Why don’t we do it in the road?
South Hillsiders is what we call our street association. It started with a few of us meeting in a sitting room to plan an informal street party, and grew from there into an email list with over 300 people on it.
But we weren’t the first. Between 1986 and 1991 the South Hill Park Area Residents (SPAR) organised picnics, street parties, and treasure hunts.
I see in these posters the generous hand of the late Nick Wood and the organising energy of Joan Raphael-Leff.
SPAR corresponded with the authorities about the then new conservation area and the restriction of parking in Hampstead. It had a committee, with officers and an Annual General Meeting.
This is how it was done then. Only a few years later, the internet arrived.
