A DECADE and a half ago, Hamboro Gardens was not unlike any other street in Leigh.

Residents of the 38 houses knew their immediate neighbours and might wave to people further down the road if they saw them, but there was no sign of the tight-knit community feel which characterises the street today.

All that changed in 2002 when the nation came together to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

Many, like Hamboro Gardens, held lavish street parties the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the Silver Jubilee of 1977, and which some feared may have become a thing of the past.

As it happened, not only was the street party an enormous success, but the residents had so much fun organising it and getting to know each other they decided to make similar events a regular occurrence, and many have become close friends.

So successful have the street parties been, including one for the 2011 royal wedding and 2012 Diamond Jubilee, that Hamboro Gardens was chosen by Southend Council as the location of its beacon for the Queen’s 90th birthday this month.

And, of course, another street party will follow for the Queen’s official birthday celebrations on June 11, the organising of which is gathering pace, with 450 neighbours, friends and family expected to attend.

“We didn’t know each other very well at all before the first street party,” says committee member Shirley Emery, 52.

“You knew your neighbour next you and might wave to a neighbour down the street but, once it started, we all got to know each other because most of the street took part in the organising – and friendships definitely developed out of that.

“My children then are now in their early twenties and are still good friends with all the neighbours’ children.”

As well as the further royal street parties, the residents got together to organise a now annual barbecue at the end of summer, street parties for every summer Olympiad, coach trips to Brighton together, regular pub and curry nights, firework displays, and annual Christmas carols, even turning committee meetings into events in themselves.

“I had no idea it would grow as it has – I thought it was a one-off,” she adds. “We all thoroughly enjoyed putting the street party together at the time but everyone thought it was such a success that we should do something else.

“We all have a good laugh together and keep things going by finding reasons to get together as a community – and we don’t need much of a reason.”

“Most of the new neighbours who move in can’t believe how well our street works, and some people tell us they haven’t moved away because they love it so much. It’s become a community in itself.

“Every so often we get people saying ‘oh my gosh, that’s amazing, I wish we had that in our road’ but it is possible . You just need to get started. And once we got started we couldn’t stop.”