Dalston dad launches app to find pubs with playgrounds

Alastair Duncan says playgrounds signal to children “that this is a space for them too”

The pub with a playground is one of parenthood’s small mercies: somewhere adults can finish a conversation — and a pint — while the children entertain themselves. Now a Dalston father of two has built an app to help families find one.

Alastair Duncan, a television producer, spent several months at the start of the year developing Pubs with Playgrounds, which maps child-friendly pubs across the UK.

“I’ve got two young kids, so you want to be able to go out for dinner and go to nice places and eat together as a family,” Duncan told the Citizen. “We’re drawn to places that have playgrounds, because it gives the kids something to do.”

The app began life as a shared Google Map among friends. “If we ever found or went to a pub with a playground, we’ll put it on this shared Google Map, so we could all be aware of it,” he explained.

Burst appendix

It might have stayed that way had Duncan’s appendix not burst in January. Recuperation gave him the time he had never had to build the app he had long been mulling. 

He describes his coding skills as “very basic”, with some knowledge of design, and leaned heavily on AI tools for the bulk of the programming.

The harder task was less glamorous. “The biggest job was building the database of pubs,” said Duncan. 

“The map I had with friends had maybe 100 pubs in it, something like that. If you’re going to release an app and it’s going to be useful to a wider audience, you need a lot more than that.”

That database now runs to nearly 1,000 pubs across the UK. A prototype has been available to download for a month, though Duncan only began publicising it in the past fortnight.

He has no plans to charge for it. “I will keep it free, there will always be a free version,” he said. 

“I just want to build an audience and prove that it’s useful for people and build a bit of a community around people using it and adding reviews and adding photos.”

‘Space for them’

Duncan does not think every pub needs a playground, but where one exists, he believes, it “signals to the children that this is a space for them too”.

“I’m a bit dismayed that so few pubs in London have playgrounds,” he added. “I understand the pressures on space, but it doesn’t take much to put in something small, even a small playhouse or something.”

For now the app is his focus, though he can see the idea travelling. “Maybe something that helps you find hotels that will have family rooms,” he said. 

“It’s actually very difficult to find a hotel room that can sleep four so something like that could be useful as well.”

Pubs with Playgrounds is free to download on iPhone and Android.