Love Albert Road Day is estimated to have drawn around 40,000 people to the street for an afternoon of music, beer and celebration.

The one-day event, several months in the making, massively increased footfall for the road's independent shops, but traders said the challenge was to keep momentum up for the rest of the year.

Carole Howell, owner of Carole's Cafe at the eastern end of the street, said she was 'touching wood' that the business would keep going through testing times.

She said: 'It's been wonderful. We're busy on Sundays anyway, but we've had, I'd say, 25 to 30 per cent more people through the door at least. Probably most of them haven't been before, and with any luck they'll be back. It's fabulous to see everybody outside. Someone was saying it's almost like a little bit of London.'

Others like Mark Jeff, owner of Cafe Citrus, midway along the road, said he had seen footfall increase five-fold, but he said turning the street into a pedestrianised precinct or better management of traffic would help to make a long-term difference.

Peter Harris, owner of Garbo's Hair at the western fringe of the street, which had speakers outside blasting music into the packed road, said: 'It's been organised by the community, and it's better than anything Portsmouth City Council has ever done here.

'If you're talking about trade, it's really the bars that make the money, but it's still good PR for us.

'If you look at the Southsea festival, it got cancelled through lack of interest. But look around, there's no lack of interest here.

'I don't think it's creating a renaissance for Southsea, because that's happening organically anyway. What it does is give people an opportunity to come down and enjoy themselves and see what's going on.'

As Sunday's event began to draw to a close late in the afternoon, its chief organiser, Ian Parmiter, said: 'It's the heart and soul of Southsea. We've really achieved something today.'