In the 1950s and '60s, the capital had around 200 Play Streets that gave children a safe place to play outdoors near their homes. Funding cuts mean these dwindled but now the organisation London Play has received Lottery funding to help its brilliant mission of creating traffic-free streets for children to play in. Islington is the latest borough to allow residents to regularly close streets for this purpose (see www.islington.gov.uk/playstreets) and the first event takes place in Canning Road, N5 on Sunday May 18.
The street will be closed from Riversdale Road to before the police station, for gleeful fun like a tug-of-war, since many locals don't have a garden in which to let off steam. There will definitely be no killjoy 'No ball games signs' – kids are welcome to take outdoor toys such as scooters, bikes, skates and soft balls (play nice though, no hard balls allowed). Children must be accompanied and there will be cups of tea for the grown-ups.
Marshals are needed, contact canningroadplay@aol.com to volunteer.