Surface: wood chips.
Perth Square Park is different from the other west-side squares (Dovercourt, Sibelius, Vermont, Bellevue) because it is connected to a school ground. Or to be more accurate, two school grounds, since Perth Public School and St. Luigi Catholic School (in an unusual secular-religious partnership) share a building.
Let’s start with the park before taking a look at the school grounds, because Perth Square would be a really nice little park all on its own.
The equipment was redone in 2022, and features some fairly standard but nice equipment by Henderson. Nothing outstanding, but lots of good stuff thrown in: a carousel, a sandbox, a splash pad, and a play panel that encourages kids to find some hidden pictures throughout the playground. It’s all nicely shaded by mature trees, with plenty of seating and – gasp – bathrooms!
It's really a lovely little park, and all around were clues that the neighbourhood holds it close to their heart: families showed up who clearly knew each other but hadn't planned to meet up; a little community message board advertised a garage sale; a group of day-campers sat in the shade while an adult taught them how to make slime. It was great.
The adjacent school grounds offer even more options. The Dynamo rope climber is similar to (but smaller than) the one recently installed at Lord Lansdowne Public School, and a much older play structure sits off to the side, probably only used by younger classes. Benches and wooden posts are scattered around the grounds, which don’t have a whole lot of obvious function but certainly look nice.
There’s also an artificial turf field. It’s a nice touch, though rather small and with a couple chunks of turf missing already, despite only being installed a few years ago.
It’s really quite rare to find so many features in such a small, downtown park. I was sitting there while my kids played, trying to think of another spot that has washrooms AND a splash pad AND a carousel AND a turf field...I really couldn’t think of anywhere.
And then the ice cream truck pulled up and I lost my train of thought.
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