Forum topic: Breathing life into our streets

Richard McKeever of Bowes and Bounds Connected has written an excellent piece for Changing London about the efforts to transform Myddleton Road in Bowes Park. At the moment this once bustling shopping street is just a ghost of its former self, but twice recently it's been transformed into a community space - once for a very successful street market, the other time for a Christmas lights and carols event. These two events "breathed life" into a troubled street - the life being people stopping to chat and pass the time of day, instead of scurrying along the pavement in a hurry to get somewhere else.

Richard also mentions the Draw on the Pavements Day that was organised by people living in Devonshire Road, in the heart of Palmers Green. Fun for the kids and a chance for their parents to socialise, without having to put up with the noise, fumes and danger from passing cars. Residents were recently given the chance to vote for or against having regular Play Street closures and the result, announced last Wednesday , came out in favour. Let's hope that the idea spreads more widely.

One of the potential candidates for the next London Mayor, the journalist Christian Wolmar , is suggesting that small amounts of money should be available to local residents to help them turn their street into a "lovely street", and he points to successful schemes in Holland and, closer to home, Camden Town.

It's encouraging that one of the options that Enfield Council are proposing to solve "rat running" problems in Grenoble Gardens (off Green Lanes, just south of the North Circ) is in fact to make the street more pedestrian-friendly and "lovely" so that motorists can appreciate that for the sake of saving a few minutes they are disturbing the tranquillity of a residential street..