Nicky Gavron with Chris Lawlor – who set up the Jackson’s Lane arts centre – meeting Prince Charles, now King Charles III

THE water was not far from freezing but the waves were such that Nicky Gavron was in no hurry to get out.

Her daughters, Sarah and Jessica, recall how the former deputy Mayor of London had a secret pastime: she adored surfing and was still out in the sea aged 80 with a bodyboard.

Standing up to her waist in the bracing English Channel, she would not listen to her daughters calling out that it was too cold and that they were ready to go. Nicky, who died over the weekend at 82, was born in 1941.

Her mother had escaped Nazi Germany as a teenager and got to London. A talented dancer, she had been selected to perform at the opening ceremony of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

But it became known she was Jewish – and a friendly teacher told her parents that they should send her away as soon as they could. Her mother moved to Worcester and met a sympathetic man at the labour exchange.

Not only did he get her a job, they fell in love and Nicky was born during the war. Nicky recalled running wild in the open spaces behind her family home. It was these early formative moments that translated in Nicky’s championing of rewilding derelict lands, offering space for children, and at its heart, a mix of an appreciation of nature and biodiversity married to a concept of free play.

She took this into how she brought up her four children: the Gavron family home was a place of happy chaos.

Her daughters recall her approach: “We’d never get in trouble for building a fort – there were not any rules. It reflected in her work. She could not understand why a builder would include spaces for cars but not for children. She thought this was crazy and she went on working on this right up to her death.”

Nicky looked around the world for best practice for children. She believed play areas should be spaces to encourage imagination and exploration.

While working at City Hall, she drew up the London Plan – which says all new developments must include play spaces.

Passing her 11-plus, she attended Worcester Grammar and went on to win a place at the Courtauld Institute where she studied the History of Art before training as a teacher.

Nicky Gavron at City Hall

She would teach art at the Camberwell School of Art. A talented artist herself, she had an eye for aesthetics.

Nicky married Robert Gavron in 1967. Robert had two sons Simon and Jeremy from a previous marriage – he was a widower – and the couple had two daughters, Sarah and Jessica. The family settled in Highgate.

It was the burning issue of the so-called motorway box scheme in the late-1960s that first brought Nicky into politics.

It aimed to turn the Archway Road into a dual carriageway.

A campaign was launched to stop it and while battling the road builders, she turned her attention to saving a church in Jackson’s Lane and creating a play scheme and community arts space.

In 1986, Nicky became a Haringey councillor and was chair of planning. She spent eight years as deputy mayor under Ken Livingstone, who she recalled phoned her and said: “I hear you’re a bit imaginative and you’ll help me with congestion charging – which I did.”

Nicky loved film: she was fan of such movies as The Red Shoes, Wings of Desire and Jane Campion’s The Piano.

And she had a selection of film stars she admired as a child, their pictures carefully placed in a picture frame.

Her Highgate home was always welcoming: a space for all generations, Nicky would hold court, chatting late into the night.

She loved returning to the Malvern Hills around Worcester, and recalled happy holidays spent in Cornwall, where she caught the surfing bug.

A great cook who loved hosting parties, a keen walker over Hampstead Heath and someone who simply loved a tree: Nicky’s life was spent using her talents for the good of all, her understanding of humans’ place in the natural world motivating her work in the political sphere to improve London for Londoners.

She is survived by her daughters Sarah and Jessica, stepson Jeremy, godson Cato and 10 grandchildren. Her son Simon predeceased her.