A serviceable spot in a crowded neighborhood.
It feels a little rundown and neglected, as does the rest of the park, but it’s a totally fine option if you’re near it. There is a cool climbing wall / castle structure.
Overall the space just isn’t big enough for the amount of kids who live right near it, even when there aren’t that many humans it feels crowded.
Irving Park always feels a little bit neglected, between uncut grass and slightly rundown everything. The playground is no exception.
It's hard to imagine a playground or a park of this nature in Park Slope or the Upper West Side would be allowed to deteriorate like this, but perhaps it's not surprising the Parks Department allocates resources based on a neighborhood's medium income.
The playground is covered by old trees, including one right in the center of it, but that also means the leaves pile up here. They were so bad one year that the drain in the splash pad was clogged, leaving behind a big mud puddle. And while these are quite beautiful, they only provide a limited amount of shad coverage.
We've often met up with friends here, and the kids inevitably found their way to the puddles left behind by bad drainage and leaky drinking fountains.
The small climbing wall leads to a little tower the kids like to stand on top of and wave from. But otherwise the equipment is kind of compact and not all that interesting. There are a lot more children than the playground can accommodate.
We've also had some bumped heads here. I don't know if its because the playground equipment has higher platforms, but a few times the kids ended up running into the equipment while underneath it.
Named for the writer Washington Irving, this full-block park brings a bit of green to the area. The playground was moved within the playground to its current location in 1989 with the last renovation in 2008.
