For a few disheartening hours yesterday The Big Lunch seemed destined to go down in history as The Big Drench.

The Eden Project’s utopian, nationwide plan to get people out of their houses and on to the streets to share an al fresco meal with their neighbours appeared to be a triumph of optimism over experience as a grey drizzle fell assiduously on to a long line of empty trestle tables at The Big Lunch’s biggest gig in Toxteth, Liverpool, and a lively wind whipped up from the River Mersey.

Fortunately people here are made of sturdy stuff and they finally ventured out in their droves, albeit under a flotilla of umbrellas. As the sun finally broke through the slate clouds Princes Boulevard, 28 years ago the scene of the Toxteth riots, became host to a vast food and music street party and what one man termed poetically as a “neighbourly caress”. Twenty years ago this street represented the unofficial dividing line between the white and ethnic communities here. Yesterday, with this area now housing more than 57 different nationalities, it was its meeting point.

It was a scene repeated across the country from Regent’s Park, in London to Roundhay Park in Leeds and Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park, where people sat down at tables and ate together in a gesture of cordiality with the help of food — the great socialiser.

The idea of Eden Project founder Tim Smit and Paul Twivy to promote “human warming”, it constituted the first big wave of British street parties since the 2002 Golden Jubilee.

Perhaps due to the British reserve and the fact that we rarely speak to our neighbours let alone eat with them, people in Toxteth were slow at first to join the tables and chairs decorated with ribbons and piñatas. “Can anyone sit down here?” a man with two young children asked tentatively, “or are they reserved?”

Some people brought picnics, others shared Tupperware boxes of food, others bought dishes to the tables from the array of vans selling cuisine from around the world. Gerry and Barbara Smith and their daughter Gill were at the tables eating blackbean stew and vegetable curry. They were so impressed by the general philosophy of The Big Lunch and the people they had spoken to that they said they hoped to see it recreated in their home town of Ormskirk next year.

One man said he had bumped into an old schoolfriend he hasn’t seen for 20 years. “It turns out he’s only been living a few streets away from me”, he said. Joanne Harvey, with her young sons Joseph and James, said: “I honestly think this is a brilliant idea. There are so many different communities around here but how often do they all get together?”

The event, organised here by Arts in Regeneration (AiR), did have some hitches. One of the organisers who was due to bring in some of the home-grown food, had to pull out after being diagnosed with swine flu. But visitors seemed more interested in the generosity of spirit on offer than the actual food.

Denise Finch, director of AiR, said: “It’s about bringing the community together and bringing out the best in people.”

Bill Oshinibosi, another of the organisers, added: “This is about getting people to lean across the table and shake hands. It is about going home knowing your neighbour’s first name.”

Mr Smit said: “The greatest things in life are simple and great memories are usually made of things we do ourselves. So, all we want is for people to get out on their street, raise a glass and share a bite with their neighbours — that’s The Big Lunch.”

Email your pictures from your Big Lunch to onlinepics@thetimes.co.uk

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