Yet, the street remains a powerful symbol of political action, to ‘reclaim’ the streets is a strategy to insert oneself at the heart of public life. In 1968, the streets of Paris rocked to running battles between students and police – a protest against the emptiness and complacency of post-war society. In 1992, the acquittal of a number LAPD officers on the charge of beating black suspect Rodney King led to several days rioting in South and South Central LA – the worst riots that century. More peacefully the streets remains a focus for carnival, celebration and community – places for inclusiveness. For De Certeau, simply to walk city streets is to claim some kind of positive ownership, his idea of ‘pedestrian rhetoric’ describes the ways in which people move through the city claiming, and generating new meanings for spaces, altering their character through forms of movement, interaction and activity.

While public spaces are increasingly constructed and maintained in the image of city authorities, developers and commercial interests, the public are never wholly passive or prescribed. For Steven Flusty public spaces are always ‘rife with cracks…. enabling a wide and eccentric range of unforeseen, unauthorized actions’, public spaces then, invite alternative actions. As long as space remains a contested concept - whether in Notting Hill or Bunker Hill - there are always opportunities for people to re-energize and re-humanize public spaces, making new and visible imprints on the urban landscape.