Why do Brits live in darkness except for December?

[Swedegirl48]

I am Swedish and at home if you walk down a street, most houses will have lamps in some of the windows, outside lights and usually people don’t draw curtains so you can see the lights from within the houses. I was asking British DH today why Brits tend to light up their houses so enthusiastically in December, but the rest of the year people draw their curtains and no one seems to put lamps in the windows (at least not where we live which is London). I am the only person in my street who has a lamp in every window of my house and leave some on overnight too. I think I am trying to overcompensate for my very dark street.

Spot on. I rarely see my neighbours in their houses. The houses here are not designed like that, nor are the windows I think. It’s not a problem at all. Most sensible post @RampantIvy.

Wildlife in my patch of very urban London includes

Sparrows
Tree Sparrows
Dunnocks
Blue Tits
Great Tits
Coal Tits
Long tailed Tits
Wood Pigeons
Collared Doves
Goldcrests
Firecrests
Redwings
Fieldfares
Robins
Wrens
Yellowhammers
Sparrowhawks
Kestrels
Jays
Tawny owls
Chaffinches
Rooks
Grey wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Crows
Mistle Thrush
Thrush
Magpies
Gulls
Goldfinch
Ring necked Parakeets
Nuthatch
Jackdaw
Stonechat

And if you get on the bus for about 10 minutes to get to the other side of the industrial estate/main artery road with some woodland and the odd pond, you'll see most common waterfowl, kingfishers and blackcap and have a chance of looking up to see Red Kites and the occasional Peregrine. 15 minutes in the opposite direction to get to my old council estate and you'll have three types of Woodpecker, Redpoll, Stonechats and Treecreepers.

In terms of mammalian life, there are obviously foxes, then badgers, assorted shrews, woodmice and in one area harvest mice, deer (including a white one), pipistrelles (2 types), brown longeared, noctule and leislers bats. In the ponds, river and stream, there are any number of native fish and other aquatic creatures.

There are also rare lizards, snakes, all manner of insects all within a roughly 3 mile radius, most of which is the cheapest housing possible - flats, HMOs in victorian buildings, council houses, victorian poor people terraces (the type where the only reason there is a bathroom was because people built a lean-to at the end of the kitchen), post war housing built overlooking the gasworks, that kind of thing. It's no big thing to spot the web of a wasp spider on the verge of a dual carriageway, although nobody says where they found the Roman Snail colony so that it doesn't get 'foraged' into oblivion.

Might not have herds of Elk migrating through the town centre going past the Sainsbury's local opposite the Dog n Bollock or whatever any of the 10 or so pubs and bars are called on the way from my front door, but there is shitloads of wildlife, much of which is definitely messed about with due to constant lighting.

@Swedegirl48 I don't notice any difference between December and other months. Most UK people have curtains. I keep lighting to a minimum at night so as not to disturb insects. Light pollution at night is a huge driver of the reduction in insect populations.

English Culture, perhaps, but other countries on the island of Britain are far more egalitarian and society-focussed, looking at the common weal rather than personal benefit.

So less of the "We Brits do this thing" when we are four different countries with our own different cultures and habits. Just speak for yourself please!

In some areas an evening constitutional is quite a popular pastime, and luckily many people encourage this by leaving their curtains open, especially, it would seem, in wealthy districts, designed no doubt to make the strolling peasants green with envy at their art collections and expensive brocades.

I see many "ordinary" houses with all indoor lights on, and no curtains drawn, and it's a cheering sight on a cold night. It's especially welcome in the north where it's colder, and darker for longer in winter.

I wonder if it’s because the UK is so individualistic

I love living in the UK where we experience all the seasons and weather. Summer is great with long hours of daylight, with the sun rising early and setting later meaning you can enjoy being outside.

I love winter and the darkness which is just as cosy. I have voile curtains so I can see how pitch black it is through the windows and knowing its cold outside makes me enjoy snuggling up on my sofa watching a movie (lucky I'm not overlooked so don't need to worry about privacy).

Some days you wake up to fog which is beautiful in itself.

I love where my parents tried alive whilst not a designated dark sky they don't have many street lamps and wow just being able to see the stars. It's so beautiful to be able to be reminded thay we live in this big universe. I wish I could see the stats where I live in London but too much light pollution.

It's sad that the majority of us can no longer enjoy the night sky.

OP I couldn’t agree more.

I was in Sweden in October and there were candles lit at breakfast. I loved it- it was so warm and inviting.

we all have a mostly glass home as do our neighbours but half of them hide behind blinds and I find that strange. Why buy a modern glass home and turn it into a typical house.

we used to live in a busy street of restaurants and bars and DH would often be waving. I’d ask who he had seen and he’s say some random passing by looking in.

i love walking around Finland as nobody has any curtains and lots of pretty lights. Like a Pap said though I never normally spot people

I'm slightly bemused and amused here at all the British people schooling a Swede on climate change and eco-living. Studies have shown that Sweden is the greenest country in the world! Their renewable energy is of a much higher percentage than here, their public transport systems are more sustainable, and their seas are cleaner than ours, and they have the highest recycling rates per capita in the world.
https://www.inmocolonial.com/en/blog/sweden-most-sustainable-country-world#:~:text=And%20Sweden%20boasts%20one%20of,due%20to%20public%20incentivization%20strategies.

For the benefit of night time creatures, like owls, bats and possums, and plants; the experience of the natural darkening of the skies is best. For example, some native birds can not see in light and can only catch their food in darkness.

Our own hormones react naturally and most healthily to darkness at night. Melatonin releases with darkness etc.

Shift workers who experience unnatural light and dark cycles suffer from some ill health at higher rates.

Lit up streets mask the beautiful light from stars above.

I prefer darkness at night, though, for safety, some walk ways and roads need lighting. And using torches while camping assists in not being bitten by snakes.

@Swedegirl48 I'm with you on this.

I have lamps in a lot of my windows (and electric uplighters at the base of the trees in the garden). It's all SO cosy and atmospheric.

It's truly transformed the whole look and feel.

I cannot bear the thought of anyone passing being able to see in when I cannot see out. Scandi crime dramas are terrible. There's a nasty serial killer out and about so let's live in a massive glass box with no curtains and every room lit up to show them precisely where we are when they want to slaughter us...

Didn’t everybody in England turn out all their lights in WWII so as not to give the Nazis any targets? Simple, but brilliant. Or they covered their windows with blankets?
The shit you’ve had to put up with over the years is next level.
It isn’t the lights that get us where I live. It’s the air-con bill when the temp outside is over 100F+ for 90 days in a row.
I read the other day that 2024 will be the coolest year of our lives.

I see Sweden mostly has renewable electricity generation, and the rest is almost all nukes. I don't know if this has any effect on perceptions of "wasteful" energy use.

UK has had intermittent energy crises.

IMO it's because we aren't keen on strangers looking in.

I grew up in the Sierra Nevada mountains at an elevation of about 6800 feet — it was high up, where the Giant Sequoias grow.

There are no street lights. There are no billboards. There was no tv. My parents insisted on my grandparents installing a landline for their safety.

The air was the most clear and fresh you’ve ever smelled. You could hear the chipmunks and squirrels and birds going about their daily routine and we had daily visits from the deer.

But the night sky - oh Mr. Van Gogh had nothing on that night sky. It was a masterpiece of the swirls and lanes and roads of our universe that exploded in the sky above me and every night I’d go outside and stare up at it.

I don’t get up there much any more, but those mountains are still there and those big trees are still there and that sky is still there and I think about it every day.

I hope they’ll always be there

I was a very fortunate little kid.

I've never heard of this.

As soon as it starts getting dark, I close my shutters and switch on my lamps; it would never occur to me to switch on the lamps without closing the shutters first.

I just looked at a few images online of the Swedish example mentioned in the OP; it's sooooooo not a British thing! We like our privacy meaning that we don't want other/random people looking into our houses. Once you turn on the lights you can see everything and everyone in my front room, which is where we currently spend most of our time.

It's one of the things I find most charming about continental Northern Europeans, the way that houses are lit up and you're pretty much invited to stare inside! I still remember the time I visited Amsterdam and everyone had lit candles and small lamps on tables in front of windows - it looked so warm and inviting. And also like stage sets.

I have to say though, I would feel uncomfortable having my entire living room exposed like that, if I lived in a town. And I don't do net curtains. Once it's properly dark, our curtains are drawn so we aren't lit up like a theatre for passers by to peer in at.

Light pollution honestly, the odd ambient lamp in a window really isn't in a league with very bright street lights.

It was explained to me by someone from Amsterdam that if you choose your curtains people presume you have something to hide!
I don't like people being able to look in so I closse the shutters and the blinds, but I do think it looks so lovely to see lit up rooms.

Four of the rooms in our house have tiny mult colour- changing LED lights fitted along the ceilings.
They look nice at night all year, but especially in the dark winter months, really brightens up the rooms for a few hours.
Sounds tacky?
Tough, we love them!
They use very little electricity and we can control the brightness.
I sometimes get busy and forget to pull the curtain across, my DS always reminds me, says ppl can see in clearly and take note of the house layout, not to mention watching unsuspecting ppl inside.
Too creepy, don't know why anyone would want those on the street to have the advantage of being able to see in?

My DH is from near Amsterdam, he has said the same thing, but now sees the sense in closing them!

London is one of the worlds largest urban forests with over 8 million trees.

Some native wildlife species survive much better in urban centres than in our countryside. There are changes in behaviour where wildlife and light pollution is concerned, how detrimental that is isn't well researched at present.

There are grumpy gets all over the world, it isn't a specific behaviour native to the UK any more than rain, cold, and cratering life quality. Some of us do alright and are quite cheerful too.

@Doitrightnow I'm quite the reader myself, but never with the big light!! I find the soft lamp lighting more than adequate for that purpose. I insist that 'The Big Light' (TM Britain) be for emergencies and lost items only, with much apologising.

Why do you need a lamp in every window. I don't like lamps downstairs I just think it's unessasery clutter. My mum had a floor standing one but again it's just something to trip over. Lamps are for bedrooms so you can see where your going getting into and out of bed. Or if you want to read in bed or up in the night with a young child.

I never sit in a lit room with curtains open, it's a hangover from living in military housing during the 80s when we also checked under our cars each morning.

I live in outer London. My house is full of fairy lights, candles, sun reflectors and crystals. I put more up every Christmas and they never come down. Every year it gets brighter and prettier. We don't have curtains so the lights shine out. We also illuminate outdoor bushes and trees with solar powered lights and crystals. .

However they are only on when it's dark and we are awake and home. So on a normal day they get turned on about 4pm and automatically turn off about 10pm. What's the point of lighting a space when your eyes are closed?

Closing the curtains doesn’t mean living in darkness. It means living in privacy. It’s bad enough that most of us don’t have complete privacy from the attached neighbour, we don’t need to be on show to all and sundry as well.