This play space in a courtyard is an extension of the much-loved Polka Children’s Theatre, located off a busy London high street. Designed for the children of families visiting the theatre and café, it consists of a play tower, seating area/play ‘sculpture’, nature zone and storage facilities. It can additionally be used as a venue for the theatre’s educational workshops. To make connections with the theatre’s ever-changing programme, the varied cladding and surface treatment is intended to render the structure both familiar and mysterious, rural and industrial, hinting at architectural motifs and interpretations from factory to cottage, castle to lighthouse. The main structure is raised on hardwood stilts allowing wheelchair accessibility beneath.