On Saturday 28 November 400 children got spooky at East Sheen's Halloween Treasure Hunt, trick or treating their way around shops and businesses along the Upper Richmond Road and Sheen Lane.

This annual event brings businesses and community together, creating fun, laughter and lots of life to the streets of Sheen – as well as raising funds for the children's charity, the School of Hard Knocks, and encouraging people to visit businesses they may not have been to before.

With a record 32 participating businesses and 400 children, this year there were two separate trails, plus a huge balloon arch for photo opportunities, a 'guess the number of treats in the treat jar' competition, apple bobbing and a whole host of other fun activities at The Hare & Hounds where the hunt began and ended. 

Participation was free for local businesses, and each was given a cluster of Halloween balloons to display to denote their participation and a letter for inside. Children had to spot all the letters and then unjumble them to make a sentence and win a story book, as well as collecting many lovely treats along the way.

There were prizes too for the business that parents and children voted as giving the Best Welcome (Miswak Dental) and for the Best Window Display (a tie between Sheen Uncovered and Lasyl AV). It was a hard fought competition.

The Treasure Hunt was organised by The Hare & Hounds in collaboration with East Sheen Business & Retail Association/East Sheen Village. Balloons were supplied by A Party Palace, volunteers from Richmond Gymnastic Association helped with the photo booth and businesses sent staff to help one another when it all got a bit busy – keeping it local!

The Hare & Hounds' Lisa Sutcliffe said, "This was our biggest and best Halloween Hunt to date and a huge team and community effort! Our lovely local businesses did a fantastic and creative job of dressing their windows – and themselves! - to get into the spooky spirit. It's brilliant to have such positive feedback, so watch this space for next year when we'll be outdoing ourselves once again!"