Top tips for a fun street party this coronation weekend

It’s a time to celebrate, not just with friends and family, but also with your community. It’s an opportunity to build relationships with the neighbours you’ve never had a chance to talk to since buying your new home or never get to see with your hectic schedule. These are our top tips for a fun and entertaining coronation weekend.

Street parties

Street parties were originally known as ‘peace teas’ and were started to mark the end of the first world war. They were formal affairs focusing on poor or orphaned children. From there they have evolved into what we know today.

Communities all over the UK will get together this weekend to decorate streets with bunting, gather for food and drink and get to know each other better. Will they beat the estimated 10 million people[1] that took part in street parties for Queen Elizabeth’s Silver Jubilee?

If you want more than a cup of tea and a piece of cake at your party, here are some fun ideas for activities to get people mixing:

• Neighbourhood Olympics – friendly competition like a sack race or three-legged race will bring people together. Or a good game of ‘tug of war’ – odds vs even house numbers!
• Street art – set up stations for chalk drawing or painting. It’s a chance for the community to get creative together.
• Scavenger hunt – create clues leading to different locations. It’s a good way to explore your community.

Dress to impress

You can never have enough red, white, and blue! If you’re having a party, encourage guests to show their patriotism with clothing of suitable colours.

What would a good party be without fancy dress? Encourage guests to come dressed as any member of the Royal Family throughout history is sure to be an icebreaker, and a small prize for the best dressed will create a friendly community competition.

Making a coronation hat is a great way to get children involved. I remember vividly making a very red, white and blue top hat for a Silver Jubilee party. It was a mass of cardboard, glue and crepe paper and fell to pieces after a couple of hours, but it was fun to make. You too could be the proud owner of such a masterpiece with a little help here.

Food adventures

You can’t have a Coronation party without good food. Probably the first thing that comes to mind is Coronation chicken. It was first created by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume, principals of the Cordon Bleu Cookery School, in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

For his own Coronation, King Charles has chosen the humble coronation quiche as his signature dish. However, we live in a time now with hugely diverse communities and with that comes a tantalising variety of cuisines. If you’re having a large gathering in your community, ask people to bring dishes that represent their culture and have fun trying something new.

Get the party started

Looking for musical inspiration for your coronation party? Look no further than the official coronation website where you can find a playlist put together by the Department for Culture, Sport and Media on behalf of King Charles, plus a selection of templates, recipes and materials to use for your party.

Some say the playlist has missed a trick by not including a more diverse range of music. You can address that by asking guests to suggest music that represents them. . Better still, maybe your neighbours are budding singers or musicians who could put on a live performance.

Start a conversation

If you’re the sort of person who is short of things to say at parties, you might want to be armed with some nuggets of trivia. You’ll be the life and soul in no time with your bountiful knowledge. Especially useful when you get trapped in a corner by that neighbour from number 54. So did you know?…

• There are 87 Coronation Streets in the UK[2].
• The UK has 7,966 streets with the word Queen, King, Royal, Jubilee, Monarch, Coronation or Crown in the title[3].
• The value of your home can be adversely affected by being situated in a road with a funny name[4].
• Living in a street with a name considered ‘positive’ or ‘happy’ can increase the value of your home by an average of £24,830[5].
• The most expensive street in the UK is Phillimore Gardens in Kensington, West London with an average property price of £23.8m[6].
• The UK’s oldest road is the Ridgeway dating back over 5,000 years and stretching from Wiltshire to Berkshire[7].
• King Charles III plays the guitar, the cello, and the piano[8].
• The world’s first tarmac road was built in 1902 in Nottingham – it is now Radcliffe Road[9].

Whichever way you intend to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, we hope you have fun and enjoy getting to know new people within your community.