The street party has been an annual shindig since 1995 and was acknowledged this year with a letter from Buckingham Palace wishing them “an enjoyable day for all”.
The Pearly King of Finsbury, John Walters, his son Darren and Pearly consort Evie Waldren joined the celebration in Warner Road on Sunday (September 7)in their colourful suits sewn with thousands of pearl buttons.
The 77-year-old took the microphone to share some cockney rhyming slang and lead a singalong.
You would hardly Adam and Eve it — right in the middle of the frog and toad.
They were invited by a parent at Highgate Wood School where Evie Waldren works.
“We had a cultural day at school and I wore our traditional dress with pearly buttons,” Evie explained. “One of the children went home and told their mum about it, so we were invited.”
Pearly kings and queens are a cockney tradition going back nearly two centuries when London’s Victorian costermongers and market peddlers would dress in pearl-button suits to raise money for good causes.
Evie cut a cake depicting the street party which had been baked by co-organiser Felicity Slater. A tug-of-war and face painting kept adults and children entertained.
The neighbours claim Warner Road is “the friendliest street in north London”.
One neighbour, 78-year-old Laura Fransella, who has lived there 47 years, recalled the year the street party idea was born.
She said: “It was a way of putting names to faces and helping each other out. We think it’s the friendliest street.”
Her husband Cortland Fransella, 77, recalled the first street party back in 1995.
He said: “We enjoyed it so much that we staged another the following year and it’s just gone on ever since.”
He added modestly: “It’s the best street in London, we think.”
Neera Malhotra, 57, who has lived there for 26 years, said: “The street party is a point of contact. People genuinely know each other and look out for one another.”
The neighbours are now looking to Christmas when they hold their annual ‘Advent windows’ in December. They just enjoy being good neighbours.
