Bouncing back Soft play centres thriving again after Covid-19 closures

I will go all the way up there, with four floors, and a net maze," says Jonathan Laznik, the owner of Gambado, pointing to the 10-metre-high ceiling in the Capitol theatre in Forest Hill, south London, the venue for the company's newest soft play venture.

- Jack Simpson

Built as a silent cinema in 1929, the Grade II-listed art deco building, which once seated 1,700 cinemagoers, has also served as a bingo hall, and until last year, a Wetherspoon's pub.

Novelty Guinness hats emblazoned with "Happy St Patrick's Day!" still hang behind the bar, which Laznik says will be demolished to make way for children's party rooms next year, if he secures planning permission.

With three other sites in Brent Cross, Chelsea and Finchley, Laznik is one of a growing number of entrepreneurs to have entered the soft play market in recent years.

After 10% of operators went out of business during the pandemic, there are signs of recovery, with some providers such as Laznik buying more than one site. A boom in soft play cafes on high streets has further bolstered numbers, and 1,100 businesses are now operating soft play sites across the UK.

The concept of soft play for children is often attributed to the designer Eric McMillan, whose Children's Village in Toronto, Canada, with its balancing buoys and punchbag forests, is often seen as the blueprint for the sector.

Since then, they have grown in popularity in the UK, with more than 60m visits made to venues last year. The venues tend to fall into two categories: larger soft play centres that often operate in retail parks and out-of-town sites, and smaller "soft play cafes", usually located on high streets. Four years ago, the prospects for both looked perilous.

Gordon Foster, the managing director of Safari Play Venues, had opened his second site in Peterborough seven months before the first Covid lockdown.