Anyone else feel that it become a bit Mad Max outside?

[OllietheOwl]

I popped to the shops yesterday after dark (8pm ish) to get essentials and it was like stepping into a Mad Max scene. Dark, gloomy... unsavoury characters on the streets. I’m in London and usually when I’m out and about at night I feel totally safe (probably due to the amount of people around). It just felt really unsafe all of a sudden! I even got paranoid that I was being followed home by someone after I left the shop. I guess unlike the summer lockdown where you’d get lots of people still congregating outside in the evenings, people really are staying in now!
Anyone else noticed a real change in their area?

Honestly, it's probably your imagination getting the better of you. Have you been a bit more stressed lately?

Pretty normal around here (East London).

The only thing different is that fewer people are trickling home from work throughout the evening, so I suppose there are fewer people outdoors on a damp evening, and the ones who are, aren't wearing work clothes. Could that be it?

It's always a bit quieter at this time.ofnyear and with no pubs to go to and not being able to see friends...

Tbh, the people you are seeing would have been out anyway.

I haven't noticed anything like that here (not London but tier 4).

It’s not your imagination.

It’s been well reported in the papers that sexual harassment has shot up with perpetrators making the most of quiet empty streets.

My daughter who always seems to attract creeps anyway has been followed twice this month, calling me to meet her half way.

I went out to Brixton to pick up a takeaway last night. Didn’t feel unsafe at all but it was weirdly quiet for the first time in months (by Brixton standards, by the standard of my parents’ village it was still bustling). Partly the weather I think.

No. Everything as normal as it can be in East London.

No, totally normal here in Cumbria - it's just very very quiet! It feels more like February than Christmas week.

I like the fact that your thread was right next to one about Heston's balsamic vinegar Christmas pudding. Mad Max-lite

If you're talking about the Mad Max remake, I wouldn't mind so much as at least it would be sunny. I'm in Wales and it's been raining non stop for about a week.

Normal in my part of the world

No London too

I’m in East London too. Maybe it’s just my dodgy area 😄 It can always be a bit sketchy but I guess I never usually see / am bothered by it because it’s always so busy. I’ve never felt unsafe. In fact I always say to my friends how I feel more wary going back to my hometown (Home Counties) than being in London.
I guess it’s the lack of people everywhere. The only ones who are out after dark are the ones who shouldn’t be! Or the ones who need a bottle of wine from the shop...

You get very used to the constant presence of people in London.
When I moved out to my current city I was freaked out that I could be totally alone on a Main Street at 9pm - it was so foreign to me after living in London.
Got used to it pretty quickly though and find London in normal times too busy now.

I can see what you mean. I am not in London, but I work in a city centre in a job that I have had to physically go to throughout the year, and there was a time in the spring when I was leaving work at 9pm and walking to the bus stop in the dark was a bit apocalyptic with no one else on the streets which were previously quite busy even late at night.

I remember thinking that at start of first lockdown. I work in central london and suddenly the only people around were homeless or v young. So it does feel weird, but it is just that - fewer people and some demographics (office workers) missing.

Don’t let your imagination run away with you..