Ours was one of the 5000 plus streets closed off for the Royal Wedding. We’d received leaflets and a flurry of emails about the day but I still wasn’t quite sure what to expect; would anyone actually venture out of their house to join the party or would it just be the five of us who’d met in the pub the month before to hatch plans waving our flags?

I really shouldn’t have worried, at 8am my neighbours were up ladders hanging the bunting before running back to their houses for wedding kick-off. By 1pm (when the party officially started) our street was jam packed with revellers and tables overflowing with food. We even received a visit from Heart FM and the local paper who took photos of the party.

I was one of the three lucky neighbours to judge the Bake Off, bribing my way in with three bags of Vintage cookery books to give away as prizes – including Peyton & Byrne’s British Baking, The Whoopie Pie Book and the brilliantly retro Perfect Picnic book. We three judges speculated how many cakes would be entered, guessing about ten max but we couldn’t have been more wrong. With our official judging sheets and forks at the ready (marking cakes on taste, appearance and creativity) we started to think we’d bitten off more than we could chew as the first table got so full we had to commandeer another. We all looked a little bit stunned (and delighted of course) when the grand total of entries eventually came to 22.

The standard of baking was extraordinary and it was lovely to see that something so simple could bring the whole street together. Luckily the cakes were as tasty as they looked and gave me a nice sugar high that lasted well into Sunday. It was a tough call judging the winner and two runners-ups but the winning cake clearly stood out.

After the winner was announced, everyone got to sample the entries.

It really was a fantastic day and we were all a little bit sad when it came to an end. People kept saying we should definitely do another. I’d really recommend a street party as it is a lot of fun and a great way to get to know your neighbours and I’d especially recommend being a judge at a Bake Off, although remember not to eat anything for at least a day before…

Lisa Gooding, Vintage Publicity