Tim Gill is an independent scholar, writer and consultant on childhood, and a global advocate for children’s play and mobility.

His book Urban Playground: How child-friendly planning and design can save cities was published by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2021. It was RIBA’s bestselling publication that year.

Tim is also co-author of the first London-wide planning guidance on children’s play and recreation (published in 2008 under former Mayor Ken Livingstone); the revised edition is helping to shape neighbourhoods for London’s children. As well as playgrounds, his interest in the built environment embraces streets, neighbourhood planning, transport and public space, and children’s evolving relationship with nature. ​
 
Tim has advised political parties and thinktanks across the political spectrum. In 2008 he shared the platform with David Cameron and David Willetts at the launch of the Conservative Party’s Childhood Review. He appears regularly on radio and television; eg the BBC show A Revolution in Childhood, a televised debate on BBC 4 linked to the BBC’s flagship child development series Child of our Time and chaired by Martha Kearney.

Tim has given talks and run workshops and seminars with audiences in Europe, North and South America, Australasia and Asia. He has been widely published in the mainstream, academic and trade media.