To wonder why this is 'common'?

[Ellbee83]

I live in an end-terrace house, with a small front yard/garden which I've made as nice as I can with plants, garden furniture, a few fairy lights.
It's south-facing so for (literally!) a few months of the year when the weather allows, if I'm at home and not busy, it's lovely to sit out in the morning with a coffee, or in the evening with a book & glass of wine.
It's genuinely one of my simple pleasures, it's nice to watch the world go by, smile at passers-by, idly chat with the neighbours if they're around but mostly 100% minding my own business and enjoying my own outdoor space.

Yesterday evening, my neighbour (72f) from 3 doors down went past, walking her dogs. She stopped to chat as we often do - the weather, how the flowers are doing, that sort of thing, nothing major! She then went on to tell me how she wouldn't dream of sitting out in her front garden as she'd been taught it was 'common'. I laughed in surprise and said 'Oh, am I being common?' to which she laughingly agreed I was!

Now, tbh, I found it waaaay more common that she'd be so rude but I'm curious - is sitting out in the sun, in your own front garden seen as 'common'?
Not too bothered either way and I'll carry on doing it but I've restricted myself to the back garden today 🫤

Interested to hear opinions!

This sounds appealing to me.

I am from a Mediterranean climate. Some stroll and some sit out after dinner, in the cool of the evening, with lots of informal socialising.

Quite an old fashioned view and as someone said from days gone buy where the poor lived in back to back slum houses.

I think these days there are more undesirable qualities to dislike than someone sat having a cuppa out the front. And I also think being common (class based) isn't a thing anymore.....being antisocial is.

I sit in my front garden all my time. Admittedly, I put lots of time and money into doing it up to make it looks nice, so common or not I’m going to enjoy it!

This sounds lovely! Why do think they’d know all the cats on the street? They were probably looking at you because you were looking at them. Friendly neighbours keep an eye on each other. Also nothing to do with the thread.

Well, I don’t disagree, but to do this, you’re going to have to dismantle the UK class system and class aspirationalism.

I love seeing people in their front gardens. It's very sociable.

It's funny what is classified as common. My dad point blank refused to let us have our ears pierced as it was 'common'. But I was in my mid twenties when a friend told me she was amazed that I would happily eat a sandwich while walking down the street, as eating in public, especially while walking, is very common.

I HATE people walking and eating. My husband does it and it makes me cringe every time. Then my daughter has a strop because I make her sit down if she is eating "but dad does it!". I hate it, hate it, hate it!

If you absolutely must (because there are no seats or something) then at least stand still while eating.

Did I say that I hate it?

I know it's a me problem. 🤣

We used to live on the periphery of a very nice area in London. I once walked through during Wimbledon on a very nice day and a couple had pulled their sofa into the front garden and turned the tv to face out of the open window so that they were sitting in their front garden watching Wimbledon through the window! They had made lemonade pimms and were inviting people to join them. I couldn’t stop but it looked fun and also fancy! It’s all in how you carry it off!

Equally, seen a lot of sofas plonked in front of East London terraces that don’t have quite the same vibe, but I’m sure are equally well enjoyed on a nice day.

I agree with @WonderingWandathat it is from days gone by when poorer people only had a yard at the back while those a step or two up the social ladder had a back garden.
“Tuppence halfpenny looking down on tuppence” as the saying goes.
On a road near me, one side of the road has houses with south/south west facing back gardens with great sunshine while the houses on the opposite side have north/north east facing back gardens that don’t get much sun and are fairly dismal.
Some homeowners with the north facing back gardens have created seating areas in their sunny front gardens with really beautiful planting to give them privacy from the road.
One that is particularly lovely has a patio with a raised bed full of large luscious white hydrangeas in front of it and patio doors at the front out onto it.

I'd never sit out in my front garden 🫣

She was joking with you!!

This is so weird. I have a 25ft long front garden (terraced townhouse) with loads of plants and a patio set under the kitchen window (so about 20ft from the pavement). I sit there all the time!

This is so weird. I have a 25ft long front garden (terraced townhouse) with loads of plants and a patio set under the kitchen window (so about 20ft from the pavement). I sit there all the time!

I think it’s so sad that people can’t understand the nuances of jokes any more.

I rented a north facing terrace with a small yard for years. Thr front doors opened direct on to the street, no front yard at all.
A couple of the older neighbours used to put their deckchairs on the pavement to enjoy the sun together! I never thought it was common, I thought it was people enjoying the home they pay for.

Yes common according to my parents. Hanging out laundry was also common so I'd take everything they say with a pinch of salt.

Oh yes. My mum thought they were common too, I had forgotten this. We were never allowed them.

We used to love baked beans with our breakfasts on board HMS Ark Royal' wardroom. We got a supply officer who banned them as they were not "officer like". There was a riot.

This.

I’d also forgotten this. She allowed canned tomato or oxtail soup and tinned ravioli/spag bol with toast but not beans. Born 1926.

I think beans (especially Branston ones) delicious on buttered toast but still don’t think to make them more than once a year or so. I have tinned soup, stew or curry about once a week though.

Not part of the "common" nature of this thread, but what about stunt front garden furniture?
It's certainly a bit of a thing in my bit of Melbourne, the table and chairs or bench set out in the front garden but never used. These are gardens without high walls, obvs.

I have no room to talk as I have stunt furniture on the balcony outside my bedroom. Why not used? my back to back neighbour's horrendous pool pump and the uncomfortable fact that the Aussie sun is very quickly unbearable, even in winter.

I see he’s put ‘yellow bags’ on the example pictured, why’s available from Selfridges . . .

Definitely tongue in cheek.

It’s not a thing to do where I live but if you feel comfortable doing it then carry on. Your house your rules !

In the old fashioned sense yes it is 'common'.

But so are a load of things we do every day, eating in the street, smoking in the street. For my grandmother, lighting her own cigarette out side the house.

In the days of smoking everywhere she would take out a cigarette, put it between her fingers and hold it out a little way for the nearest man to light it.

A woman wearing trousers was also common unless it was your uniform for working in a munitions factory.

Opening your own car door when there is a man to do it.

She was making conversation and commenting on her own changing attitude. She really wasn't rude