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After more than a decade of planning and fundraising, the UK’s first permanent play and leisure centre specifically designed for disabled children is set to open its doors near Bristol. Founder Stephanie Wheen and her team created Gympanzees to cater to children who are unable to use regular playgrounds.
A Decade of Planning and Overcoming Hurdles
The concept originated in 2016 from Wheen’s work as a children’s physiotherapist in Bristol. With her sessions constantly fully booked, she encouraged disabled children to engage in physical activity locally to reduce their reliance on her service. However, poor access, inappropriate equipment, and unaccommodating attitudes hindered progress, prompting Wheen to realize a purpose-built facility was essential.
Research by the charity Scope indicates that half of UK playgrounds lack accessibility for disabled children, leaving youngsters with disabilities twice as likely to be obese compared to non-disabled peers. To demonstrate the demand, Wheen and a team of volunteers organized holiday pop-up sessions using specialist equipment in schools, which immediately improved children’s physical and mental health and drew visitors from up to eight hours away.
Securing a permanent location proved challenging for the small charity. They eventually purchased a 60-year-old former service station near the Severn Bridge, north-west of Bristol, utilizing a £2.2m loan and raising over £10m in total to complete the project, with £400,000 still left to raise.
Inclusive Design and Specialized Spaces
Designed over three years, the 4,000-square-metre (43,000 sq ft) site features 10 distinct zones, including a music room, gym, trampoline and climbing area, dark and light sensory rooms, and a fully accessible outdoor play park. Chief operating officer Fran Garland noted that standard playgrounds force disabled children in wheelchairs to sit and watch their peers, whereas Gympanzees was built to offer immediate, inclusive access.
The facility includes a two-storey soft play area equipped with two hoist systems for wheelchair users, alongside a party room featuring DJ equipment controllable via eye-gaze technology. Additionally, the centre offers a cafe, a shop selling essentials like nappies and feeding tubes, and a lending library allowing parents to test equipment at home.
Families can book tailored sessions based on specific needs: butterfly sessions for complex medical requirements, leopard sessions for sensory needs, and gorilla sessions for children who find socializing challenging.
Life-Changing Impact for Families
Parents of disabled children have described the upcoming opening as life-changing. Bethan Campbell-Watkins, whose five-year-old daughter Malaya has autism and learning difficulties, shared that typical play areas often involve judgment and lack secure environments, making the new centre a massive relief. Kelly Cotter, whose 15-year-old son Adam is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, explained that finding suitable locations became impossible as he grew older, calling the scale of the facility mind-boggling.
Springing open its doors, the centre anticipates welcoming up to 200,000 visitors annually, with Wheen ultimately hoping to establish 12 more sites across the country so that every child lives within an hour of a similar facility.
