A disused street in Stratford, London, has been given a LEGO brick makeover and become Story Street, with playful activities for children to take part in during the summer holidays.
The LEGO Foundation and Discover’s Children’s Forum have teamed up to turn a disused Stratford street into a LEGO brick playground for children to explore during the month of August. This is the LEGO Group’s latest London takeover, with other recent efforts including the Play Pavilion in Hyde Park and a party by the Thames.
Story Street is open from 11.00am until 4.00pm daily, running now through August 31, located by the Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford. The location is a five-minute walk from Stratford or Stratford High Street Tube stations. Ticketing information can be found on Discover’s website (it will be free to access with Discover Entry tickets).
Designed with the help of local children, Story Street will feature various pop-up activities each day. There will of course be plenty of LEGO building, but there’s more on offer as well, including yoga storytelling, draw-alongs, cardboard sculpting, dress-up, painting, story time and more.
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Activities will vary by the day, but a handy chalkboard at reception will have all the day’s fun posted when you arrive. Discover will also post the next day’s schedule ahead of time on their social channels for those looking for specific events. Whatever activities are on offer, they are all designed with storytelling in mind, encouraging children to let their imaginations run wild in a safe and social environment.
Story Street is the latest effort from the LEGO Group to create welcoming play spaces in urban communities, following the takeovers of Boston, Shanghai, Berlin and London for World Play Day earlier this summer. And all these efforts come on the heels of a recent study conducted by the LEGO Group that found 7 in 10 parents believe their city does not offer sufficient safe and accessible play spaces for children and 1 in 3 children feel that adults who design urban spaces do so without considering the needs of children.
While Story Street is just a temporary installation, it’s an encouraging step towards developing more social spaces in cities to get children out and playing in their communities — the fact that it comes filled with LEGO bricks is a nice bonus, too. And in recognition that the space is a prime place to build community, the LEGO Group, the LEGO Foundation and Discover Children’s Story Centre are distributing more than 1,000 free tickets to Newham families via local charities and community groups.
If you’re interested in taking a family trip to Story Street, it will be open through the rest of August, with the final day on August 31.
And if you can’t make it all the way to jolly ol’ London for the event but still want to get in on some LEGO building action, consider purchasing your next set via our affiliate links to help support the work we do at Blocks, online and in print.
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