This Mud Kitchen Style 3 is a robust and engaging outdoor play resource, designed to support creative, sensory, and imaginative play in early years and nursery settings. Ideal for outdoor learning environments, it provides children with a practical and inviting space to explore, experiment, and play together.

Manufactured from high-quality laminated timber, this mud kitchen is built for durability and long-term outdoor use. The strong, stable construction and smooth, child-friendly finish make it well suited to busy nursery environments, while the natural timber design blends effortlessly into outdoor play areas and natural learning spaces.

The kitchen features an HDPE hob overlay, providing a durable, easy-to-clean cooking surface that enhances realistic role play while standing up to regular use. The worktop also includes two stainless steel bowls, perfect for mixing, pouring, scooping, and exploring a variety of materials. These bowls are hard-wearing and hygienic, making them ideal for repeated use in early years settings.

A mark making board is incorporated into the design, offering additional learning opportunities and supporting early writing, drawing, and creative expression. Children can use the board to create menus, recipes, or illustrations, helping to develop fine motor skills, communication, and imagination alongside physical play.

This mud kitchen encourages collaborative play and social interaction, supporting the development of language, confidence, and problem-solving skills through open-ended activities. It can be used with a wide range of loose materials, including mud, sand, bark, gravel, water, and natural resources, allowing practitioners to adapt play to different learning outcomes and seasons.

Proudly manufactured in the UK by ESP PLAY, this mud kitchen reflects high standards of quality, safety, and craftsmanship. It is a valuable addition to early years and nursery outdoor play areas, offering a durable, versatile, and engaging resource that supports learning through play in a stimulating outdoor environment.

Built to last, built here

Every Squirrel Play Tower is designed, manufactured and installed in the UK by ESP Play.

Glulam redwood posts. We build with laminated timber rather than solid sawn posts. Layers of graded redwood are bonded under pressure to create posts that are markedly stronger and far more resistant to splitting than sawn timber, with a smooth, clean finish that’s kinder to small hands and weathers well over years of outdoor use.

FSC sustainable timber, treated properly. Our sawn redwood comes from FSC-certified sustainable sources and is pressure-treated to Use Class 4 — the classification for timber in permanent ground contact , after all cutting, drilling and machining is complete, so no untreated surfaces are left exposed.

Corrosion-resistant fixings. Every nut, bolt, screw and bracket is zinc-plated or stainless steel, chosen for longevity and safety rather than cost.

Vandal-resistant ropes. Where ropes are used, they’re steel-cored polypropylene: bright, hard-wearing and highly resistant to cutting.

Installed by our own teams and guaranteed. Our specialist installation teams handle the work from groundworks to sign-off, and the tower is backed by a substantial guarantee.

Play Tower FAQs

What makes a play tower “commercial grade”?

Equipment for a school, nursery or public park is engineered for a completely different duty cycle to garden equipment. A commercial tower is sized for many children using it simultaneously, all day, every day, for years, and it’s designed, tested and certified against recognised playground standards. Domestic equipment is built to a lighter specification and won’t survive that treatment, which is why it isn’t appropriate for public or educational settings regardless of price.

What standards should outdoor play equipment meet?

In the UK and Europe, playground equipment is governed by BS EN 1176 (equipment and surfacing) and BS EN 1177 (impact-absorbing surfacing). These cover structural integrity, entrapment risks, fall heights, guardrails and more. Ask any supplier for confirmation before you commit, we’re happy to provide ours.

Why does laminated timber matter?

Solid sawn posts move as they dry. They twist, they check, they split along the grain and in a playground those splits become splinter risks and moisture traps. Laminating reverses the stresses in the wood by bonding graded layers together, so the post stays straight and stable. It costs more to manufacture, but it’s the difference between a frame that still looks right in year ten and one that doesn’t.

How much space do we need?

Beyond the tower’s own footprint, you need a clear safety zone free of walls, fences, trees and other equipment. As a rule of thumb this extends at least 1.5m in every direction, with a larger run-out area at the foot of any slide. We survey the site before quoting and confirm the exact area, it’s often less than people fear, and occasionally more.

Can a play tower go on a sloping or awkward site?

Usually, yes. Slopes, drainage runs, tree roots and odd-shaped corners are normal conditions rather than dealbreakers. Because we design and manufacture in-house, we can adjust post lengths, deck arrangements and access points to suit the ground you actually have. A site visit will tell us what’s needed.

What surfacing goes underneath?

Any equipment with a free height of fall above 600mm needs impact-attenuating surfacing throughout its fall zone. The main options are wetpour rubber, rubber mulch, grass matting laid over turf, and loose-fill materials such as bark or wood chip. They differ significantly on cost, drainage, appearance and ongoing maintenance, loose fill is cheapest to install but needs topping up and raking; wet pour costs more upfront and needs almost nothing. We’ll advise based on your site, budget and expected footfall.

What maintenance will we be responsible for?

Three tiers of inspection are recommended. Routine visual checks, carried out frequently, catch obvious hazards like damage, wear or litter. Operational inspections every one to three months look more closely at stability, wear and moving parts. An annual main inspection by a competent person assesses overall structural integrity, paying particular attention to timber at ground level where moisture damage starts. We can carry out inspections for you if you’d rather not manage it in-house.

How long does installation take?

It depends on the scale of the unit and the groundworks and surfacing involved. A single tower on existing surfacing is quick, a full play area with new wet pour takes longer. We’ll give you a firm programme with the quote, and we routinely work around term dates and holiday periods to keep disruption down.

How do schools usually fund play equipment?

Common routes include devolved capital budgets, PE and Sport Premium funding where the scheme supports physical activity outcomes, PTA and community fundraising, grant funding from local trusts and foundations, and, for developments near new housing — Section 106 or CIL contributions held by the local authority. Many projects combine two or three of these. We can help you phase a scheme so it fits the funding you have now with room to extend later.

How do we choose between different tower sizes?

Start with the children rather than the catalogue. Their age and physical confidence set the appropriate platform heights and challenge level; your numbers set the capacity you need; your space sets the outer limit. Bigger isn’t automatically better — an over-ambitious tower that younger children can’t access independently gets less use than a well-matched one. Tell us about your setting and we’ll recommend honestly.

How do we get started?

Get in touch with your site details, the age groups you’re catering for and any budget or timescale you’re working to. We’ll arrange a visit and put together a proposal — for the Squirrel Play Tower alone, or as part of a wider play area design.

Mud Kitchen Style 4 is a robust and visually engaging outdoor play resource, designed specifically for nursery and early years outdoor play areas. Combining durability with imaginative design, it provides children with a dedicated space to explore messy play, role play, and sensory learning in an outdoor setting.

Constructed from high-quality laminated timber, Mud Kitchen Style 4 is built for strength, stability, and long-term outdoor use. The natural timber frame offers a smooth, child-friendly finish while blending seamlessly into outdoor learning environments. The solid construction makes it well suited to busy nursery settings where equipment must withstand frequent use.

The unit features four stainless steel bowls set into the worktop, creating multiple play stations that allow several children to engage at the same time. These bowls are ideal for mixing, pouring, scooping, and experimenting with a wide range of materials. Although mud is often used, the kitchen can also be enjoyed with sand, water, bark, gravel, stones, and other loose materials, providing year-round versatility and open-ended play opportunities.

The front of the unit includes green HDPE themed kitchen panels, designed to resemble familiar household appliances such as an oven and washing machine. These durable HDPE panels add visual interest and realism to the kitchen, encouraging imaginative role play and helping children make connections with everyday experiences. The HDPE material is weather-resistant, easy to clean, and ideal for outdoor environments.

Mud Kitchen Style 4 supports collaborative play, communication, and language development, as children share ideas, take turns, and create stories together. It also encourages fine motor skills and early problem-solving through hands-on, practical play.

Proudly manufactured in the UK by ESP PLAY, Mud Kitchen Style 4 reflects high standards of quality, safety, and craftsmanship. It is an excellent addition to nursery and early years outdoor play areas, offering a durable, engaging, and flexible resource that supports learning through play in a stimulating outdoor environment.

Brown Bear Play Tower

The Brown Bear Play Tower is the flagship of the ESP timber tower range a multi-tower structure designed to serve large numbers of children simultaneously, with the capacity and variety to anchor an entire playground scheme.

Three towers, one connected play landscape

Built around three pitched-roof towers linked by elevated bridges and walkways, the Brown Bear creates a continuous circuit of play at height. Children can move between towers, choose their own routes and revisit the structure again and again without exhausting its possibilities. High throughput makes it particularly well suited to busy primary school playgrounds and public parks where large groups play together at once.

Multiple access and descent challenges

Access is deliberately varied: a cargo climbing net, ladder-style climbers, and stepped access give children graduated levels of physical challenge, allowing them to build confidence and progress at their own pace. Descent options include an open straight slide and an enclosed spiral tube slide, offering contrasting sensations, one open and social, the other enclosed and thrilling.

Breadth of play value

The Brown Bear supports physical, imaginative, social and cooperative play in a single structure. Net climbing develops grip strength, coordination and whole-body control; bridges and elevated decks build balance and spatial awareness; sheltered tower spaces invite role play and quiet retreat; and the scale of the structure naturally encourages children to negotiate, take turns and play together.

Built to last, UK manufactured

Constructed from laminated timber and manufactured in the UK, the Brown Bear is engineered for stability and longevity. Laminated sections resist the warping and splitting common to solid timber, keeping maintenance requirements low and total cost of ownership down. Its modular construction means components can be specified to suit your site and every Brown Bear is manufactured in full compliance with the applicable playground safety standards.