Wadsworth Park / Carleton Village PS

Equipment by Miracle, Kompan, Jambette

Surface: wood chips, asphalt.

I’ve lived in this city my whole life and been to just about every part of it, but there are still big chunks of the north-ish west-ish regions that I’m not very familiar with. And even though we visited one of the biggest parks in this section of the city (Earlscourt) last summer, Wadsworth Park, just a couple hundred metres to the west, feels like part of a different neighbourhood.

While Earlscourt bustles with activity – local soccer leagues, Daycare groups, joggers, Portuguese mothers orbited by their children – Wadsworth felt like a quiet park in a small town. I guess part of it was the day we visited; a rainy stat holiday where only playground reviewers and other weirdos would bother going for a local day out. But we managed to catch a good hour between April showers and enjoyed this place quite a bit.

The equipment at the park’s east end is uncomplicated but reasonably varied – swings and slides and good climbing options, plus a Kompan Bloqx climber that looked fun but was a bit too wet for my daughter to want to use.

Our son, meanwhile, got his soccer fix on the field, where the goalposts actually had netting attached, which is extremely rare in our experience.

At the eastern end of the property, the space morphs from a public park to a school yard. The walk in that direction took us parallel to a laneway where multiple garages were decorated with creative graffiti, which reminded me of Felstead Park on the other side of the city.

Once we came to the school, we found a small-but-fun Jambette climber, set up as a climbing obstacle course in the shape of a horseshoe. As the kids made their way along the obstacles, the sky started to darken again. The school’s bell rang (it was a holiday Friday, but I guess the automated schedule doesn’t take a holiday) and the skies opened, as if prompted by the bell.

We ran to the car and headed Nova Era for some delicious treats, and I suddenly realized how close we had been to St. Clair the whole time. With bakeries, a library, and swimming pool nearby, this place would be a really good summer destination…we might have to come back.