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But it is a bit silly that Stroud Green Day doesn't include Stroud Green Road.
Not that I'd go to a community day in the first place... There's a reason why we're all here rather than out there, making friends with the neighbours.
You're right about the rubbish coffee, though. Trying to force myself to leave the house and go to Good for Food...
Posting it on the site would have been free as well.
Though I applaud the lovely phrase "priggish interlude".
I put on the first Neighbourhood Day last year. It’s a small, simple idea - encourage people to do something in their front gardens - sell or give away old toys / books / plants / crafts / cakes - which would, in turn, encourage passers-by to walk around the area, stop and say hello.
The problem I found last year is that while I was happy to put in the time necessary to drum up interest in the event and to use email resources to publicise it and so on, it was costly to print enough colour posters. Although I run the event under the auspices of SGRA, (a residents association) it has no funds.
So after last year’s event I successfully applied for funding from the council’s Making a Difference grant programme to run this year’s event to ensure that I could pay for posters and to provide free refreshments – and other additional things I considered at the time such as entertainment.
I was allocated up to £500 from the Making a Difference budget, but in the end I decided to keep things small and a local unicylist took on entertainment duties for free. Other volunteer help included a poster design and people offering to serve the refreshments.
To advertise the event I postered the roads lited below, asked people to use their own email groups etc and contacted local papers.
The cost of putting on the event came in at under £200 – for poster printing, balloons and refreshments at two locations, Holy Trinity Church and a front garden on Stapleton Hall Road.
Incidentally, I received help and advice from several people at the council including members of the local neighbourhood team and I would encourage anyone who has an idea for the area to approach them. They are keen for community input. As is the safer Neighbourhoods Police team.
Neighbourhood Day, by the way, was called just that - it wasn’t Stroud Green Neighbourhood Day. The posters etc announced it as Neighbourhood Day and then listed the streets involved - Mountview Road, Stapleton Hall Road, Granville Road and the roads inbetween - Elyne, Albany, Addington, Quernmore and part of Oakfield.
I chose the area because it’s where I live, because there seemed to be natural cut-off points for the border and because the area, though not massive, contains some ‘institutions’ such as a church and library which would get involved.
The local police team also attended the event and two local councillors helped out with a book giveaway. Craft workers were represented by jewellery makers, soft furnishings and pottery that I know of, and there were lots of book and toy stalls. One of my neighbours sold sizeable plants for £1 a pot and some other people played roadside games. I did a small golf game in the garden, sold jam and gave children chalk so they could decorate the pavement. Many of the stallholders - alhtough there are no rules as such about this - were passing any money they made to charities.
Overall, it was all very low key, as it was intended to be - and we enjoyed good weather - although obviously, this sort of event is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea.
I had quite a lot of positive feedback with people thinking of staging street parties on their own roads and someone saying they would plan a similar event in their part of Stroud Green (I don’t know which part, I’ll leave ‘border issues’ to other people).
I will probably offer to run the event again on the same roads although there is no funding for next year, so volunteer help would be appreciated.
I hope this post is helpful.
Sounds okay to me otherwise - maybe we could do something for Lower Stroud Green next year - I'm picturing a sound system and some cans of red stripe.
Just one further thought. Were community relations really that much better a generation ago? We've just moved from a flat where we knew everyone in the block, and would stop to have a chat to about half of them. One offered to babysit when we had an emergency, and they were all happy to take parcels in for us when we were out.
Within 24 hours of moving to a new street we'd met about five people who lived on the street, one of whom bought us a bottle of wine to christen to new house.