To not want to talk to my neighbours?

I am lucky. I have really lovely neighbours on both sides and across the road. We help each other ie neighbour fell over and wife called us for help ..happy to get him off the floor,other neighbour has recently had a baby and have looked after baby so she can get some rest ,other neighbour came over and rescued my dog when I was going to be 4 hours late from work!
We live in a road where houses are detached and £800k + so not on top of each other,we are just normal people who like to be helpful.

In case you were considering it, do not move to, or possibly even visit Yorkshire or any further north.

I’m from Yorkshire but now down south. I really miss the way everyone chats to anyone.

Relax they’re just being friendly. Moving forward get in the habit of having something to do after 5mins chat. Sorry June must dash, got to pick the kids up from karate.

You're feeling claustrophobic by one conversation? They were probably just being friendly and welcoming. It's not necessarily a sign of things to come.

We've lived in our neighborhood for 20 years and stop to chat on occasions, but have never 'socialised'. Except during covid when we had street parties, but they were totally optional.

I live in Yorkshire, if i ever catch a bus or train you always end up knowing someone's life story before you get off! I love it!! Also my ability to find common ground with anyone and chat is fantastic, in my eyes that's a good trait.

Nothing to say, apart from am in awe of your name, BuffetTheDietSlayer

This is me. I'm not social at all but I make the effort once in a while to stop and chat and ask about the family etc then I feel the rest of the time a quick "morning" as I hurry past will suffice.

Don’t make your neighbours think you’re totally weird - you might need them one day too.
You might even make new friends - shocked horror!!
Btw never ever go walking in the National Parks - you say hello to total strangers! (It’s actually really nice).

Jesus Christ people need to grow up.

This is weird.

we’ve lived next door to our current neighbours for 5 years. We have helped each other out, shared drinks etc over that time.

a previous neighbour was a huge help when the hospital started sending information about my wife’s cancer treatment to an old address as she new the new occupier and worked at the hospital.

the world is a sadder place without communication

this.

Depends on the neighbour.
In my first house, the old couple next door was so intrusive. We had a decorator in not long after we moved in. After returning from taking the baby for a walk, our decorator told us a weird woman keeps putting her hands up against the window to watch what he was doing!

The old guy would lean on the fence and watch me hang the washing out. I came home one day to see my washing was gone from the line... Next door had 'kindly' took it in for me and folded it all, underwear included at the top of the pile, and was sitting on their dining table. It wasn't even due to rain...

After trying to pull away from them slightly, they turned awful. They turned the other neighbours against us, who allowed their grandchildren to kick a football against my house. Banging on our door very early one morning accusing us of stealing their wheelie bin?! They could see clearly my front and back garden, so no idea where they thought I'd put it, especially when it was bin day morning, my bin was still out and they'd woke me up. Mental.

It took a few years to get friendly with these new neighbours. One is no bother at all, we bring each others bins in, it just naturally started happening. We talk minimally but friendly if we see eachother by the back doors.
The other neighbour is abit over friendly. She'd consider us friends and so would I, to a degree. But she would pop up at the wall to make small talk or to gossip about other neighbours.

90% of the time I'd have to listen to see if the coast was clear before I went out. Now I've put up some small trees against the wall but slightly taller than it so her view of 'catching' me is limited. But they're friendly and our husbands help eachother out, he's aging but knowledgeable and my husband is younger and knows abit but not as much as neighbour husband so it works well. But they do overstep sometimes and I wouldn't trust her to be civil if we fell out...

I'm looking to move in the next few years, terraced life isn't for me, somewhere with a private garden and hopefully private but civil neighbours 😬😁

Is that a joke? Or do you really do that?

I'm the same, it's one of the nice things about city living, that I can be anonymous and people mind their own business. I'm sort of nosy about my neighbours though, even though I don't talk to them directly I'll eavesdrop on them in the garden and Google search their names to see what jobs they have etc.

Oh dear, you sound a bit of a misery. You don’t have to go into in-depth conversations with your neighbours, I expect they way laid you for so long as they were trying to make you feel welcome, you know community spirit and all that., But to ignore would be blatantly rude..

Maybe you need to move back to a large anonymous city or move to a desert island ?

This is a thing but you can just say hi or smile and say got to go.

I live in London and I talk to my neighbours, we will often have a long chat. It’s nice to be friendly

I’ve got Avoidant Personality Disorder so I go to great extremes to avoid seeing or talking to my neighbours. JUST LEAVE ME ALONE

I have great neighbours. I've lived here 32 years and I think only one set in our part of the street has been here longer.
We chat occasionally, sometimes have them in for coffee or drinks. Take in parcels, group WhatsApp for problems or parcels or bins during holidays.
They would all help in an emergency which did happen 26 years ago when my husband had a seizure at 6.30 in the morning so I left my 4 and 6 year old children with the next door neighbour until my parents could get here.
I really never want to move. I know I'm very lucky.

This is such an emotive subject......
What I think is normal is: POLITE NODDING and GOOD MORNING, then p!$$ taking through the bet curtains ( my mother was like this) But it CAN BE IMPOSED SOCIALISING as you say..... I have recently moved and one of my neighbours , one side is severely disabled, so I jump when he clicks his fingers and shower him with all sorts of goodies from town because I m big hearted and feel sorry for him and even bought cat food. I'm trying to curtail this a bit because he hardly ever says THANK YOU, rather things like : MAKE SURE YOU DO. Also A new neighbour, the other side, just moved in and keeps hinting about borrowing my garden equipment and I was thinking : Buy Your F...... Own like I had to. My last house that I moved from was from a posh estate and I was not exploited like this, rather everyone was respectful, and kind so it depends on circumstances, very much and individual personalities.

I get on well with both sets of neighbours but we don’t chat for ages. Which is just as well as I hate small talk. The neighbours on the left keep mostly to themselves. The ones on the right we’ve had lengthier chats when sat outside on a summer night out the front with a glass of wine (that’s where the sun is of an evening!) and it’s been fine. You set the tone OP. Just don’t spend a lot of time out your front if you don’t want to get stuck chatting. Do you have a back garden with high walls/fence lol?

I lived all over London for years and always chatted to my neighbours. I'm the complete opposite of you OP I actively make sure I know my neighbours and have a friendly chat at least when we first meet - if they are clearly grumpy fine but I think for reasons of safety and community - it's good to keep an eye out for each other.

I moved to a smaller place recently and am already friends with my neighbours!

I think you personally have lived in unfriendly transient places but it has nothing to do with city life

Against the stereotype I found zone 2 London (various parts of it) the friendliest places I've ever lived - despite it being 'the city'.

My neighbours have become surrogate parents to me over the years especially since I helped in a medical emergency, I would have missed out on an amazing relationship by not talking to them.

Obviously not the same for everyone.