Carol Delaney with her grandchildren in Hampstead Heath

TRIBUTES have been paid to the bingo-loving “queen” of Torriano Estate and supermum Carol Delaney, who was lovingly remembered this week for her community spirit and stodgy Yorkshire puds.

Ms Delaney, who died last week aged 71, was a tenants’ champion on her estate in Kentish Town, and her campaigns led to two parks, a garden and a football pitch being built – as well as a huge reduction in crime.

She was recognised with special awards for her community work 20 years ago.

The mum of two worked for years as a centre manager in the NW5 Community Play Project, where she went above and beyond to help struggling families, until retiring during lockdown following a dementia diagnosis.

When she wasn’t caring for others, Ms Delaney could be found playing bingo in Cricklewood, having fun with her grandchildren, trying her luck at scratch cards or filling out crosswords in a puzzle book that she always kept with her.

“She was a really good mum,” said her oldest daughter Claire, 40, who lives in Kilburn.

“She wanted the best for her girls all the time. She was always buying things that we didn’t need, just things that she’d seen. She’d think ‘oh that’s nice or that’s useful’ or whatever, ‘I’ll get that for Claire’.”

She recalled: “She used to cook for us as a family. We used to go round on a Sunday for roast dinner and stodgy Yorkshire puddings.”

Ms Delaney was born in Bushey, grew up in Harrow and moved to Kentish Town after school, working as a bartender at music venue The Forum. It was there she met the father of her two daughters when she was in her 20s.

Her daughter said: “I think The Forum was just some sort of dancehall back then – I don’t think it’s what it is now. Her and dad got talking afterwards. I think she and her friend who was also a bar lady there got chatting to my dad and a friend of his and they ended up going out to a party later that night.”

The couple had their first child when Ms Delaney was 30, but they separated.

In the New Journal with newsreader Jon Snow at the opening of Torriano estate’s community garden in 2004

Her youngest daughter, Aishling Turner, 32, said: “She supported me through everything. I’ve had my own problems in the past with addiction and mental health problems and she’s always been there for me no matter what. She never turned her back on me and supported me and loved me. She was my best friend. I had her saved in my phone book as ‘my queen’.”

One fond memory that sticks in Ms Turner’s mind is her wedding day.

She said: “With addiction and everything like that, I never thought that day would ever come for me. For it to come and to have my mum standing next to me was a proud moment.”

Ms Delaney went on to work at the Community Housing Association in Chalk Farm, which became part of One Housing.

Around 2005 she joined the Play Project, where her children used to go.

Dwight Semple, who also lives on the Torriano Estate and worked at the play centre, said Ms Delaney inspired him so much that he applied for a job so he could work alongside her.

He said: “The first time I met her I was a kid. I was probably a brat kicking a football I shouldn’t have been kicking against a wall. She made me respect her for who she was.

“She never pushed you away. She gave everyone the opportunity to feel loved as a child. That’s why I wanted to work for her because she was a great leader.”

The many children that went to the play centre when she was there had nothing but good things to say about her.

Mr Semple said: “These kids were in eight hours of school working, she made sure once they came out the centre was a place of safety and fun for them. The kids made the rules, we had a children’s code of conduct that they wrote. There was no adult influence. The children were basically our bosses. It was our job to make them happy.

“If kids forgot their packed lunches she would make them one. She spent her own money on games, trips, snacks, anything for the kids or the centre, which no one would ever know about. She would never turn a child away. She was an amazing woman.”