Hundreds of thousands of patriotic Britons will break out the bunting next week to celebrate the royal wedding – but official figures reveal a class divide among those hosting street parties.
While middle class communities in the south east and the Home Counties have embraced the idea of hosting a traditional royal themed street party, the more working class areas including the industrial cities of the north have proved less than enthusiastic.
According to the Local Government Association (LGA) more than 5,500 communities have applied to close their roads off in order to host street parties.
London topped the national table with more than 800 applications, while Hertfordshire, Surrey and Kent all featured high up on the list with large numbers of celebrations taking place.
But in the working class heartlands such as Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield take up has been much less enthusiastic.
In Glasgow, which has a population of almost 600,000 not one application for a street party has been made.
In the London boroughs figures suggest there will be around one party for every 9,600 residents.
But in Birmingham the figure is just one for every 41,000 residents, in Liverpool one for every 27,630 and in Manchester one for every 20,130.
In Yorkshire royal wedding fever has failed to grip Bradford, which is having just fours street parties across the city, while Leeds has 21 and Sheffield 31.
Overall figures are also down on 1981 despite a major push by the Prime Minister to get people to mark the royal wedding within their own community.
When Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer married, millions of people took part in open air parties, and even more took to the streets in 1977 to mark the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
But experts believe that rather than a loss of affection for the monarchy, it is a breakdown in community spirit in large cities and towns that has led to people becoming increasingly insular and therefore reluctant to take part in mass celebrations with their neighbours.
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