Child's play

The nurseries of children's fiction are fantastical places. Take the Darling nursery, in JM Barrie's Peter Pan, from where the children depart to Neverland, or the magical nursery in Mary Poppins, where a quick snap of the fingers sends toy soldiers marching back into a toy box and clothes flying into drawers. Such nurseries foster the imagination and encourage play. They are where adventures begin.

Nurseries portrayed in English literature are archetypal Victorian suites: a night nursery or bedroom as well as the day nursery and a place for the nurse to sleep. This could often take up an entire floor. The children may have been banished from the smarter parts of the house, but, for them, such banishment was in some ways, a blessing. Upstairs was a world that was theirs.

Nowadays, unlike our Victorian ancestors, children are fully incorporated into the household.

Despite the obvious benefits, the downside is that their trail is no longer confined to one floor of the house. Cream sofas are imprinted with mud from football boots, and the bathroom, once a sanctuary, now plays host to Barbies having their hair washed.

Although the nursery set-up may have changed, the basic nursery furniture endures. The room might house a wooden cradle, a changing table, soft animals, a selection of pastel-coloured baby blankets and a comfortable nursing chair.

As the baby turns into a toddler, this white haven must graciously accept the arrival of louder and more colourful toys as well as the inevitable splashes from beakers full of Ribena and the poster-paint finger marks on the white wooden furniture. The key is not to ignore such accidents; this is, after all, a place to play.

Games might include playing at pirates, princesses, cowboys and Indians and hosting tea parties with tiny teapots. Furniture and toys should encourage these imaginative games.

There is still a place for traditional toys such as a wooden rocking horse, tin soldiers or a grand dolls' house modelled on the family home. And a good bear is a must, be it a collectable Steiff or hand-knitted by a doting grandmother.

Sometimes the best games are inspired by the simplest objects - an upturned armchair for a pirate ship and a fairy castle made from old sheets and a floral eiderdown. Encourage them while they last, for as Barrie reminds us, "All children, except one, grow up."

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