the wall and doing keep-ups until trying, usually in vain, to get a basket. We decided the game was called Socsketball, and it was a great time, except when daddy accidentally launched the ball onto the roof. (Not to worry, the roof was slanted and the ball came back after a completely shocked seven-second silence.)
I’m glad we came up with the game, because there aren’t too many options here. There is a junior play structure, but it was on the other side of a locked fence. And yes, the fence was only three feet high, but it seemed clear that the school didn’t want us in there.
The nearby stretch of Queen Street is, of course, very lively. We indulged in black ice cream and visited a local toy store before having some empanadas and heading home happy.
*Definitely not a real club. But possibly should be.