Street Parties

Street Party Guidance

What defines a street party?

• It is a residential gathering on a single street.
• There must be three named residents of the street (not from the same address) who are over 18 to ensure the planning can go ahead.
• At least one of the named organisers must be present for the duration of the street party
• It is not a public event and is only advertised directly to the residents on the street
• It is not-for-profit and the activities are not commercial
• The party takes place on one day only, between the hours of 10:00 and 19:30 with the road being opened again to all traffic no later than 20:00. 

Some Street Parties do have commercial or licensable activity. We refer to these as ‘street events’ and will work with the organisers more closely. ‘Street events’ will require public liability insurance and may incur costs for road closures and licensing for sale of alcohol and regulated entertainment. Please fill in the street party application form and detail all proposed activities. We will contact you directly if your street party is a ‘street event’.

For larger and commercial events, please use our online events application form.

Street Party Application Considerations

1. Road Closure

There are some roads which cannot be closed for street parties. Such as main roads or busy thoroughfares routes, bus routes or roads that provide access to other roads of which there is no alternative diversion route. Furthermore on a weekend if there are other road closures in the area it might not be possible to close your road as well. This will be a decision made by our Highways team to ensure there is clear diversion routes in and around road closures. This is critical for emergency vehicles especially.

Please submit your application and if there is an issue we will get in touch and discuss this with you.

2. Consultation

The organisers are required to contact all residents in the street to tell them about the plans for the Street Party. If a resident on your street has concerns, then it is through this process that organisers can find out what the concerns are and work together to find a solution.

3. Application

We process applications in batches depending on the month of your event. It takes up to 6 weeks to complete the processes internally across all the departments.

4. Assessment

Once you have submitted your application form the Events work with colleagues in the Highways Team to assess your application.

5. Confirmation

Once we have assessed the application and ensured the road closure can take place, we will contact you via email to confirm the street party can go ahead. We aim to let you know within 14 days of the application being submitted.

6. Traffic Notice, Road Closed Signs and Barriers

About 2 weeks before your street party Lambeth Council will place street notices on lamp posts and act as a formal notice that the road will be closed on the day of your street party.

You are required to have chapter 8 compliant Road Closed signs and barriers. You can hire these through the council at a cost of £100. Lambeth Council will then arrange for our Highways contractor to supply these on our behalf. The cost of the hire is subsidised by Lambeth Council and is paid to the contractors.

Find out more about the signage requirements and other ways to source them.

7. Further information 

You can find out more about running street parties here.