http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014 ... ommunities

Pretending your neighbours don't exist over here would never work, we're not that sort of a society for want of a better phrase. The women alone wouldn't stand for it...

I would dearly love to be able to walk out my front door and around the local streets without bumping into countless people I feel obliged to small talk with

Best way to be left alone in London, smile on public transport

When I've smiled at people in London - on the streets as well as public transport, I've always had smiles back. (8+)

Mark

The only time I've met the neighbours that live across from me was when they locked themselves out of their flat and asked me for the number of the landlord. *laugh*

On occassion I will take out all the bins if I know what bin needs to be taken out, and others do this too, only they always leave mine out, which is weird because I always bring them all in again if I'm around and the bins are empty. *shrug*

Mark

Aside from me mentioning to my neighbour that her dad's car had a flat tyre last week, we haven't been on speaking terms for good knows how long... At least five or six years.

Sent from my big ass Sony Xperia Z Ultra tabphonelet, using Tapatalk 4.

I've always spoken to my neighbours, even if it is to just say good morning etc. I've always lived in very sociable areas.

I'm the same. I guess it's partly due to spending the first 11 years of my life living in RAF married quarters where everyone knows everyone, but even when we moved out into civvy-street my parents were always friendly with the neighbours at least 2 doors on either side, I played with their kids etc. Now, I have one set of neighbours who we're friendly with, we look after their dogs when they go away, they do the same for our birds and cats, we swap vegetables from the garden etc. I suspect I'll always be like this now, it's just how I was raised, it's also one of the benefits of living in a very small village

"When I were a lad..."

Jokes aside, when we were younger, we would play with the neighbours' kids and we would say hello to their parents even when passing in the street. As neighbours moved out, new ones came in and by that time, we were no longer aware of who our neighbours were. We're reasonably friendly with neighbours on one side. The others are Romanian and keep themselves to themselves. Don't really wanna chat to them but have had to on occasion to move their car (blocking my garage).

EDIT: At university, we didn't really speak to our neighbours (even though some were students) and when I lived in a maisonette, I think I spoke to two people, each on separate occasions, for the entire twelve months that I lived there.

I wonder if it has to do with the rise in renting and people moving a lot more, or HMOs being created on residential family houses streets.

It costs nothing to be polite and shout a greeting to a neighbour.

We get on pretty well with our immediate neighbours - either side and the few houses directly across the road (not including the drug-addled moron who moved back in with his parents next door). I even introduced myself to a new neighbour on Saturday, he moved in a few weeks ago but our paths haven't crossed until now.

There are one or two others I'd happily never speak to again - psycho bitch on the corner who scowls at everyone, Whistler at no.19 who is about 65 and insanely territorial (goes mad if someone's bumper overhangs the white line of his parking space by a few inches) and "hateful volvo bitch" who always parks her car outside my house when she goes on holiday (although she hasn't done it since I left a lengthy and strongly worded note under her wiper earlier this year).