It’s party time, but some will sit this one out

As the sun shone across Yorkshire, families gathered round television sets, they talked about how the dress everyone had waited so long to see looked like it needed a good iron and afterwards they took to the streets.

In Leeds alone there were more than 100 street parties, an encore to the Silver Jubilee celebrations four years earlier. In Barnsley, the residents of Charles Street and Spencer Street pooled their resources for a joint bash and across the country trestle tables and chairs were borrowed from local sports clubs and shops reported a surge in sales of sandwich spread.

True, not everyone was feeling the love. A St George’s flag valued at £100 was stolen from the headquarters of the Royal British Legion in Tadcaster and just down the road a carefully prepared Royal wedding bonfire was set alight by hooligans before the celebrations proper got under way. However, it would have needed more than a few random acts of vandalism to spoil the party. Back then, a Union Jack even flew above the pit head at Houghton Main Colliery.

It’s now 30 years on, the sky is grey, threatening rain, and at Back Sandhurst Place in Harehills, Leeds, scene to one of the biggest Charles and Diana street parties, no-one seems in the mood to hang out the bunting again. Today the only banner on display is one advertising a no-win, no-fee solicitors and just about the only thing the corner shop doesn’t sell is red, white and blue bunting.

“There’ll be no street party here this time,” says Karen Henry as she gathers in the washing from her backyard. Karen was 13 in 1981 and remembers the celebrations well. “I grew up around here and it was different then. Everyone knew each other and it really didn’t take much to organise a party.

“Now you don’t know the name of most of your neighbours, so getting together for a party just isn’t going to happen. I’ll probably watch a bit of the coverage on the television, but that will be about it. It just seems that with the country in such a state financially, having a big wedding costing millions of pounds makes the Royal Family seem a bit out of touch.”

It’s a fair point, but back in 1981 the country was hardly in clover. If anything the economy was in a much worse state. A month after the service in Westminster Abbey, Margaret Thatcher announced huge cuts to public spending, sending an already battered economy into recession. Unemployment was on the up and as social unrest had grown, riots had already been witnessed in Brixton, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool. Yet despite or perhaps because of the grim outlook, the British public were determined to have a party, one that even those indifferent to the monarchy were happy to join.

In the years that followed, the Royal Family’s gloss, buffed over many centuries, has begun to look a little tarnished. A series of affairs and divorces didn’t help and when William and Kate announced their engagement last year, even those who had half a notion to wind black the clock to 1981 soon found themselves up against a wall of red tape.

It’s hard to be impromptu these days. Many councils now demand residents wanting to hold a party choose a private street, or a cul-de-sac, where there is no access to other roads. Those who don’t have a handy dead-end nearby have been required to provide traffic plans, detailed risk assessments, arrange for contractors to sign diversion routes and pay for public liability insurance. While David Cameron did a last-minute appeal for commonsense, against that backdrop it’s little wonder councils haven’t exactly been inundated with applications.

At the last count, Leeds had 14 requests, Sheffield 11 and Scarborough 18. Hull had not received a single application. Yet hidden away in some otherwise quiet corners of the county are some determined patriots happy to use Friday’s wedding as an excuse for a party.

“The street has changed a lot in the last few years,” says Melody Conlon, from The Avenue in Horsforth, Leeds. “A lot of new families have moved in and it struck a few of us that no-one really knew each other any more. We’d heard the whole process was a bit of a nightmare, but we decided to put in an initial application and see what happened.

“We were quite sceptical, but we delivered a letter to every house in the street and the one behind and the response was overwhelming. One couple did say they weren’t royalists so didn’t want to be involved, but they were more than happy for the rest of us to carry on.”

So this Friday, shortly after 10am, The Avenue will be closed off as the party tables are erected, families are already busy building model Spitfires for a competition to be judged by a local pilot and the oldest and youngest residents will start the celebrations proper with a toast to William and Kate at 2pm prompt.

At about the same time, 40 miles up the road in Settle, Kim Winder, will also be hoping the hard work will finally pay off. Something of a force of nature, Kim, who moved to the Dales from Leeds 10 years ago, is one of the driving forces behind a Royal wedding party which will not just take over a street, but the entire town centre. When we speak she’s mid-way through stitching 30 metres of bunting,

“We founded a group last year called Vibrant Settle, because we realised there were a lot of small groups doing good things, but they didn’t speak to each other,” says Kim, who still has the tags to hand write for the balloon race and the local bands who are providing the entertainment to organise. “We decided that we would organise a party for the Queen’s Jubilee next year and then William and Kate got engaged so we thought why not use it as a bit of a trial run?

“Instead of sending out emails, a few us actually went to talk to businesses to get them involved and the response was just amazing. Sometimes you just need someone to make the first move.”

The market town is a favourite among tourists, but in recent months there has been some discontent among those who live and work there. Partly it was down to the effects of the recession which has put a strain on many small businesses, and partly it was down to expansion plans announced by Booths supermarket, a move which many thought would be a final nail in the coffin for the shops which surround the cobbled market square. Kim, who recently had to close her own vintage clothes business and now works as a shelf stacker at Booths, hopes the party will also be a way for the community to come together, putting aside old differences.

“Instead of getting producers in from outside, we are encouraging Settle businesses to set up their own stalls, Booths are providing the meat for a big barbecue free of charge and we’ve got volunteers from the local quarry to act as marshals. We have had to jump through quite a few hoops to get all the relevant paperwork completed, but because of everyone’s generosity, the party itself has only cost us £120 for the insurance.

“It has been a lot of organisation, but it’s our way of saying Settle is here and we are open for business.”

According to Julian Knight, author of The Royal Wedding for Dummies, an event like the Royal wedding should be celebrated.

“Royal events do provide a keystone and marker in people’s lives. Everyone remembers where they were on the Silver Jubilee, or Charles and Diana’s wedding. These events form part of our national identity.

“Society and community are things that have disappeared. It would be nice to get something back. Street parties are a great way to forge bonds with the community. Throughout this year and next, the world’s spotlight is on Britain for the wedding and the Olympics. We should, at the very least, show them that us Brits can put on a good party.”

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