Introducing the Play Observatory

What happens to children’s play in a global pandemic? In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic was sweeping across the world, an interdisciplinary team of researchers from University College London and the University of Sheffield was beginning to plan a project to address this central question.

We began with history in mind, aware that the pandemic is an historic event. Our work on another research project, with the Iona and Peter Opie Archive, also made us appreciate the importance of recording children’s everyday play...