Ashwater Road street party: Residents celebrate through the rain

Ashwater Road residents had food, drink and most importantly, gazebos, out ready for their patriotic festivities. 

While they had hoped for the sun to come out, they were prepared for all sorts of weather and were determined to keep the party going.

Vanessa, organiser of the street party, said: "I think we all had a lot of hope that the weather was going to be on our side.

"Our other street parties have been a huge success and the weather has been a huge part of it."

Ashford Road frequently holds play streets which is when the road is closed for a few hours and a street party can take place.

The road is marshalled, so traffic can still pass through if needs be. 

Ashwater Road street party: Residents celebrate through the rain (Image: Emily Davison)

Play streets are intended to encourage children to come outside and play and for the community to get to know one another.

Vanessa added: "Our recent play streets have been quite damp and we haven't come out to play as much but today, everyone is here."

"The street won an award for London play.

"It's about community.

Left to right: Teresa, Paul and Karen at Ashford Road (Image: Emily Davison)

"It's important for us to be able to all be together and for people to have that joint experience and hang out together.

"I think that lots of the children go to different schools and are different ages so it's nice for them to hang out together and build relationships.

"But as well as the relationships amongst children, we're building relationships amongst adults too and I think a lot of people assume play streets are for children, but actually, adults get a lot from it too."

The implementation of play streets came after the pandemic, when the people of Ashford Street felt that the people close to you are very important.

Ashwater Road street party: Residents celebrate through the rain (Image: Emily Davison)

Vanessa also said that new families had moved to the road and the current residents wanted to get to know everyone.

She added: "As part of our play street of the year awards, we won some money to spend on play and we decided to spend this money on things that would bring play to the road and make play a part of the road.

"So, one of the things we're doing is sunflowers we spent the money on sunflower seeds, soil and plant pots and everybody is going to be planting a sunflower on the road.

Vanessa and her daughter holding up the award (Image: Emily Davison)

"Hopefully, come September, you'll be able to see all of the sunflowers that have grown.

"We're also doing some craft activities and the children at the moment are very keen on fairies and gnomes.

"So, one of the things we're doing is painting some gnomes and fairies which we will put amongst the panters so that other people who come to the road can have a look and see if the fairies are here when they come."