The Park was officially named in 1959 in commemoration of Ms Mary Josephine Bedford, an early Brisbane philanthropist who was involved with the progress of family welfare and an integral and prolific member of the Playground Association.

A comprehensive guide to the design and management of these new parks, written by landscape architects and social planners, Arthur and Lorna Leland was published in 1909 and many of the themes of this book were adopted by the Playground Association of Queensland in their mission statements.

In a time of serious epidemics the Leland book, Playground Technique and Playcraft, promoted a revised level of care and protection of children, allowing them a better chance at success in life.

The first playgrounds in America developed as part of this movement were in Charlesbank, Boston; Boone Park, Louisville; and many examples in Chicago all planned in the late nineteenth century.

Throughout her life Bedford, who is perhaps best remembered as the lifelong companion of Dr Lilian Violet Cooper, worked toward alleviating the stress and poverty afflicting urban dwellers.

On her many study tours with Cooper, Bedford researched successful methods and programmes on the provision of family welfare in America and Europe and she is known to have attended lectures at the University of California, Berkeley on public recreation parks in about 1911, just two years before the Playground Association was established.

Also the Association worked towards assuming the administration of the parks and providing trained supervisors who were to direct play and, through this, to instil the values of courage, honesty and consideration in the children.

[1] The playground created in Water Street, Spring Hill utilised the site of an early Brisbane quarry which had closed.

Mrs Downey surrendered her lot in the following year and the entire reserve was re-gazetted on 12 November 1925, measuring 1 acre (0.40 ha) and 36 perches (910 m2).

[1] In 1945 a war memorial hall was opened at the playground, designed by the City Architect and funded by public appeal supplemented by the state and local council.

The building was constructed to commemorate those from Paddington, Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley who served during World War II.

The original supervisor's cottage was burnt down in 1959 and the Brisbane City Council donated the insurance money to the Playground Association to allow them to infill the undercroft of the Memorial Hall for use as a library.

[1] In December 1971 an area of land on the Quarry Street side of the park was excised for Health Purposes and this became the home of the Shaftsbury Citizenship Centre.

Again, in March 1989 land at the corner of Quarry and Water Streets was excised for Local Government Purposes and this block of land is now the Lady Gowrie Occasional Child Care Centre, providing an additional service to the Lady Gowrie Child Care Centre which is at the St Paul's Terrace end of Love Street.

At the corner of Quarry and Waters, on excised land, is a fenced timber building used as the Lady Gowrie Occasional Child Care Centre.

Where the ground is cut down for a road at the corner of Love and Water Streets, a retaining wall is clad with rubble stonework featuring recessed panels surrounded by concrete mouldings.

The building which has a rectangular plan running parallel to the Love Street boundary, has a gabled roof clad with "super six" corrugated fibrous cement sheeting.

Also on this face of the outcrop is a plaque cut from the stone with lettering "BRISBANE CITY COUNCIL: THIS QUARRY IS PRESERVED FOR ITS GREAT GEOLOGICAL INTEREST".

Cut into the north western side of the outcrop is a winding and uneven concrete stair, the dimensions of which suggest that it was built for the use of children.

Bedford Playground which was established in 1927 is important in demonstrating the pattern of growth of the working class suburbs of inner city Brisbane, particularly Spring Hill.

The site has aesthetic significance as a public open space with established plantings forming a substantial element of the Spring Hill townscape.

The former quarry is of particular aesthetic interest as a bold, natural form visibly contrasting with its immediate surrounds and visually linked to the large outcrops on St Paul's Terrace.