Street Party - Old School - Thing of the Past

Pomeroy Street 1969

Been watching bits of the Queens 90th Birthday Celebrations on the TV and all the talk of Street parties and I cast my mind back. When I was a kid if the Queen opened a new public toilet it would be an excuse for a street party when neighbours would come together to party. I when to a few back in the day and they were always something to look forward to.

The entire street would chip in to provide food and drink with some mums collecting money weekly even people without kids would make donations because it was the neighbourly think to do. The street would be decorated with bunting and flags. There would also be a little bit of a competition with neighbouring streets over whose street was best decorated. Windows would also be decorated but the big worry always the beautiful British weather.

On the day, organisers would make thousands of sandwiches, cakes, and other party food mostly homemade in people’s houses. Every oven, fridge, and kitchen table must have been in use then time to get the street ready. Houses would be emptied of tables and chairs and lined down the middle of the street with us kids milling around waiting.

From memory, the chairs were numbered for your house number, so my house number four there were two chairs for my brother and me so there would be no crazy stampede. All that interested me were the ham sandwiches and the sausage rolls, my all-time favourite party food. I remember at the Sea Lock pub, which had a street party made their jellies out of sandcastle buckets. I remember there was a big red jelly right in front on the table I never forgot that.

While the kids tucked into the food parents would stand/sit around with cups of tea and keep a watch full eye on the kids. After the food, there would be some fun and games with everyone still hanging out in the street or over the park for a kick about.

At some stage, the dad’s would slip away to the pub leaving the mum’s and the kids to clear up and carry home the table and chairs home. It would be the same all over Cardiff parties most outside in the street and if you street/road need to remain open you would be welcome to join the next street over. Today in the whole of Cardiff, you would be lucky to find one or two proper street parties in the whole of Cardiff.