Mud Kitchen 2 is a practical and engaging outdoor play resource, carefully designed for early years and nursery environments to promote active, hands-on learning through play. Perfect for outdoor play areas, it gives children a dedicated space to investigate, experiment, and enjoy creative and sensory experiences together.

Constructed from high-quality laminated timber, this mud kitchen is designed for long-term outdoor use, offering excellent strength, stability, and durability. Its smooth, child-friendly finish and sturdy build make it ideal for busy nursery settings, while the natural timber design integrates effortlessly into outdoor learning environments, creating a welcoming and calming play space.

The worktop includes four stainless steel bowls, allowing multiple children to play at once and encouraging social interaction. These bowls are perfect for mixing, pouring, scooping, and exploring a range of textures and materials. Although mud play is a popular activity, the kitchen is equally suited to sand, bark, gravel, water, stones, and other loose materials, providing a flexible play resource that supports outdoor learning throughout the year.

Mud Kitchen 2 supports imaginative role play, cooperative activities, and group play, helping children develop key communication and language skills as they share ideas, take turns, and express their creativity. The open-ended design also encourages fine motor skill development and early problem-solving through practical exploration.

Proudly manufactured in the UK by ESP PLAY, this mud kitchen reflects a commitment to quality, safety, and expert craftsmanship. It is a valuable addition to early years and nursery outdoor play areas, offering a durable, versatile, and engaging resource that inspires learning through play in an inclusive and stimulating setting.

Mud Kitchen Style 5 is a sturdy and visually appealing outdoor play resource, thoughtfully designed for nursery and early years outdoor play areas. Combining lasting durability with creative design, it offers children a dedicated space to engage in messy play, role play, sensory exploration, and mark making within an outdoor environment.

Crafted from high-quality laminated timber, this mud kitchen is built to provide strength, stability, and resilience for long-term outdoor use. The smooth, child-friendly timber frame integrates naturally into outdoor learning spaces, making it an ideal addition to busy nursery settings that require tough, reliable equipment.

This unit features four stainless steel bowls embedded in the worktop, offering multiple activity stations that encourage group play and collaboration. These bowls are perfect for mixing, pouring, scooping, and experimenting with various loose materials. While mud remains a popular choice, the kitchen also supports creative play with sand, water, bark, gravel, stones, and more—providing year-round versatility and open-ended learning.

Adding to its appeal, the front panels are made from green HDPE and designed to mimic everyday household appliances like ovens and washing machines. These durable, weather-resistant panels enhance imaginative role play by creating a realistic kitchen setting. The HDPE surfaces are easy to clean, ensuring practical upkeep in outdoor environments.

Uniquely, Mud Kitchen Style 5 includes a mark making board, encouraging early literacy and drawing alongside physical play. This feature fosters fine motor skills, creativity, and communication as children explore both tactile and expressive learning.

Supporting collaborative play, communication, and problem-solving, this resource encourages children to share ideas, take turns, and develop essential early years skills.

Proudly manufactured in the UK by ESP PLAY, Mud Kitchen Style 5 embodies exceptional quality, safety, and craftsmanship. It’s a versatile, durable, and engaging addition to any nursery or early years outdoor play space, promoting learning through imaginative and sensory play in a vibrant outdoor setting.

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.